Every October the interiors world heads to Olympia in London for Decorex, and this year I went on Tuesday 13 October with my design buddy Mel, a fellow interior designer. Getting there was an adventure in itself. After a dash from the middle car park at Tiverton Parkway, we found our train had been cancelled. It felt like déjà vu, as exactly the same thing happened last month on our way to Focus. Fifty minutes late, Mel joined me on a busy carriage at Taunton, and a cab took us from the station to Olympia.
Then came a full lap of the building looking for the way in, as the entrance didn't seem very well signposted. If you arrive by train at Kensington Olympia you come out on the right side, so that's my tip for next year.
Once inside, the hall was full of impressive names, from very high end lighting, rugs and furniture to down to earth fabric houses. There really was something for everyone, although I always find that mix a little uneven. So come around with me. Here's what made me stop, and where I think it could work in a real home.
Lighting that earns its place
Tigermoth Lighting
The detailing on the Tigermoth Lighting stand was amazing. Tigermoth make every piece to order in England, and their strands of hammered copper flowers fall from a single ceiling plate, each drop catching the light as it turns.
This is lighting I can genuinely see in my clients' homes. In a double height space, or hanging over a staircase on a landing, those copper flower drops would look amazing, and they'd give you something lovely to look at every time you go up and down the stairs. Their new Silk Drum Pendant with Leaf Detail was on show too: simple fabric drums finished with a little leaf at the hem, which would soften a high ceiling if you hung a few at different heights.
United Alabaster and Industville
I was really taken with the horizontal alabaster lights hanging over the dining table on the United Alabaster stand. Long and low, they're quite a feature, and in an open plan space they would mark out the dining area without needing a wall to do it.
Lit from within, alabaster shows off its natural veining and gives a soft, warm glow rather than a sharp light. The stand also had a gently curved pendant and a cluster of glowing globes, all set off by deep green walls.
Industville, the London lighting brand, showed a cluster of glass globes and a calm alcove lit by wall lights above a fluted sideboard. Their pieces are something I would happily use in a scheme where the client's budget allows.
Valentina Giovando
A show stopper, if you have the right home
Valentina Giovando's tiered chandelier, hung with glass drops and made in her Italian workshop, was a show stopper for sure. In a grand hallway or a dining room with real ceiling height, a piece like this becomes the whole story of the room.
More lights worth a look
Cocovara, who make their lighting by hand in the UK, showed a pendant that wanders down the wall like a climbing plant: a slender stem in a warm brass tone, with glass shades shaped like opening flowers, against a deep burgundy backdrop. Bomma, the Czech glassmakers, framed their stand with tall arches, one filled with a shimmering curtain of glass pendants.
If a room feels flat, lighting is often the quickest fix. One sculptural piece, placed where your eye naturally falls, can give a room its character without changing anything else.
Windows, poles and fabrics
Curtains and blinds are a big part of my work, so I always slow down on the textile and hardware stands, and this year there was plenty to slow down for.
Byron & Byron
Byron & Byron have been making curtain poles since 1984, handcrafted in their Enfield workshop, and their stand showed exactly why the pole matters. I particularly loved their double pole French returns. A rich dark wood pole curves back to the wall on contrasting brass returns, with a second pole behind carrying a soft sheer, so a curtain and a sheer can be layered at the same window. The brass against the dark wood is a lovely detail, and one I'll remember for future projects.
With a French pole, the curtains stack back around the sides rather than taking up too much wall space, and it looks more contemporary. A French return also takes the curtain right back to the wall, which helps keep out light and draughts at the edges. On narrow, vertical windows, the poles could also be mounted higher up towards the ceiling, which makes the window look taller. Their wall of finials was a reminder of just how many choices there are, and they were running a “guess the curtain pole price” competition, the sort of quiz curtain people could take very seriously.
Linwood
My favourite find of the day was a new fabric at Linwood with a peacock inspired design: rows of embroidered eyes in pink, soft brown and navy on a natural, textured ground. I loved the colours. Hung in folds, the embroidery catches the light differently on every pleat, and it would make a beautiful pair of curtains.
Warwick
Over at Warwick, I really liked Delorme, an upholstery fabric I photographed in two colourways. In Rose, from their Velvet Vault collection, it's a soft, almost watercolour take on animal print, while the second colourway is cooler, in sage, grey and rust. Warwick list it for both curtains and upholstery. A cube footstool on the same stand, covered in a crisp animal print, showed just how well this kind of pattern works on a small piece: playful without shouting.
Ian Sanderson and Châtelaine
Ian Sanderson, a family run textile house in West Berkshire since 1962, draped a Julian Chichester four-poster bed in cream curtains printed with flowers in urns, edged in soft blue against warm terracotta walls. It's proof that a bed canopy needn't feel fussy.
Châtelaine showed a single bed tucked under a canopy with full length curtains, a lovely idea for a guest room, and dressed a pair of mock windows on a mustard wall: a relaxed, gathered blind in a pale sheer beside a crisp Roman blind in a bold geometric. Seeing the two blinds together is a neat lesson in how much the style of a blind changes the feel of a window.
Naturalmat and Archroll
A Devon name at the show
Naturalmat, who handmake natural mattresses and beds in Devon, showed a bed with a cheerful woven check headboard in yellow, pink and grey.
Archroll covered a pair of hexagonal pouffes in zigzag weaves, a simple way to show how a fabric behaves once it's on a piece of furniture.
Pattern, colour and a little theatre
Hyde House
One of the boldest stands I photographed belonged to Hyde House, who make bespoke upholstery and furniture in Hertfordshire. I loved its painted backdrop of large faces in soft pinks, greens and ochres, which has a real Charleston feel. A terracotta velvet sofa curved around a little side table whose top carried the same faces, and a round dining table was laid with scalloped placemats and tall candles, surrounded by fringed stools.
Honestly, the dining table and stools were all a little over the top for most homes, but they would work amazingly in a bar or a hotel. The painted backdrop is the idea I'd take home. A wall like this brings real drama to a room you pass through or use in the evening, such as a cloakroom, a dining room or a snug.
Riviere
Riviere, who make custom handmade rugs, hung pieces from Canvas, their collaboration with the design studio Angel O'Donnell, like paintings on the walls of their stand. Each one has torn, irregular edges and layered tones of grey and charcoal. On the floor, a sweeping marbled rug ran beneath a curved bouclé sofa.
I've already used a Riviere rug in a client's home, and it looks amazing, so it was good to see what's new. A rug is often the biggest piece of art in a room, so it's worth choosing as carefully as anything on the walls.
More pattern and colour
Sofas & Stuff built a tower of fabric covered cubes in plaids, houndstooth, leafy prints and zigzags, a cheerful lesson in how many patterns can sit together when the colours are related. Studio Jantien, whose rugs and stair runners are handmade in the Netherlands and Belgium, had shelves stacked high with rolled rugs in stripes, swirls and florals. Arte showed a wallcovering with a stitched, quilted look in soft grey green, behind a striking display of blue vases, berries and dahlias, and COAT, who make their paint to order in London, filled a whole wall with colour cards.
Furniture with a sculptural edge
Liang & Eimil and Frato
Liang & Eimil set out a calm dining room in browns and creams, with bold black and white artwork, a chunky white mirror above a sculptural console and wavy wooden shelving dressed with ceramics. Frato went long and low, with a channelled grey sofa, patterned panels between round wall lights and a leafy patterned rug underfoot.
RV Astley
RV Astley mixed lighting, mirrors and furniture with animal sculptures in a dark metal finish. Their double roll back swivel chair caught my eye, soft and inviting in a pale textured weave, and a swivel chair is so practical in a room where you want to turn between the fire, the view and the conversation. Elsewhere on the stand, a long legged horse stood on a ribbed sideboard and an ibex on a stone topped console with a branching metal base. Pieces like these give a hallway or living room a focal point and a bit of wit.
Muranti, Duistt and Atkin and Thyme
Muranti stacked stools of marble, wood and bouclé like sculpture. Portuguese brand Duistt paired a curvy mustard sofa with a glossy black chair, and Atkin and Thyme, at Decorex for the first time, created a cosy bedroom in chocolate tones under a glass bubble chandelier.
Details that finish a room
Good hardware is the jewellery of a kitchen. Hendel & Hendel, designed in Lincoln and established in 1971, displayed their new Bronze cabinet hardware finish in a softly lit arched niche. A warm bronze handle on a painted or oak kitchen adds depth without the shine of brass.
Out in the garden, Heritage Handmade showed copper planters with a verdigris finish among grasses and late flowers against a bright orange wall.
Even the gym looked good
WaterRower and NOHrD showed that fitness equipment doesn't have to be hidden away. Wooden wall bars, a wooden dumbbell rack and a tall gym cabinet with everything stored neatly inside were handsome enough to keep out on show, which is good news for anyone whose home gym doubles as a spare room or a garden room.
Meeting the makers
The Making Spaces area brought together independent artists and craftspeople, and it was full of interesting makers. Annoyingly, by then my phone had died and was charging on a backup battery, so I missed photographing some of them.
Of those I did catch, Nowshin Prenon, a handweaver from East London, weaves with deadstock yarns, drawing on her Bengali heritage. Louisa Boyd, a printmaker from Cheshire, makes wall mounted paper sculptures from etching prints and marbled paper. Verity Pulford, a glass artist from Denbighshire, filled her wall with delicate kiln formed pieces. Matt Kavanagh's Coordinates Collection is carved from fallen London hardwoods, each piece inscribed with its species and the coordinates where the tree was found. And Rachel Karasik, a ceramic artist from Hastings, showed a hanging of interlinked clay rings.
A piece by a maker is one of the easiest ways to make a home feel personal. It brings a story with it, and nobody else will have one quite the same.
Bringing it home
It wasn't too busy, which made browsing easy, but there was very little seating for lunch, which I've always felt is Decorex's downfall. Still, Mel and I had a lovely day out together, swapping design dilemmas and ideas as we always do, and now it's back to Devon and back to my design work.
The real value of a day like this is what happens afterwards, when an idea spotted on a stand in London becomes the right answer for a home in Devon: copper flowers over a stairwell, a double pole that layers a curtain and a sheer, or a rug that becomes the art in a room.
If something here has sparked an idea for your own home, I'd love to help you shape it. Whether it's beautifully made curtains and blinds or a full room scheme, you can see how I work or get in touch.