You’ve probably noticed that many late model furniture pieces are no longer large and stately, as they were in the past, and many models are not boxy and square as much of the more contemporary styles have been. What you have seen in the most recent furniture designs is a detour from geometrically sound and symmetric design and could be the wave of the future.

Amorphous design is a futuristic way to update the look of your home. While it hasn’t quite taken off as the latest craze, it is only a matter of time before people start chunking their boxy old couches and replacing them with furniture that doesn’t conform to any specific shape. Let’s look at some different types of amorphous furniture and perhaps some influences into this new style.

In the living room, you’ll find the first attempts at change to the new style. Couches are available in not only nontraditional colors but also nontraditional shapes. One of the most common is the “s” curve, with some units more precisely conforming into an “s”, while others curve and swerve around in a similar shape with no symmetry whatsoever. The same is true of many shelving units. For example, DVD and CD racks have been offered in the “s” curve for awhile now, but newer units are coming out in neo-modern zigzag designs and other configurations that can’t even be described by a known pattern.

Another trend in home design that is overtaking traditional shapes is the “beanbag” chair. Instead of populating a living room, den, or game room with large, stationary pieces of furniture, many people (especially young people in apartments or furnishing their first homes) are opting for more mobile implementations. The “love sack” and other foam or bean filled bags have come a long way from the small vinyl units of years before. Some of these bags are the size of love seats and small couches and can seat several people. Referred to as “bags”, these objects can take on any shape and have no defined shape, and they are easily portable so that you can choose any spot in the room from which to watch television, play games, or share a beer with a friend.

The influence of amorphous design may be from other cultures where furniture is minimalized and portable. For example, in Japanese culture, mattresses are on the floor, and dining is traditionally held at a low table (similar in height to an American coffee table), with diners kneeling or sitting lotus style on pillows on the floor. While these are not necessarily of the shape that in influencing the neo-modern design, it is the portability and lack of need for large furniture pieces that carries over. The lack of shape may be influenced by modern and abstract art, where you are giving an amorphous object and expected to find the image that was intended. The same may be true of the new furniture trends, or the wave of the future may simply be based on a need for a change of scenery!