Mary Middleton

Mary also authors her own award-winning interiors and travel blog called Hello Peagreen. Her passion lies in searching out home wares, furniture and products that enhance our homes.  Spending a large amount of time attending interiors, art and craft exhibitions across Europe, she has access to the newest to market pieces and an eye for spotting the desirable. 

She lives by the sea with her husband, their young son and a dog named Milo.

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Sharing my market edit highlights from Cersaie in Bologna.

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Sharing my trend highlights from Maison & Objet Paris and Paris Déco Off as part of the NKBA Global Connect programme.

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The 10th anniversary of the annual Paris Deco Off saw more than 120 showrooms and galleries take part in this growing five-day parallel event to the January edition of Paris Maison & Objet.

Participating interior design trade showrooms, pop-ups and exhibitions—scattered across the Rive Gauche around Saint-Germain-des-Prés and on the Rive Droite around the Rue du Mail—opened their doors to celebrate their newest collections. 

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Paris is the place to be in January with a busy agenda of gallery previews and trade shows—including Maison & Objet, which took place January 18-22—plus the exclusive American Party in Paris held under the 13th-century arches of the Collège des Bernardins. The twice-yearly Maison & Objet changed its format this year, separating the show into two distinct categories: home interior, and objects and accessories. With over 600 new brands exhibiting, there was much to explore across the eight halls, including the exhibition of German designer Sebastian Herkner as Designer of the Year, Excuse My French! curated by Vincent Grégoire from NellyRodi Agency, and the Rising Talents Awards.

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New Nordic, Old Nordic, Soft Nordic, and Nordic Minimalism were all given floor space at the biggest event celebrating Scandinavian design, the Stockholm Furniture and Light Fair, held February 5-10. More than 650 exhibitors filled the halls of Stockholmsmässan, with upwards of 80 percent of them based in region; this is, after all, a furniture show that still represents Scandinavian craftsmanship.  

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Foreign correspondent, UK. Mary Middleton is a Brighton-based blogger and design writer, contributing to leading design and B2B magazines worldwide. 

Mary keeps decor8 readers up-to-date with the latest styles and product releases coming from trade shows in the UK and Europe.

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The 2018 vlog edition of the Design Diffusion Blog Safari with a selected group of internationally renowned bloggers such as Mary Middleton from Hellopeagreen.com, Holly Becker from Decor8 and Stefan Nillson, visiting the booths of some of the most important companies participating in the Salone: Poliform, Flou, Walter Knoll, Kartell, Natuzzi, Boffi & De Padova and Scavolini.

For the uninitiated, Milan Design Week is a beautiful chaotic and overwhelming design circus spread across the city of Milan for one week each year. Anchored by one of the world’s largest furniture fairs Salone del Mobile, with its almost 2000 exhibitors you will find new launches and the latest décor trends.

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While Paris was cloaked in heavy gray skies, the halls of Maison & Objet were alive with color. The January 2018 edition did not disappoint, with over 3,000 exhibitors showcasing the latest international home wares, furniture, accessories, and lighting. For the 91% of visitors who state that they come to Maison & Objet to discover new products, there were plenty of new-to-market pieces that wowed.

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MILAN LIGHTING HIGHLIGHTS 2017

Every other year Milan Design Week turns the spotlight on lighting.  Forming part of the Salone del Mobile, Euroluce showcases lighting from more than 450 different brands across 4 halls, including Artemide, Foscarini and Roll & Hill. New lighting isn’t limited to the Euroluce show, as it was evident across many of the installations, exhibitions and showrooms of the wider Milan Design Week Fuorisalone.

As one of the most influential events in the design calendar the bar is set high during the week-long festival with directional installations from mega-brands such as Foscarini and intense simulation of daylight using OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology by Tokujin Yoshioka x LG at Superstudio Più. 

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With the trade show season in full swing, the European shows continue into February with the Stockholm Furniture Fair and Northern Light Fair. With over 700 exhibitors taking part, the exhibition is the world’s largest meeting place for Scandinavian design, attracting visitors looking for new perspectives on the style.

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Each year, the British capital brings design to the heart of the city with the London Design Festival. With over 400 events and installations across seven design districts, London is trying to give Milan Design Week a run for its money.

A major feature of the festival each year is the ambitious program of special projects and installations. Once again, the Victoria & Albert Museum was the festival’s official hub with a series of installations, talks, and workshops presented by the celebrated institution.

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Running across the capital from September 17-25, this year's London Design Festival brings together architects, designers and artists for over 400 events spread across the capital. At four months out, here's a preview of what to expect from what is considered the platform for the best of London’s design community.

Since 2007 the festival has commissioned some the world's most influential designers, architects, and pioneering new talents to create something extraordinary for the festival's Landmark Projects, which are site-specific and have appeared in some of London’s most prominent and covetable spaces. For the 2017 edition, there will be four Landmark Projects: Visionary Crazy Golf, The Smile, Baboushka Boxes, and Mini Living.

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Stockholm Furniture Fair and Northern Light Fair has just closed on its 65th edition. Over 700 Scandinavian and international brands were brought together under one 70 000 m2 roof. Stockholm Furniture Fair includes design for both home and public environments; annexed to this is the Northern Light Fair meaning that three distinct design forums coexist, all with a strong sense of inherent Scandinavian design values.

Scandinavian design is synonymous with wood, simple forms and pale colors. This year the exhibitors impressed with plenty of sustainable design and bountiful considered color.  Wood, so synonymous with Scandinavian design featured heavily.  As one would expect, much of it was pale but it was also mixed with metal, marble and plenty of acoustic softening wool. 

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The Reed Harris team put together some beautiful palettes for the Spirit of Summer Fair to help take away some of the fear when using colour. It’s a wonderful resource and very easy to use.

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Stockholmsmässan’s 70,000 square meters were full to bursting point with the latest product launches within interior design and lighting for both homes and public spaces at Stockholm Furniture Fair and Northern Light Fair. Over 700 exhibitors from 32 countries, although the vast majority were Scandinavian, attended the 65th edition of this influential design show.

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Milan Design Week is a FOMO nightmare, if you are that way inclined. It’s hard to avert your eyes from the fantastic things that people are posting on Instagram and Twitter. Harder still not to ask where the venue/product is and threaten to squeeze it into your already packed schedule.

At the centre of Milan Design Week is Salone del Mobile, this year in its 55th edition, where anybody who has anything to do with furniture or interiors descends upon the fairgrounds.

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The 7th edition of the annual Paris Deco Off (http://www.paris-deco-off.com) exhibition did not disappoint. This year saw a record 106 showrooms and galleries take part in this growing parallel show to the January edition of Paris Maison & Objet (http://www.maison-objet.com/en/paris).

The annual five-day showcase for luxury design and decoration brands saw international interiors editors, buyers and designers descend on the showrooms and galleries to view the latest new releases in textiles, trimmings, lighting as well as paint, floor and wall coverings. As always these environments delighted through their innovative, colourful and often flamboyant displays.

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It’s been a busy couple of weeks in London with London Design Festival (http://www.londondesignfestival.com) overlapping with London Fashion Week, the London Festival of Film  and the start of the “art season” that includes LAPADA  and Frieze art.  Maybe because of this the blurring of the boundaries of the London Design Festival seems on the rise. In a packed schedule of events, almost 400 in total, there were projects on display that crossed a multitude of disciples – architecture, art, film, fashion and much much more. Historically the London Design Festival has been centered around furniture design and whilst there are still destination shows in the Festival that heavily feature furniture it’s far from the cornerstone of the schedule. Extraordinary installations, events and pop ups with impeccable art direction and a huge dose of conceptual thinking thrown in are now the draw for those in the know.

Now that the 13th annual London Design Festival has closed up shop for another year it’s a good time to reflect on what really were the highlights.

The V&A Museum has always been a heavyweight player in the Festival and this year it delivered some un-missable installations.  Highlights included the impressive 3,000 porcelain shops that formed the Tower of Babel. For the past two years, artist Barnaby Barford has cycled around London, taking photographs of London's shops.  The photos were then made into small bone china ornaments, which have been built into a 20ft-high (6.5m) tower. The shops ranged from iconic London landmarks like Fortnum and Mason’s to derelict high street stores.  All the shops are for sale and available after the tower has been dismantled.

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The bi-annual Paris Maison & Objet has just closed its doors on another successful exhibition. The September 2015 edition of Maison had 8 halls packed with product and elaborate stands showcasing the new and the best of European and International homewares, furniture, accessories, textiles and lighting.

While the MAISON&OBJET Observatoire de la Maison showcased a Precious theme the exhibitors seemed to have kept to simpler forms and less extravagant details. Metal and wood were still dominant materials used in simplified forms although there is growing utilization of leather for details such as straps, pulls and hooks. It was also awash with shades of blue, from light to dark, bold green and pinks. After the big bang celebrations of the 20th Anniversary January edition, the September showing seemed an altogether quieter affair. The larger high-end furnishing companies were fewer on the ground than at the January edition of Maison with many more accessory, tabletop and home décor collections being represented across the halls this weekend.  

The Scandinavian design houses were out in force though, showcasing many new to market products. French designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have created the Pallissade range of outdoor seating for Danish brand Hay with slatted seats in powder-coated steel; its spare form will be available from early 2016.  The Palette table by Jaime Hayon for &tradition was a wonderfully considered collaboration and creating quite a buzz with its utilization of metal, marble and wood in differing sizes and shapes. Expect to see it cropping up in design magazines near you shortly. The design duo Space Cophenhagen designed their first table collection for Gubi, the Moon collection in oak includes both coffee table and generous dining table options.  Danish design company by Lassen reissued the Flemming Lassen designed easy chair, The Tired Man, in new colourways, the chair was originally designed for The Copenhagen Cabinetmakers’ Guild Competition in 1935.

Of the established accessories brands Danish Ferm Living showed clean modernist lines and subtle textural finishes. While the 175 year old Kähler Design has collaborated with illustrator and product designer Anders Arhøj to launch a range of beautiful sculptural ceramics with a dense colourful glaze.

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Maison & Objet in Paris has always been a major fixture on our design calendar and in it’s 20th year it continued to offer up the means to view a large number of new releases from small and large companies from across Europe and beyond, encompassing fabric/surface design, furniture, kitchenware, table top and gift items.

There was a stunning installation by lighting brand Blackbody Light by Design that develop and produce OLED lighting solution on a tailor-made or large-scale level.

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This January was the 20th anniversary of the legendary Paris Maison & Objet exhibition. In the vast hangar like space of the Parc d’Exposition there were 8 halls of interiors products and surface finishes. From ethnic chic to the latest cutting edge design, Maison & Objet has something to suit everyone’s style aesthetic.

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Maison & Objet is one of the most important international design and decoration events in the professional calendar. The bi-annual design show (January and September) allows distributors, hoteliers, interiors designer and architects to discover the latest collections by small designers and the major brands.

As always there was a lot to see and M&O’s design theme of Singularity is a poignant one; about wanting to go against the grain of “the same for all everywhere”.  There were two key areas where this was felt strongly – in the Obsessions Privées exhibition by Elizabeth Leriche and Craft, l’espace métiers d’art where items were one of a kind.

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“Handles were like jewelry on the units of TM Italia’s new Miuccia kitchen design,” said Mary Middleton. “The precious rose copper handles, sled feet and taps sparkle against the midnight blue neo-déco units. Copper is a spot-on trend for 2016 and works particularly well with darker units in blue, black and gray.”  

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I’ve always had a soft spot for painted kitchens as they really offer longevity in my opinion, because when you’ve gone off that perfect “of the moment” colour you can repaint the cabinets and give your kitchen a whole new lease of life. Especially if you change up the hardware and maybe the backsplashes too. This bespoke kitchen is masquerading it’s modern technology behind traditional hand painted cabinetry. It’s making a really contemporary statement though with the inky dark paint choice, painted in Off Black by Farrow & Ball. 

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