I can think of no past time more cheerful on official ‘Blue Monday’ than surrounding yourself with Spring season homewares(!), so, as Top Drawer London was in town I hopped along to have a peep at what’s on the horizon in the world of interiors for Spring/Summer. Having seen a few previews in November from high street chains, the main things that resonated with me there – velvets, smoked glass, craftsmanship, and blues were all in abundance at Top Drawer too. And it may just be because I ventured out with a heavy cold unable to smell my own perfume, but my eye kept getting caught by gorgeous blankets, candles and soft pastel colours and I don’t think it was just because I felt like hiding under a duvet! The overall vibe I took from the show was one of understated luxury, craftsmanship, small details and if there was one message that was pretty hard to miss it was BLUSH PINK IS STILL HERE! And hooray for that as I’m not tiring of it any time soon. I love pretty well all dashes of pastel in spring time, they are like little drops of optimism for a new season in the home. Some of the blush is also turning to coral this year which I welcome gladly as a slightly punchier tone to offset the whites, blacks and greys that aren’t going anywhere either. So this is my roundup of favourite looks and inspiration from the show, with so many thousands of stalls I’ve narrowed down to just a few but as you can imagine there was an abundance more available to be seen. Let me know what you are swooning over, I have all the heart eyes for the knitted textiles at the moment.

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Image: Design Soda

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Stitching

Now as someone who can’t knit (well I probably can, I just don’t have the patience to learn) I am surprisingly drawn to knitted forms and pattern. In fact it’s a bit of an obsession for me (I know, I really should learn to knit!). I was most delighted to see that interesting stitch details are a bit of a theme in homewares this season. From bold neon piping and fringing at Also Home to the overlaid bold colours in cushions from Veega Design. I was pretty bowled over by Veega, she is an incredibly talented young graduate who has a true natural instinct for shape, pattern and colour. I knew I had to check out her work when I noticed her gorgeous navy rope chair (below, second to last) online but her origami style light fitting with yellow and teal stitches and the cushions mentioned above were all pretty breath taking too. 

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Luxurious simplicity 

Peg-It-All pegboard design by Nikki Kreis

Images: Design Soda

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There was a fair amount of natural materials and great blends of function and form from objects that wear their style in understatement. I saw a lot less cork and ply than I was expecting but there was an abundance of metals, wood, smoked glass. Minimalist modern design is a pretty enduring theme these days as conscious or ethical shopping choices become second nature to many, it’s very Scandinavian that when buying design to buy well with products that last (and are respected by their owners). This always strikes me as a little perplexing since the biggest accessible chain of furniture stores I can think of is from Sweden, and whilst it has great design and also an admirable standard of welfare towards both environment and workforce, it surely appeals to the most throw away culture in history. But I digress. What I really wanted to talk about was this black waffle Bath Matt  (above, second image) from Danish brand The Organic Company! I love it, not just because it is beautiful (which it is) but because it has a clever idea behind it – you can hang it up out of the way and not have to drape it over the bath if you have gorgeous floor tiles that you want to see (which, shucks,I do!). They are  distributed in the UK by Hyggen. I also really loved all the wooden peg board designs by Nikki Kreiss of Kreis Design for their simplicity, but especially the white patterned one (above, third down). 

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Images: Design Soda

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One company that knows the exact art of beautiful simplicity are Design Letters whose work (above) is based upon a simple but rather brilliant formula – the work of Danish architect and designer Arne Jacobsen. We own a few Design Letter pieces and they are all keepers but in this seasons output I had ALL the heart eyes for their rose and mint letter boards which launch alongside a whole pegboard alphabet of Jacobsen’s alphabet, we absolutely must buy one when they launch in march, I have no idea which colour to choose but am currently leaning towards mint. 

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And just because one Jacobsen reference is never enough (!) this time we are looking at Design Nation  (distributed by Hyggen) who collaborate with Arne Jacobsen’s grandson on design. I love the mixture of wood and pastels here, those tea towels are about as everything as a set of tea towel can be to my eyes.

Pink 

 

Image: Design Soda

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Ok, as I said earlier, pink is still everywhere in interiors. I’ve chosen my favourite examples from Broste, Jansen + Co and Design Letters to illustrate where it’s being done to painfully good effect here. Blush is the staple but there are peeps of her bolder big sister Coral in there too and some of the most effective styling using pink and coral was from places like Broste (the show stealer for me, I knew I wanted to see their stall after buying some crockery from them last winter but I wasn’t expecting to want to take up residency on their stand!). Broste used both pinks to fabulous effect, teaming a rusty coral backdrop with more muted pink products and more than the odd dash of exceptional craftsmanship. I had never really thought of these two colours in co-existence before but it so works, I’m going to try and incorporate some into decorating plans at home. There is something so happiness inducing about pink, it’s kind of celebratory and a warm hug at the same time, don’t you think? Also, isn’t there something fabulously mid-century bohemian about this stool?  It was love at first sight for me, the Nola stool is definitely going on my wish list. The new wares from Jansen + Co (various, below) are a real treat, from cheerful crockery to playful pastel candlesticks, I love this company’s attitude to colour blocking and the earthenware with pink interior ranks very high on my lust lens. 

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Images: Design Soda

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Un-themed Favourites

Image: Design Soda

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This picture of some Broste styling perfectly illustrates that mix of coral and pink I was discussing earlier, how inviting is this seating area? If coral and pink are not the new grey and pink (or green and pink) colour combinations of this year then I will be a sad girl.

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Image: Design Soda

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The new bathroom and vanity collection from Bloomingville is lovely, it has hints of luxury design about it and something organic too, I really want some of their amber glass toiletries.

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Image: Design Soda

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Great use of wood in these wicker lampshades from Broste (I know, I keep mentioning them! But I did say I could happily live on their stall!). 

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I was unable to not put this shot in from Kreis Designs, I’m big into monochrome crosses at the moment and those eggs sitting on that tray rather tickled me.

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For the modernist with a twist, I really liked this ensemble from Bloomingville because it seems to have rather effortlessly and stylishly pulled together many of the trends and themes going on at the moment from plants and Bohemia to Scandinavian minimalism with a dash of luxury craft thrown in but without looking at all contrived, this is an entirely relaxed affair and one I’m sure we all could live with.

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I absolutely could not post a round up of this show without including Temerity Jones, All of my other choices may have been in the strokey beard category of very good taste, Temerity Jones homewares are outrageous and fabulously so. The company is run by my very first boss and the person who instilled a lifelong love of kitsch in me so I was more than a little delighted to take a look around his phantasmagoria of wares, I was particularly tickled by this circus set which I could totally imagine at home in a certain little boys room around here.

Did you visit Top Drawer? Which trends were you most inspired by?