So anyway, I went to Decorex today. And I'm really glad, because apparently yesterday was packed. Today there was barely anyone there bar me, my friend Libby (who was actually working on one of the stands) and Mark Francis from Made in Chelsea. Partly, I think it's emptier because it's moved from Kensington Gardens, i.e. easy peasy, to Syon Park, which is less so. (Though there are some really nice houses in Twickenham. My sat nav ran out of battery half way there, so I got a good look at some of the lesser-travelled streets.)
And, as ever, I've come away with plenty of ideas for the next house. And I'd quite like to move. Aside from anything else, it would be really nice to be able to buy treats from the local deli on a regular basis. When your local deli is Ottolenghi, those treats would practically pay for a new house . . .
The first two stands, as you walk in, are De Gournay and Zoffany, which makes entering the fair a positively celestial experience. And as ever, when it came to Zoffany, it was the chinoiserie that I fell for. These are parts of the same panel. I'm besotted. I'd forgo Ottolgenghi forever for walls covered in this - even their flourless chocolate cake, which anybody who knows me will understand is a sacrifice of serious magnitude.
Zoffany
Zoffany
There were more (and potentially rather more affordable) examples of Chinoiserie elsewhere, both of which I also love:
This one is by Thibaut and would, I feel, look especially brilliant in quite a narrow corridor.
This is brand new paper by Nina Campbell, from a collection entitled Cathay Parade, and it is so delicate and pretty that I think it would look good almost anywhere.
And then there is one other wallpaper I'd like to draw your attention to before I move on to other items, which is this:
Eley Kishimoto
It's by Eley Kishimoto and it's the first wallpaper the (fashion) house have ever done and their entire stand is covered in it: walls, floors and ceiling. And the girl on the stand is wearing a dress in the same pattern (best party trick ever) and they were awarded 'best stand' yesterday. (If you're going to go for the literally all over look, incidentally, it might be worth doing it with a smallish room.)
Anyway, on to fabrics . . . Though actually - and it's not just because I'm wallpaper obsessed - I genuinely believe that this fabric makes a particularly lovely wall covering:
It's by Swaffer and I love it so much I actually enquired as to price . . . and it's under £60 a metre! Which, in the realms of my fantasy world, is so reasonable that it's almost worth ordering it now to do something with. One day, in one house, this will be blinds and wall coverings and everything. I'm going to have a rainbow room.
You'll notice I didn't mention the floor. That's because I have a plan for the floor in my rainbow room, and that plan is this:
The floor at the Nina Campbell stand!
Combined with this:
A fluffy rainbow rug! It's Boccara Design, and I don't think I've wanted anything quite so much ever, at least not since the Zoffany chinoiserie a tiny bit further up the page. This truly is heaven, that pile is so super thick that one wouldn't actually need to invest in any furniture as one would want to spend all day lying on the floor.
And the other textile that rug would go really well with, if one weren't going to pair it with the rainbow zig-zags, is this marbled velvet by Glasgow design duo Timorous Beasties which I think looks like butterfly wings. We're talking major fantasy curtains:
Timorous Beasties
And talking of beasties, get ready for a very tenuous link . . . :
This is by Dandylion - it's an archive fabric which they've updated with different colours, and I genuinely think it might be the most perfect nursery fabric ever - except, obviously, for Chelsea Textiles Moon Dog by Kit Kemp which really is the most perfect nursery fabric ever (have you been to Ham Yard Hotel yet? The chairs in front of the fire are upholstered in it. And Andrew and I had a very nice lunch there, too.) But back to this - the lion! And the unicorn!!
And it would look utterly amazing when combined with this:
Rug by Amy Kent - she says that the design is based on cobbles but as far as I am concerned it is a giraffe print - L'Afrique, C'est Chic!
And finally, here are some lovely lights:
Celestial Pebbles (yes that really is their name) by Ochre.
I was overjoyed to find those lights, because I went to 100% Design last week and came away horribly depressed because I barely found anything I liked and nearly all the lighting looked the same. And all the bathrooms and kitchens were black. Speaking of which, I also found some amazingly beautiful marble at Decorex, but such is it's amazingness that it requires a whole blogpost of its own. Here is a tiny preview though:
Honey Onyx by EDM . . .
www.zoffany.com
www.thibautdesign.com
www.ninacampbell.com
www.eleykishimoto.com
www.swaffer.co.uk
www.boccara.com
www.timorousbeasties.com
www.dandylion-designs.com
www.amykent.co.uk
www.ochre.net
And that marble from EDM (which more usually stands for Electronic Dance Music) is so special it doesn't have a website . . .
