London Design Festival sets out its 2026 programme
On 1 July the London Design Festival unveiled the plans for its 24th edition, which runs from 12 to 20 September across the capital. The centrepiece Landmark installation is The Pangolin Shield by Studio Saar and Atelier One, sited on the Strand, and it sits alongside the Global Design Forum, the London Design Medals and eleven Design Districts, including a new district in Soho.
For anyone tracking where interiors are heading, the festival is a useful early signal. This year's programme leans on craft revival, material innovation and the meeting of heritage and technology, and it hands London homeowners and designers a full autumn diary of installations and showroom openings to visit.
Source: London Design Festival
New Designers 2026 fills the Business Design Centre with graduate talent
New Designers returned to the Business Design Centre in Islington from 1 to 4 July for its latest edition, showing work from graduates across furniture, product, interior, textile and ceramics. The event is one of the main places to spot the makers whose pieces turn up in real homes a few years later.
This year's crop leaned heavily on sustainable and heritage craft, from seating grown and built from farm-harvested hazel and wool to chairs woven from repurposed textiles. That focus on honest, low-waste materials chimes with what high-end residential design has been reaching for throughout 2026.
Source: New Designers
Elle Decoration's summer issue takes its cues from travel
The July and August issue of Elle Decoration, on sale now, builds its summer edit around travel and escapism. It looks to the designers behind a run of new hotel openings for lessons on bedrooms and bathrooms, and gathers bright, sun-filled houses from around the world for a dose of holiday feeling at home.
The hospitality angle is a practical one for home projects. Hotel bedrooms and bathrooms are where layered lighting, generous storage and a genuine sense of retreat get worked out first, and those ideas translate cleanly to a London flat or a period house.
Source: Elle Decoration