What’s new for our homes from the Decorex interior design fair?

I hate to break it to Gen X, but wallpaper is here to stay – and it stole the show at Decorex, writes Adele Cardani

British fabric designer Zoe Glencross exhibited her new French-inspired ‘Vivre Le Rêve’ collection at Decorex (Zoe Glencross)

Autumn is knocking on our doors like a harbinger of change, bringing crisp air and fresh perspectives. As if on cue, the vast, breezy space of Olympia London is buzzing with brand-new launches as the annual interior design fair, Decorex, commences. Between 9-12 October, this highly anticipated exhibition welcomes designers and makers to come together in celebration of exciting new products and impressive displays.

Here is what’s new for our homes this autumn from the best in design at Decorex – starting with wallpaper.

When my parents first moved into my childhood home, the very first thing they did was remove the 1980s pastel floral wallpaper plastered throughout the bedrooms and powder rooms. For an entire generation, the word ‘wallpaper’ conjures up frightening images of Lucite furniture, wall-to-wall green carpet, absurdly large sunken tubs, and pink ceramic tiles (absolutely everywhere). I hate to break it to Gen X, but wallpaper is here to stay, and it stole the show at Decorex.

Cole & Son launched ‘The Gardens’ – an elegant take on floral wallcoverings that are a far cry from the 80s. This delicately hand-painted collection of woodland tableaus depicts canopies of bursting blooms, romantic scenes of rolling hills and dreamlike oases of flora and foliage.

Inspired by African wildlife, comic book art, Bollywood films and Art Deco style, The Monkey Puzzle Tree has introduced a new wallpaper in collaboration with Ghanaian artist Josephine McYebuah. Starting with her original illustrations, the wallcovering titled ‘Blues Fantasia’, depicting “elegant antelopes intertwined with rich gold and jewel coloured motifs”, is hand-made by craftsmen in the North of England, helping to preserve local industry and traditional skills and keeping heritage mills alive.

Blues Fantasia wallpaper from The Monkey Puzzle Tree (The Monkey Puzzle Tree)

Decorex 2022 has unveiled that – above all – this season is about craftsmanship over commercialism. In addition, designers are favouring French country style, creating interiors filled with items that have that certain ‘je ne sais quoi’, as if sourced from a flea market in Provence.

For lighting that exudes this provincial elegance, global design house Maison Maison has collaborated with lighting experts Zafferano to create a collection of portable table lamps fitted with charming, scalloped lamp shades. Hand-woven in Vietnam by female artisans as part of a cooperative labour initiative, the Poldina Rechargeable Lamp’s tactile shades are designed to simply slip on and off the lamp base, allowing the user to change their lighting aesthetic to suit varying schemes, whether indoors or out.

Embracing the grainy, organic effect of hand printing on linen, British fabric designer Zoe Glencross exhibited her new French-inspired ‘Vivre Le Rêve’ Collection at Decorex. Her Jardin Ambroise print is reminiscent of Parisian balcony metal work, the delicate Ammi stem print is a succession of pressed flowers and Les Vignes emulates the climbing vines that cover pergolas and walls in the south of France. The range comes in fresh colour combinations, pairing shades like dusty rose pink with soft greens against warm white backgrounds. I can’t help but imagine the textiles as roman blinds, or perhaps the upholstery of an early 20th-century armchair with cabriole legs.

Graham and Green’s colourful, curvy, maximalist candlesticks (Graham and Green)

Lastly, with the festive season approaching, candlelight belongs on all our mantles and tabletops. Notting Hill-based lifestyle merchandiser Graham and Green is embracing this with maximalism. Perfect for holding rainbow candlesticks, their colourful, curvy ‘Bubble Candle Holders’ are sure to bring wonder and whimsy to your intimate Christmas soirées. And for just the right amount of endearing kitsch, consider the ‘Townhouse Tea Light Holders’, which form an entire street of vivid, flickering houses to line your dining table runner or window sills. Can you tell I’m looking forward to the fragrant greenery and glittering baubles looming gleefully on the horizon? I can practically hear Tchaikovsky’s sparkling Nutcracker Suite…