Five ideas coming out of London Design Festival 2026
As London Design Festival draws to a close, Sapphire Spaces’ Director Mark Newbery reflects on the ideas that stood out this year – and what they could mean for the way we live at home.
1. Less perfection, more personality
Brompton Design District summed this up rather neatly with its theme, Perfectly Imperfect. Rather than concentrating only on finished objects, its exhibitions explored experimentation, material discovery and the process of making.
One example was designer Byron Pritchard's Finding Form, where a single slab of sycamore was worked entirely with hand tools, without drawings or a predetermined design. The material itself helped determine the finished piece.
I like that idea.
The best homes aren't those where every element follows the same formula. They have layers – furniture collected over time, art with meaning, different materials and pieces that say something about the people who live there.
Good design should bring those things together, not design the personality out of a home.
2. Craft isn't standing still
At the V&A, Craft x Tech brought Japanese makers together with international designers to explore how centuries-old skills in woodworking, ceramics, metal, textiles, lacquer and washi paper can work with contemporary design and technology.
That's an interesting relationship.
We sometimes talk about craft and technology as though we have to choose between the two. In reality, some of the best products combine both.
You can see that in a kitchen particularly clearly. There is extraordinary engineering behind a bulthaup kitchen or a Gaggenau appliance, but the experience of using it should feel remarkably simple.
Technology earns its place when it improves how something works without taking over the room.
3. We're thinking more about what lasts
Longevity was another recurring conversation.
At Heal's, the Future Icons exhibition asked what gives furniture lasting appeal, looking at qualities such as proportion, craftsmanship and form rather than simply what's fashionable now.
It's a question worth asking at home too.
When we're designing a kitchen or helping somebody choose a dining chair, I'm much more interested in how they'll feel about it in ten or twenty years than whether it happens to be fashionable this year.
It's one of the reasons brands such as Carl Hansen & Søn sit so naturally alongside the kitchens and interiors we design. Some of its most familiar pieces have already lived through generations of changing tastes.
Good design doesn't need replacing every time fashions move on.
4. Materials are becoming more expressive
Across London there was plenty of experimentation with material, texture and colour.
At Brompton, Jesse Butterfield's A Veiled Boundary brought together hand-hammered stainless steel and handmade paper, while other exhibitions mixed furniture, ceramics, textiles and objects in much more individual ways.
For the home, I think this gives us permission to be a little braver.
We're seeing that particularly in bathrooms. The room doesn't have to begin with white sanitaryware and work outwards.
Colour, stone, timber, ceramics and different brassware finishes can all change its character. Brands such as Agape, Cielo, VOLA, Dornbracht and Fantini give us an enormous palette to work with.
The more interesting starting point is often not which basin or tap do you want?, but how do you want the room to feel.
5. The home is becoming less about individual rooms
Perhaps the theme that interests me most wasn't represented by one particular launch.
Across London there was a much broader mix of furniture, lighting, objects, technology, craft and materials. Tom Dixon, for example, showed multifunctional homewares, while elsewhere designers explored objects and furniture that respond more flexibly to everyday life.
It reflects something we're seeing with our own clients.
We might begin by talking about a kitchen, but very quickly we're talking about the dining area, furniture, a bathroom, wardrobes, internal doors or how the space connects to outside.
That's why looking at the whole home can make such a difference.
It doesn't mean everything has to match. Quite the opposite. Different rooms should have their own character.
But there should be a relationship between them.
What do I take from London this year?
Not a must-have colour or a particular product.
More individuality. More interest in how things are made. A closer relationship between craft and technology. Greater attention to longevity. And more freedom to create homes with personality.
For me, those are far more interesting than trends.
Because if we're doing our job properly, the homes we're designing now should still feel right long after London has moved on to the next new thing.
