BlogTour 2011, Day 5: Decorex and Martin Hulbert
Tuesday, October 4, 2011 All too soon, it was the last of our days in London as part of BlogTour. Day Five took us to the much anticipated "interior design show for professionals," Decorex.
Our (partial) group arrives at the show. L to R: Tamara Stephenson of Nest by Tamara, Susan Serra of Susan Serra Associates, Carmen Natschke of The Decorating Diva, Mollie Magill of Robin Baron's Simplifying Fabulous, Tim Bogan of Modenus and Paul Anater of Kitchen and Residential Design.
Designers of the Decorex International Champagne Bar, Martin Hulbert and Jay Grierson chatted with us in small groups about the inspiration for the space as well as their current projects. The designers are shown above (Jay, center and Martin, right) with Michelle Wiebe of Studio M Interior Design.
(Psst, New York developers, Martin would love to do a project in NYC!) L to R: Martin Hulbert, Amy Dragoo of ABCD Design, me and Mollie Magill.
On our oh-so-quick turn around the show, I spied these gorgeous prints on the fabrics and wallpapers from Louise Body, all part of the new Still Life collection. Shown here are the Traily Plant (yellow) and Money Penny (blue) fabrics in front of the Shelf wallpaper (blue).
I was immediately drawn to the Retro Lounge Chair from Reed & Rackstraw. Wide and low-slung with geometric polished wood details, it is begging to anchor my proposed new seating area in my living room. The group I was walking with all loved the nostalgia and bright colors of a series of London-themed rugs from Michelle Mason for Wovenground. If I had known of these when my children were smaller, I would have surely chosen one for each of their rooms as a reminder of their British heritage.
Also from Wovenground was the textured and delectable Manga rug which begged to be taken in hand. I loved the mixed materials, the combination of weaving techniques and the earthy tones. I have not stopped thinking of this rug since we left Decorex and am glad I asked whether they ship to the US (they do!).
Spotted at the show was one of the Chelsea Pensioners ("The Men in Scarlet") whose home, The Royal Hospital Chelsea, served as the site for Decorex. Also, on display was this whimsical shark dress which was part of the Decorex Foyer designed by Nicky Haslam and Colette van den Thillart from NH Design.
The set up at Andrew Martin was fully merchandised and styled. While I like the puzzle-esque nature of this wall as it appears in this photo, apparently it used to read: "Life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death." For a view of the orignal incarnation, check out this recap of the London Design Festival from Mally Skok (scroll down).
Yeah, I'm a sucker for old cameras. So when Andrew Martin styled their area with bookcases full of them, you knew I wasn't going to leave without at least one shot of them!
Like the days before it, day five of BlogTour was a whirlwind of lovely people to meet and beautiful things to see. Even a lovely raw bar dinner at Wright Brothers couldn't make up for the sadness of leaving this amazing experience and all the wonderful people behind. Thank goodness we have Twitter! (And BlogTour NYC, right Veronika?)
And just a reminder about our wonderful sponsors, without whom we would not have been on this trip. The first of which are our lead sponsors, Modenus and MMPI, the organizers of the Architectural Digest Home Show (which I wrote about here) and mydeco.com. We were further cared for by our event sponsors: Achica Living, Blanco, DuVerre Hardware, Poggenpohl, Spirit of Sports, and wallunica; our exhibitor sponsors: Samuel Heath and Victoria + Albert; and our media partners: 100% Design London, London Design Festival, Decorex International, The Society of British Interior Design, Tent London, designjunction and Mix Publications.
There were so many images we still haven't shown you. We'll be pulling together one more look at BlogTour with the "best of the rest" of our shots. Hope you've enjoyed coming along on this ride with us!
Missed something? Catch all our BlogTour coverage here.
Events | tagged BlogTour, Decorex, London Design Festival, Mae
Reader Comments (2)
Beautiful images of London Design Festival and your BlogTour, really stunning. Having gone to 100% and the like for many years, I look forward to the rest x
As always, lovely photos and coverage! Inspiration was everywhere and you really captured that!