London Design Festival Picks 2026
What a week we had!! Apart from the pleasure of curating FLOOR_STORY’s ‘Configurations’ launch presented in partnership with Sancal, we saw a bounty of delights that the festival had to offer. We were so inspired, we thought we’d better capture our key favourites here to share and return to over and over again ;)
2LG You Can Sit With Us - 4th Edition ‘Messy Heart’
Well this just a glorious antidote to every AI generated slop we’re seeing currently! This was the 4th showcase of emerging talent curated by the 2LG co-founders Russell Whitehead and Jordan Cluroe.
Every object featured was a gesture about what it was to feel human - objects with heart.
2LG Studio also gave a first look at their new lighting collection in collaboration with North South AD — a collection of lighting pieces inspired by beloved rose bushes. Nostalgic, fantastical and beuatifully crafted. We loved.
Lee Broom - Chant Chambers
For London Design Festival 2026, British designer Lee Broom expanded his ‘Chant’ collection with varying compositions that are a nostalgic nod to the 1970s. The newly expanded collection includes oversized chandelier compositions, sculptural wall lights, linear pendants and architectural lighting structures.
We particularly love the sultry glamour the lights and the space evoked. This modernist 70’s space with it’s wall-to-wall carpeting and blinds gave us Mad Men vibes in the best possible way.
In Living Colour - Resident
To celebrate its 15th anniversary, New Zealand furniture and lighting brand Resident launched an immersive 2-month exhibition titled In Living Colour.
Spanning an 800-square-metre, light-filled fifth-floor space, this is the most extensive showcase of Resident's catalog since the brand was founded in 2011 by Simon James and Scott Bridgens. UK Debuts: Features brand-new 2026 collections and UK premieres including Plane, Little Fellas, Cadre, Avant, Radio, Drift, and Vent by acclaimed international designers such as Philippe Malouin and Note Design Studio.
The colour and curation was meticulous and we particularly loved the original touches that were left incorporated in the space.
USM x The Vinyl Factory Record shop
I mean super cool and organised, what's not to love? Our Swiss furniture favourite USM transformed its London store into a record shop, filled with pieces from its Symbol Audio collaboration paying homage to the link between design and music.
Camille Walala's entrance transformation of Sketch London
Camilie brought her signature fusion of geometric pattern and vibrant colour influenced by the Memphis movement to transform Sketch London entrance into an abstract cityscape. The layered composition of bold geometric shapes are developed from her longstanding fascination with architecture and everyday urban detail. The loved this large scale site intervention (and so did Simon from FLOOR_STORY)!
Material Matters
Material Matters showcased some incredible new materials and the talented people behind their production. There were some properly magic exhibit stands. Minature houses offering a world of the familiar for a dementia sufferer. Embroidery and carpentry craft that we could’ve stared at for house and even duck dog toys made from seaweed.
Carding was a beautiful sculptural lighting installation crafted onsite, directly from recycled cotton and textile waste.
Foose Materials, transforms post-consumer garment waste from the Kantamanto Market in Accra, Ghana, into valuable, sustainable materials.
Prima Materia made beautiful furniture from leftover doorways. A masterclass is the reuse of good quality materials. We particularly loved seeing the original shaped retained and heroed. Chef’s Kiss!
1 Tool. 1 Stool at Perfectly Imperfect
Such a joyful exhibition. 23 experimental stools made by students from the Royal College of Art’s (RCA) MA Design Products programme. The concept was that students were given a single tool and a single material to design and build a functional, adult-weight-bearing seat without using external fasteners like glue, nails, or screws.
Would love to do this challenge ourselves! We particularly loved the bent rulers and paint rollers, the latter just making us smile.
There was so much more I could wax lyrical about but in the interest of designing other people’s spaces, I have to stop somewhere.
A great year for London Design Festival!! Can’t wait for the next one!!
Author: Nadia Themistocleous, Lead Interior Designer, Trifle*
Nadia has worked with Trifle* for nearly a decade and has been the interior lead for some of our most ambitious projects to date including MVF, BenchSci and TriliTech. Prior to Trifle* and managing her own interior design company, she worked for a decade in advertising and the music industry creating and executing creative campaigns and events. She is passionate about translating our client’s culture, identity or ways of working into the spaces they inhabit ensuring that every space created for our clients is as unique as their business or home is.
