Carlson Knives: CAMPING | 2019 Camping Trends – New Camping Accessories Blur The Line Between Home & Camping

After weeks drooling over the new ranges from all the biggest names in camping and following on from our visit to the 2019 Caravan, Camping and Motorhome Show we thought we’d give you the low down on 4 hot trends for the 2019 camping season.

BO Camp camping furniture New materials and furniture designs using wood are more readily available this year

What we’re most excited about is the continued move away from the purely practical, with many manufacturers understanding that campers are increasingly looking for a contemporary design asthetic.

Dreary white and ghastly bottle green plastic furniture and functional, ugly camping accessories are definitely out as we continue to see a move towards more natural products like bamboo and the use of contemporary fabrics, patterns and colour.

Bamboo Camp Furniture

Bamboo has been increasingly used in camp furniture over the last 3-4 years and the popularity of this natural and lightweight material in camping accessories shows no signse of slowing down. Indeed there were more bamboo furniture options than ever at this years show, with everyone from Vango to Zempire showcasing beautiful camp furniture made from bamboo.

Zempire Kitpac Bamboo Camp Table

From large camping storage and kitchen units to dining tables and even occasional tables, the show was packed full of bamboo camping gear.

A couple of our favourites include the Zempire Kitpac table shown avoe and Bo-Camp Bayswater collapsable storage. New from Vango was a bamboo dining table with grooves cut into it to hold wine glasses – perfect on uneven ground when wine glasses can easily slip or get knocked off the table. Somebody pass the Prosecco!

Vango Bamboo Round Wood Camp Table

Stylish Camp Chairs

Camp chairs too are finally evolving and benefitting from a design overhaul and some much needed R&D. No longer are camp chairs bog standard and boring, as we see a new generatin of chairs that have been designed to look good, some of which are stylish enough to not look out of place used at home in the garden.

Natural wood frames were on show from Robens with the new Kaya which has a light yet stable bamboo frame that folds out in seconds and provides high levels of comfort and style and there’s the Bo-Camp Edmonton chair, a stylish lounger with a linen-look fabric that wouldn’t look out of place in the garden.

Outwell Sandsend Green Camp Chair

Whilst slightly more traditional in their design, comfort is definitely enhanced in camp chairs like the Vango Entwine, a generously size padded camp chair available in vibrant colours. There’s the Outwell Sardis Lake, a double camp chair in a lovely contemporary grey fabric and the Outwell Sandsend Camp Chair with its minimal and understated look shown above, that also caught our eye.

Big Comfy SIMs

A few years ago SIMs (self inflating matts) where largely the sole domain of backpackers in need of lightweight camping gear they could carry with them, whilst many family campers opted for folding camp beds or inflatable air mattresses. Things have been steadily changing over the last few years though and we’ve seen more and more high quality SIMs come onto the market aimed at the family camping and glamping market.

Zempire SIM Zempire Monstamat 10cm SIM

The benefit of a SIM of course is that they are much warmer to sleep on that an air mattress, more durable and they are arguably more comfortable as most include a foam component inside. The downside however is that a typical SIM with a depth of perhaps just 5cm doesn’t provide a high enough level of comfort night after night; certainly not for older campers, side sleepers or anyone with joint or mobility problems.

The 15cm thick Vango Shangri La Double SIM

The new breed of SIMs are focused on providing higher levels of comfort and there are now several to choose from, from the likes of Vango, Outwell, Zempire and Bo-Camp which all provide depths from anything around 7.5cm right up to a whopping 15cm. Whilst a super thick double SIM like the Vango Shangri La might set you back upwards of £250, they’re a great long term investment, and unlike cheap air mattresses, you’ll get a much longer life out of them so they are well worth considering.

Read the Your Complete Guide To Camping Beds & Sleeping In Comfort Under Canvas.

Stylish Storage & Accessories

When it comes to storage and creating more of a glamping feel on camping trips, for many years we’ve been seeking out homewares that can also fold flat, making them also suitable for camping use. From folding side tables to storage chests, buying things designed for the home and using them for camping provides the ideal way to ensure your camping set up isn’t just practical, but that it looks good too and finally camping manufacturers seem to be understand that functionality just isn’t enough for many of todays campers.

BO Camp camping furniture Bo-Camp Urban Outdoor Folding Camp Storage

Blurring the line between camping gear and homewares are Dutch company Bo-Camp. Their Urban Outdoor range is an innovative collection of camping products packed full of stylish pieces that look just as good whether used at home and in the garden or on a camping trip.

Bo-Camp Urban Outdoor Bayswater folding camp storage

Camping purists will often look down their noses at trendy camp gear, regarding it sniffily as ‘style over substance’, but that really couldn’t be further from the case. Items in the Urban Outdoor range are designed to be tough and durable as well as being practical and foldable for easy transportation; they just happen to look great too.