Despite the travel challenges of last week’s tube and train strikes, there was a vast turnout at London Design Week 2023 - held annually at the Design Centre in Chelsea Harbour. The home interiors event attracts interior designers, stylists, press and home decor lovers who attend to obtain ideas and get style inspiration for their own homes. The showrooms that live at the Design Centre all year round use this week as a time to launch their new collections, while a number of temporary stands are erected for brands who want to showcase at the Centre as a one-off. 

Chelsea Harbour and Design Week veers towards the higher-end scale of interior design, so there are a lot of fabric collections and textile designs (alongside some extremely expensive furniture showrooms), but it is a great way to view everything in one place. I didn’t get to view everything on offer (despite spending a whole day there!) but, from what I did get to see, here are my top picks!

Romo x Alice Temperley: A World Less Ordinary

The big collection that everyone was talking about at London Design Week was the Romo x Alice Temperley MBE collaboration that launched one week prior. Two years in the making, the UK furnishings brand has teamed with the renowned British fashion designer (a favourite of Kate Middleton) for a chic, maximalist offering of fabrics, wallcovering, trimmings and cushions. A World Less Ordinary is a bohemian grouping that incorporates luxurious velvets, leopard prints, beads, sequins, metallics, florals and intricate weaves. Expected to be a long-term partnership, this collection is predicted to be the first of many between The Romo Group and Temperley. 

VitrA Bathrooms x Emma Jane Palin

An exhibition stand created for Design Week only, modern Bathroom retailers VitrA wisely appointed the talented interior writer and stylist Emma Jane Palin to design their pop-up. Featuring the Tom Dixon Liquid collection of chunky round basins and curvy shower fixtures, Emma used a number of colours from the Coat Paints palette, wallpaper from Poodle & Blonde, plus tiles from VitrA to create a terracotta pink bathroom at one end of the stand, with a Gucci colour-themed shower the opposite.

David Hunt Lighting: Bodkin

One of my favourite UK lighting brands - Cotswold-based David Hunt Lighting - just moved their showroom into the Design Centre, so Design Week was a great event for them to showcase their new Bodkin collection: multi-arm pendant lights with a basket-weave centre, available in an array of colours from ‘Marmalade’ to ‘Juniper Green’.

Light Design Studio Haberdashery

Sculptural lighting brand Haberdashery also caught my eye. The award-winning, London-based design studio produces intricate, transformative lighting as works of art; being hired by brands such as Virgin Airways, Stella McCartney and The British Film Institute to create bespoke installations. 

Textile Techniques from Rediscovered By

A new find for me and a real joy to uncover was Rediscovered by: a textile and wallpaper studio created by Charlotte Krone. Inspired by nature and a rediscovery of historical textile techniques, Rediscovered By uses foiling, flocking, silk painting and weaving to adorn their wallpapers and fabrics. I particularly adored the sweetpea wallpaper with embellished petals. Click here to find out more about this brilliant female-run, UK-based brand.

Rose Uniacke Paint

I blogged about eco paint brand Graphenstone some years ago, as they were one of the first paint brands to really push the boundaries for eco-friendly paint and expose how most paint is plastic-based, which is bad for the environment, for us, and for our homes (plastic paint will not let your walls breath and can often lead to problems with damp). As yet, I hadn’t had a chance to have a good look at their colours designed in collaboration with designer Rose Uniacke, so I was delighted to see them showcased on an exhibition stand at Design Week. I was immediately drawn to two shades: Toffee (a delightful reddish-brown) and Sand Dune (a warm mustard). These paints can be ordered via the Rose Uniacke website, or you can find them in the Pimlico Road showroom.

Amy Kent Rugs

I’ve followed Amy Kent on Instagram for a while, so it was great to finally be able to see her bespoke rugs in person. My favourite was this striped floral number - I loved the mix of brown on blue!

Arboretum by Sanderson

Another big launch was the new collection from Sanderson, part of the Sanderson Design Group. A celebration of newly discovered archive prints available as both fabrics and wallpapers, Arboretum celebrates the English countryside and ancient woodlands.

From blackberries to birds and stripes to squiggles, there are 23 fabrics and 17 wallpapers within the collection, which is available now.

Tiger Beat By Dedar

Finally, I couldn’t not mention this new textile print - Tiger Beat - from the contemporary fabric brand Dedar. Youthful and playful, this jacquard velvet with a textured Ottoman ground is available in 5 colourways (but the pink and green option is the most fun!)