Here’s our pick of some of the best finds at this year’s Clerkenwell Design Week from award-winning steam-bent chairs to cork wallpaper made in Yorkshire
Your company’s own materials waste transformed
Spared
The USP of multidisciplinary design studio Spared is that it will transform clients’ own materials waste into bespoke furniture and design elements. Spared says, “By retaining a material’s origin within the final piece, each project creates a tangible link between process, place, and outcome.” They were showing recent commissions for Tate Modern, Aviva and Virgin Voyages alongside new prototype furniture pieces – all custom made from customers’ own waste materials.
Unique Yorkshire wallcoverings and textiles
The Monkey Puzzle Tree
Designed by artists from God’s own county, the Monkey Puzzle Tree’s textiles and wallcoverings blend the best of contemporary design from the north with traditional techniques like screen printing and rotary printing. Their cork wallpapers particularly caught my eye.
Award-winning steam-bent chair
Woodbender
Woodbender’s Scoop 33 chair won the Best of Clerkenwell and Best Craftsmanship in the Design Week awards and it’s easy to see why. Each chair is hand-bent from a single length of timber at the firm’s South African workshop. The company makes a range of dining chairs and bar stools in both traditional and contemporary styles, all handcrafted using the same steam-bending technique that maintains the timber’s strength and integrity.
Compact colour cards
Johnstone’s Trade paint
Johnstone’s Trade paint was showing a new smaller colour card that aims to make colour-choice conversations with clients easier. Called the Designer Collection, the smaller card has been developed in response to conversations with interior designers and architects who told the firm that the traditional large colour fans can be cumbersome on site visits – and overwhelming for clients to engage with.
The new compact colour card is designed to provide a more focused starting point, featuring a curated edit of colours to make colour conversations with clients simpler. The colour chips on the card are half-mounted and flexible, making it easier to place them alongside other material samples. Each shade links via QR code to the Johnstone’s Trade website, where users can order larger 8” x 8” samples through Swatchbox.
New website for old favourite
Heal’s Trade
Heal’s Trade was at the show to promote its new website offering product specification support, tailored and bespoke products, trade discounts and additional brands such as Ligne Roset and Vitra.
Colourful custom chairs
Hitch Mylius
Hitch Mylius has a 50-year history of making well designed contemporary upholstered chairs and sofas in north London. Today its sofas grace everywhere from the National Maritime Museum to Lib Dem HQ. At Clerkenwell the firm was previewing the hm 105 Planar chair by Marcus Long: a great design with a retro feel that looks even better when you consider the options for colourful customisation of the frame and arms with RAL colours…
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