The weather was gloriously warm and sunny as my husband and I arrived in London the middle of April. This was my first trip to London and after the first week of seeing the usual tourist attractions and taking a few hundred pictures I new I couldn’t leave without seeing the design center. I am a designer after all. Unfortunately I had arrived in London a month too late to participate in London Design Week . (March 21st through March 26th.)
It would have been nice to be inspired by the new collections and mingle with influential designers while enjoying lectures and masterclasses, such as “Room’s with a View”, “Marketing Interior Design” The Enduring Beauty of Spectacular Furniture” “From Decoration to Architecture” “Color and Style”and “How I Discovered My Style” given by such people as; Suzy Hoodless, Charles Rutherfoord , Lulu Lyte, David Linley, Johathan Reed, Nicky Haslam, Lucia van der Post, Diana McKnight, Joa Studholme and Daniel Hopwood.
It was encouraging to learn that the Design Centre in Chelsea Harbour welcomes visitors throughout the year except during their trade preview days in March and September. You can reach the “Design Centre” by e mail at enquiries@dcch.co.uk or call 020 7225 9101 should you plan to be in London.
The Centre is beautifully designed as you can see from this photo and fortunately was within about a mile of the apartment we had rented in Chelsea.
I spent about three hours going through the various showrooms, just looking at shapes colors and designs and touching various fabrics and hard surfaces.I really go my design fix that day!
Some of the most recently opened showrooms are;
Mark Alexander (Luxury fabrics), Zinc (Bold tactile fabric) Original BTC Lighting company, Victoria & Albert Baths (using volcanic limestone in products), Samuel Heath “Uses traditional techniques to produce bathroom accessories), Glyn Peter Machin High end custom furniture.