Surface Design Show 2013

A freezing blowing wind took me to the Surface Design Show this year. I like going to this show as there always are some intriguing and interesting materials to discover. This year, glass was everywhere. Of course if you say glass, it doesn't sound very exciting as glass has been part of our life for such a long time... but here, I am talking about Glass used with creativity in order to produce a real art piece to include in your house within commonly used items.

The first glass stand I want to talk about is the one from Objects in Glass http://objectsinglass.com/ who were well located right at the entrance of the show. They displayed amazing pieces, and here are some of them:

A colourful inclusion of pencils...

 

A piece of fabric lit from behind

 

Or this amazing display of pasta... which would made a perfect decor in an Italian restaurant or as a kitchen splash back...

 

Notarianni Glass http://www.notarianniglass.co.uk/ displayed some amazing pieces:

 

 

 

 

The second star of the show were tiles. There were many of them... So I have to chose to show only a few, including this one, from tiledspace.com you can create the tiles you want, using any sort of picture you want. If you are missing Paris or are romantic, you surely could use this one:

 



Or you could create a "trompe l'oeil"

Or add colour....

 

The tiles can be used indoor and outside. I am getting all inspired!

 

Armatiles http://www.armatile.com/categories/1/0/allcats.aspx presented some incredible bespoke designed tiles. Whatever shape or colour tile you want they can create. Sometimes just the inclusion of one beautiful piece could make a big difference in an otherwise boring tiled space.

 

 

Another sort of tiles attracted my attention, the extra thin tiles by porcel-thin http://porcel-thin.com/. They had a lovely range of tiles, and a range that really looked like marble. It would make a stunning flooring for a very reasonable price!

I like the thin sort of tiles because they use less material to be manufactured and are the greenest way to produce a tile (and a tile is everything but green in its production, but its resilience balance this fact).

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there were as well some beautiful panels that could add interest to any sort of rooms in a residential or a commercial project. Giles Miller Surfaces http://gilesmiller.com/ was there as well:

 

I can imagine using these to create an incredible feature wall, maybe in a restaurant, a bar... or in the entrance hall of a grand house!

 

Of course wood was there as well with all sorts of wooden flooring ... but this is this one that attracted my attention : Ecopalm hardwood flooring http://ecopalmflooring.com/. As you know whenever I see the word "Eco" I can't stop myself to jump about... always ready to discover whatever green washing might hide under this word... So I went to the salesman and "attacked" him in a frontal way: "Why do you use the word Eco for your product"?

 

 

The answer is simple: They use coconut the coconut trees that don't produce coconuts anymore in a plantation. It means no deforestation. But as it comes from Indonesia, there is still a good carbon footprint linked with the transport (and I am not sure about what happens in the manufacture process). This has to be investigated a bit further to see if the "Eco" word is used well or not.

 

Of course we needed some wall paper as well in the Surface Design show, and Space Innovation had a lovely collection of bespoke wall paper. In fact you chose whatever image you would like to use and it can be printed as a wall paper. I loved their lovely leaf paper on display:

 

 

And a last product that can be used in the house or at the office, and which I find very interesting, a paint to create a white board on any wall. I wish we had used this kit in my daughter's bedroom...!

The kit contains all you need to transform a wall into a board.

 

And I have to finish here, mentioning there were as well many conferences at the show, including one with Dan Hopewood, a great high end interior designer and BIID member, who was show casting some of his superb projects. It was nice to listen to him and he made us all realise how important it is to hire an interior designer who knows his/her job and has a great team of trustee trade people around them. Thank you Dan!

 

 

Emmanuelle Lemoine