Endlessly surfing the web and gazing at flat screened images has got nothing on seeing things up close and personal, with trade shows being a great way of seeing lots of products and companies under one roof. This week’s May Design Series at Excel was an amalgamation of different events – KBB (kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms), Arc (lighting), and Interiors London – which had a definite aimed-at-professionals feel, rather than just being a colourful Instagram-fest. For me there were a few stand out pieces which started my creative juices flowing and also some very practical innovations which appealed to my ladybuilder side. My favourite three stands are below:
- Out Of The Dark, Jay & Jade’s charitable social enterprise part of which teaches and draws out creative skills from disadvantaged young people by helping them to re-love, recycle, re-paint and redesign salvaged furniture. I love the support the industry has shown this great business, wouldn’t it be brilliant if branches sprang up in every city and town? 🙂
- Materia, full of exciting and innovative new materials which you’ll see starting to filter through to products and projects soon.
- Second Sitters, a collection of different artists textile and chair work featuring many different types of creative approaches and styles. I particularly like Hannah Stanton‘s Brass Backs chair, very talented, a definite One To Watch.
There are always amazing newly developed and launched materials if you are a creative or designer and below are just some of the images I took of the Materia stand. It was really interesting to see at least one of the Materia featured products actually in use on one of the kitchen stands, a sliver thin slate used on a kitchen door. Apparently Team Moregeous were the only ones to spot the connection #vproud. I love a bit of slate and now my mind is working overtime on where I can use it….
Warm metallics are still rocking the interior world as you can see below, used in everything from stunning gilded chairs ( I first saw this book chair by Nobody&co at Tent London but it was in plain white last year – looks amazing in gold for 2013) to kitchen handles, laser cut lattice work, table legs and display bowls:
A stunning twist on the Rough Luxe trend was this timber wall cladding which has a lustrous, decadent golden sheen and was quite beautifully smooth to the touch whilst retaining an unfinished look. Very clever. Betcha we’ll see this in an über cool bar or some footballer’s pad soon. I shall be attempting it with 240gsm sandpaper and some gold acrylic paint 😉
There was lots of colour but no one particular theme or trend which dominated. The colour choice for the stand in the top left image below was a break from the norm and quite unusual, and the delicate ombre effect of the Badgers of Bohemia wallpaper and fabrics top right was very pretty. Delighted to see the Prestigious Textiles amazingly colourful peacock paper I used on Channel 5’s Half Built House featuring bottom right and another stunning show display by Timorous Beasties bottom left – how incredible is that fabric?!
Some very fancy kitchens in the KBB section, glamorous, sleek and very very moody this year:
New innovations coming your way include LED lit and ever mood changing cooker hoods, rimless loos – yes, you heard it here first 😉 – kitchen cabinets with no screws, dowls or fittings and a rather futuristic looking oven from Caple which raises and lowers itself at the touch of a button from your cooker island. 
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