I recently visited Decorex, Europe’s leading event for interior design professionals at Olympia in London. The Decorex exhibition has been in existence for over 40 years and brings together design houses from across the world. Trends from Decorex will inspire designers in their projects as they take the opportunity to see the latest offerings from furniture, fabric, wallpaper and home accessory designers. It is a busy show with lots to take in and one of the few opportunities there are to see design products from all over the world under one roof.
The first two days are for trade only, then there are two days open to everyone. However even on the trade day that I visited I bumped into a few designers who had taken the opportunity to visit with their clients as a chance to source ideas for their interior design projects. As a side note - Create Perfect does offer a shopping and sourcing trip service so do contact Gina if this is something you would be interested in.
On show are a huge variety of products and it is an inspiring look ahead at the trends from Decorex that will shape the next few seasons in interior design. With so much to see Im focusing on the key trends I picked up on across the stands that we visited.
Colour
First of all the there was plenty of colour in evidence. I'll say that adding more colour into our interiors is one of the key trends from Decorex which will find it's way into our homes. It was interesting to see that the colour tips that feature in my colour trends for 2019 blog in March were very much in evidence. Greens and earthy pinks were everywhere especially in combination. There was also lots of soft green influences of the Dulux colour of the year Tranquil Dawn.
I really loved the colours on this stand of Andrew Dominic Furniture. The earthy green was a beautiful backdrop for the furniture and the beautiful red flower cloud.
More lovely muted greens on display at the stand of bespoke furniture makers Clock House furniture.
Other colours that I picked up on were the jewel colours of mustards, deep oranges and lime green especially on velvet, but more of that later. This bright sofa on the Samuel and Sons was a real showstopper.
This brightly coloured stand has a very different story than you might expect. Fine Cell Work is a charity and social enterprise which trains prisoners in paid, highly skilled and creative needlework, fostering, hope discipline and self esteem. Experienced volunteers give training and support to help create highly crafted home accessories. These include cushions bags, wall hangings, quilts and bespoke products which sell across the world.
Bright oranges and greens on the stand of Pooky lights. Clever design of these dipped fluted shades bring colour into a room whilst the still letting light shine through the lighter top.
There was lots of lighting at the show and these beautiful hand blown lights were a lovely show of colour.
Pattern
As well as the boost of bright colour there was plenty of pattern around too. Again I noticed lots of the patterns picked up the earthy pink and green colour trends. I particularly liked the fine nature inspired prints on show at these stands.
Cocoon Home had a lovely display of botanical prints in earthy muted tones featuring the lovely earthy greens and pinks that were seen throughout the show.
These lovely prints on the stand of Charlotte Gaisford put a contemporary twist on traditional style fabrics and wallpapers.
At the rug company these collaborative rugs created with fashion designer Mary Kantrantzou were really striking and showing in red and blue colourways.
The songbird collection by Lorna Syson features delicate prints of British, birds flora and fauna. The collection caught my eye with it's colour and pretty illustrations and I later found out that this collection won runner up for best newcomer at the show.
Finally these mid-century inspired geometric fabrics were on the Prestigious textiles stand with more earthy terracotta colours.
Art Deco Style
Moving on from pattern there were lots of elements of art deco style at the show. It is such a rich period of interior design history with so much to inspire. It is nice to see the modern innovative interpretations of the style. Linear shapes with decorative geometric elements. The art deco shapes and touches of metallic finish as accents are all features which I picked up across the show.
The classic shape of a 1920's club chair is updated in a contemporary yellow mustard
More art deco shapes updated at Covet House with metallic touches that are also a feature of classic art deco design
The early twentienth century shape of this chair also reflects art deco design with the choice of fabric. The fan shape is a classic motif of the era.
Decorative metal work is also a feature of the art deco era and this design which was on the stand showcasing portugese designers features beautifully crafted metalwork.
On the Bethan Grey stand beautiful furniture pieces were embellished with sweeping lines reminsicent of the patterns of the art deco era.
Another show of bold geometrics from Bethan Grey. This time brought right up to date with Living Coral the Pantone Colour of the Year 2019
Velvet
Although the velvet trend has been with us a while now it shows no signs of going anywhere soon. There was plenty of velvet to see throughout the show. As I've already shared in my pictures there were lots of velvet sofas and headboards often in bold jewel colours.
Another trend to accompany the velvet sofa was flowing lines and curves. This sofa was on the Kai stand.
As well as this there were velvets in the new softer earthy muted colours as seen here at Sweetpea and Willow
Natural shapes and materials
This is Totomoxtle. I first saw this beautiful material on display at an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is made from the discarded husks of heirloom varieties of corn. These are treated to make a veneer to use on surfaces. The rare varieties have beautiful colours and not only does the process encourage the growth of once lost corn species but provides farmers with a secondary income for the crop from the sale of the husks.
I loved the design of these floral lights seen at Macmaster design which take the shape of different flowers - bluebell, fuchsia, iris - all made from FSC certified natural timbers. The company also make other items of furniture. For maximum output and minimum waste some products are made using leftover materials from other ranges
Beautiful nature inspired Cupola Pendants at Tamasine Osher Design. Each piece is hand-turned from a single piece of naturally fallen spalted beech foraged from wood and field. Each piece is unique with it’s own grain pattern which the light source accentuatees beuatifully with a gentle glow.
Hellooow Handmade - these beautiful handmade chandeliers also stopped me in my tracks. Whatsmore the story of how they create the chandeliers is even more interesting. The company buy and deliver clay into communities in South Africa where women then hand roll the beads. This means women who are sick are able to work at home to support their families. The beads dry in the sun and are then fired to form ceramic beads which made into these stunning chandelier designs.
All in all Decorex is a great way to meet the makers and discover the latest trends in interior design. I'd love to hear what you think of these trend picks and if you went to the show what your favourite stands were. We'd love to hear, please leave a message in the comments
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