London Design Festival 2016 highlights: top product picks and interiors showstoppers

Our pick of the best at this year’s triumphant London Design Festival.

The Evening Standard's journalism is supported by our readers. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

1/56
Barbara Chandler30 September 2016

Two London-based Italian women architects, Simona Auteri and Sofia Steffenoni, call their design business Matter of Stuff “because materials are at the heart of everything we do”. They work with many different makers, and several pieces are in marble.

These tables are by Olga Bielawska; made by hand in the Carrara Design Factory in Italy, they are a limited edition of 12; prices on application.

The Mr Knock bookcase is designed by London’s Samuel Chan and made by his craftsmen at Channels in American white oak, and American black walnut with a clear wood lacquer.

Units can stack conventionally, or be angled. Bookcase, a single unit 90 cm wide, costs £295. Special sizes are to order.

Isokon Plus, based in Hackney, looks after the archive of the original Isokon furniture company, founded by Jack Pritchard in 1935.

Now comes a re-issue of this archchair by Bauhaus designer Marcel Breuer — only two were made in 1936. It is upholstered in a fabric by textile designer Eleanor Pritchard, and costs around £2,440.

Angie Parker uses traditional Scandinavian weaves for her handmade rugs, but her colour palette comes from a year spent in India and “the dynamic graffiti in Bristol where I live and work”.

Made to commission in high-quality wool, her rugs costs about £1,000.

Soft pale colours with leafy patterns are easy to live with. This is Quintessence, with nine new designs in around 40 colourways, from the new Standing Ovation collection by Harlequin, which costs £179 for a three-metre panel.

Fabric on chaise costs around £24 a metre, and cushions are in various fabrics from £24 a metre to £67 a metre for velvet. Voile costs £68 a metre.

This Sony gadget costs around £1,000 but works wonders. It is a neat portable compact 10cm cube that will project images from your smartphone (still or moving) onto any surface such as a wall or table-top.

Image size is adjustable, but can be up to 80in. It has speakers and a rechargeable battery. Or use its wireless unit (included) to connect to your TV set-top box or Blu-ray player. Called the “portable ultra short throw projector”, it’s at Harrods and The Conran Shop, and at Centres Direct.

This geometric Rain Dance design is from a new collection at Mulberry Home, printed on a linen/acrylic mix, at £139 a metre.

The Festival collection also includes painterly prints on velvet and linen, modern embroideries, stylish stripes and soft Scottish wool weaves, Find Mulberry at GP & J Baker.