DesignEX 2010 Melbourne

This year as well as last year, Essence has travelled over east to attend the Melbourne Annual Designex and Furnitex exhibitions held in July. Many exhibitors in two Convention halls gather to show their products to the nation's industry visitors from the Interiors Industry and it is not open to the general Public.

This year's Furnitex was even better than last with the stand out exhibitors being Elite Furniture, Globe West, Ruby Star Traders, Hermon and Hermon, Cafe Lighting, Bloomingdales, Gallery in Motion, Designer Boys art, Something Swish, Lemongrass and of course Madras Link.

Some of the photos show the lovely designs and colours in products shown at the exhibition and there was a lot to learn from the experts at the seminar series held in the auditorium. This year Essence attended "the future trends in Colour by Mix Publishing" sponsored by House and Garden Magazine and "Lighting; the way forward", a seminar about the future world of lighting.

Both these seminars were so exciting, informative and were a all about where colour, texture and lighting trends are taking us and how we can apply these. We learned that the future of lighting is in LED lights, compact fluros and low wattage lighting that takes less power to run. Lights and their ability to illuminate in an 'earth friendly' way, so that our environment will thank us. We even heard a whisper about a new amazing product that, whilst still in the design phase, when applied to walls as a paint product, will absorb the uv rays and light, during the daylight hours, releasing a luminous glow of light after dark! Wow! What a great idea? A glowing wall! 'Glow walls' are yet to hit the market- but look out for it- soon it will be everywhere!

On the final day of the Show, many stands are able to sell off their stock rather than pack it up - so if you are a savvy bargain -hunter -interior stylist like me- You can grab a bargain or two, or three.............all at wholesale prices.

My purchases at the show sale, were two fabulous 'Designer Boys' artworks featuring mother of pearl buttons and tiny beads sewn into a pattern on raw silk and framed under glass with beautiful gilt frames for my new house. Also some lovely bright red and chrome decorative bowls that jumped right out at me with their vibrancy, when I passed The Lemongrass stand, and a set of gorgeous Yak hair calligraphy brushes from China on a wooden carved stand, each one decorated with carved handles Or handle made of Jade, Coral, beads and stone.

Not that I would ever use them to do Calligraphy, but these gorgeous objects are a unique Conversation starter and curious collectable that I simply HAD TO HAVE!! Besides, they make great dusters!! Only kidding!

Thats all from the Melbourne Furnitex and Design Ex shows until next July 2011.