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The Winter 2024 edition of The Decorative Fair is set to take place from January 23 to 28, 2024 at Battersea Park in London.
The event attracts international designers and collectors who come to browse for inspiration and shop a comprehensive collection of decorative and formal antiques and 20th-century design, furniture, lighting, mirrors, eye-catching one-off accessories, luxurious traditional textiles and a wide variety of art from all periods.
More than 130 dealers gather from around the UK and Europe to show their seasonal selection of pieces. Since 1985 the design trade has flocked to The Decorative Fairs to source the finest choice of unusual and practical English and European antiques, super-stylish 20th century pieces, and a multitude of truly distinctive decorative items that are the making of unique and individual interiors.
The Winter event – there are also Fairs in the Spring (May) and Autumn (October) – offers an unequalled opportunity to buy beautiful antique textiles, large room carpets, interesting smaller rugs, practical runners for hallways, vintage curtains, table linens, and stunning wall-hangings. In recent years, tapestries have enjoyed a renaissance amongst buyers, bringing their storied textures and romantic bygone images to enhance a room. Vibrantly coloured Oushak rugs in shades of persimmom, pomegranate and absinthe are favoured by many decorators for their striking designs that add character to a floor. Block-printed floral cotton lengths are purchased to create bed-hangings on four posters or to drape above and behind beds and sofas as an elegant awning.
The presence of LARTA the London Antique Rug & Textile Art Fair, up on the Mezzanine, immediately doubles the volume of textiles and carpets on offer, making a showcase for fibres hand woven, embroidered and tufted.
Top ten trends right now are antique blue and white china / delftware, old-fashioned but very useful hall chairs, statement lights (wall and ceiling), traditional mahogany side tables, art nouveau glass, classical garden statuary, farmhouse refectory tables, modernist studio ceramics, dressers and small decorative mirrors. Landscape pictures and portraits are also making a comeback among art sales.
The Fair has a lively new brasserie and all-day bar, Bone Idyll, a great spot upstairs for a quick snack or leisurely meal enjoying views over the Park. There’s late night opening until 8pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and the Fair provides a courtesy shuttle bus between the Sloane Square Hotel and the venue that runs four times an hour.
Admission is £20 p/p on Opening Day (Tuesday 23 January) and £10 p/p on subsequent days, tickets can be booked in advance online or paid for on arrival. Free entry from 4pm daily.
