Another year and another trip by the Suzanne Barnes Design Team to the London Design Week, visiting 100% Design, Tent Design Junction and Decorex which showcase the latest in design. Here is a small selection of products that caught our eyes that we wanted to share with you.

1. Zoe Murphy – A young British designer used mid 20th Century furniture and recycles using creative imagery inspired by her local landscape of Margate.

2. Aditi Studios – Laerdal Pendant Light, the light collection is hand sculpted and decorated in Derbyshire using traditional methods made from mud, dust eclectic powders and fire; silk and glass, paper, water, steel, brass and iron.

3. Curiousa & Curiousa Glass Pendants – Esther Patterson, the founder of designs hand-blown, bespoke glass and bone china lighting.  These single glass shades are free-blown to order.

4. Katie Walker – The Windsor Rocking Chair a contemporary classic design constructed from a single continuous band of steam bent ash with solid seat supported by turned spindles

5. Ceramic Art by Regina Heinz – Taking inspiration form the mountains landscapes of her home county Austria, Regina Heinz creates hand built sculptural ceramics, ceramic reliefs and wall pieces.

6. The Dark Room – These large, unglazed hand-painted ceramic decorative plates come as a limited edition of 10 and feature bold, iconic colours and designs inspired by De Stijl.

7. Lloyd Loom of Spalding – ‘The Elves & The Chairmakers’, Five designers visited Lloyd Loom and reinterpreted the classic chair designs and produced this wonderful exciting new collection.

8. John Galvin Furniture – Cambium Credenza, the drawers and doors are made from locally sourced Scottish Elm. The frame, base and drawer insides of the piece are made from beech.  These innovative furniture pieces encompass contemporary design with quality craftsmanship all created in Glasgow.

9. Avenida Home – Alabaster Placemats & Coasters, Avendia team up with some of the world’s best loved artists to transform high-quality tableware into exquisite pieces of art which are handmade in England.

10. Boeme Design – Madame Pangon A printed velvet fabric. This fabric collection showcases its founder Jo Bounds love of painting and comprises of large scale designs and exquisite panels, printed on the highest quality base cloths and manufactured in the UK.

Salone Internazionale Del mobile is the largest trade furniture fair held annually in Milan. Since its humble beginnings in 1961, it when it was created to promote Italian furniture design for export, it has grown to become the leading global showcase for new designs from world renowned companies.

With this in mind, the SBD Partnership headed off to the stylish northern Italian city to be inspired and investigate new trends. The show is huge covering more than 140,000 square meters of exhibition space.  It has a fabulous cosmopolitan buzz about it and your jostling with more than 290,000 visitors form a great mix of nationalities.  Even with the world recession and a slight drop in exhibitors, the 1,200 plus that are there to put on an exciting and elaborate show.

The exhibition covers all areas of furniture design and is sub divided into the areas of classic modern and design.

We spent most of our time in the design zone and the stand that stood out for us was Flexform.  It oozed an alluring laid back style, contemporary lines with a luxurious yet welcoming softness from the fabrics.

We noticed the trend on many stands was to build up and create a single form. For example, rather than having a single piece coffee table, three or four were integrated with varying heights and textural finishes, creating a totally combined singular sculptural look.

The return of deco and decadence is also very much a look. Furniture pieces used strong curved and linear forms, a style predominant in the art deco period, mixing them with upholstered and veneer finishes to create decorated surface patterns. Finished off with bejewelled detailing, it was a little ostentatious for some, but pure indulgence for others.

A simple stylish trend that is emerging is the removal of upholstery from furniture legs. Although it is something we’ve been doing for a while on our bespoke pieces, it was seen more readily across the board on general furniture pieces. It looks fantastic.

Although this is a trade show, the general public can visit on the last weekend of the event. If you feel like being inspired and fancy a weekend away in one of the most stylish cities in Europe, then head out there; you won’t be disappointed. Just remember to pack some stylish flat shoes as you will be walking miles without even realising it.