Clerkenwell Design Week 2025: Highlights from Rap Interiors’ Visit

As a leading commercial interior design and fit out company, staying ahead of emerging trends and innovations is essential to how we shape the spaces we create. That’s why Rap Interiors was excited to attend Clerkenwell Design Week 2025 — one of the UK’s most celebrated design festivals and a key date in the industry calendar.

Our team spent a couple of days immersed in a vibrant showcase of cutting-edge products, inspiring installations, and insightful talks from the forefront of the interior design world. From sustainable materials and smart workspace solutions to bold aesthetics and future-forward furniture, the event offered a wealth of ideas to energise our creative process.

In this blog, we share some of our standout highlights from Clerkenwell Design Week — moments that not only inspired us but will also help inform and elevate our future projects for clients across the commercial sector.

Preserved Meadows

A definite favourite of ours was seeing the biophilia trend taken to a new level, with preserved grasses and wildflowers beautifully integrated into furniture planters. This striking aesthetic was showcased by several suppliers, including JDD, Morgan, and Innerspace Cheshire.

Innerspace Cheshire’s product, Prairie, features stunning combinations of grasses, reeds, ferns, and wheat, creatively incorporated into planter tops on banquette seating and set within Roam, a modular upholstered planter. The use of preserved natural elements offers a fresh take on biophilic design in the workspace. The soft, delicate textures not only enhance visual appeal but also bring a calming atmosphere to the environment.

While we’re on the subject of Innerspace Cheshire, we were also captivated by their new product, Spheres, suspended preserved foliage — a unique and eye-catching focal point that adds a sense of organic beauty and elegance to any space.

Awe Inspiring Spaces

It was a wonderful experience to revisit two of our firm favourite venues. The spaces and their locations play a significant role in shaping the visitor experience and enhancing how the products are displayed. We’ll never forget Old Sessions House and St James’ Church—two stunning venues that provided an awe-inspiring backdrop for showcasing exquisite furniture and design pieces.

Old Sessions House, a striking Grade II listed building, was home to a curated selection of furniture, lighting, and soft furnishing brands. The building’s historic architecture — with its grand staircases, domed ceilings, and crown glass windows — created a breath-taking setting and an experience that will stay with us for years to come. The sensitive refurbishment has preserved many original features and retained raw, unfinished surfaces, adding texture and character that reflect the building’s rich history and soul.

St James’ Church offered a similarly grand and historic atmosphere, with original stained glass windows and ornate architectural details contributing to a dramatic and memorable space. The venue hosted the British Collection, which showcased innovative designs emerging from across the UK. Thoughtfully curated, the display featured individual furniture pieces staged above the pews, allowing visitors to admire each item as they walked the central aisle. The warm wood tones and neutral fabrics harmonised beautifully with the church’s interior, enhancing the overall experience.

Pledge Showroom

Pledge is a furniture brand we know well and have specified in our projects for many years, so when we heard they had moved to a new showroom, we couldn’t miss the chance to stop by and say hello. We’re glad we did — we were truly impressed by their refreshed look and the overall aesthetic of their brand, image, and product range.

The thoughtful combination of fabric choices and colour palettes conveyed a modern, sophisticated style with subtle influences from the hospitality sector, perfect inspiration for our upcoming office fit out projects. Each room set felt inviting and luxurious, while the more formal office spaces were sleek, professional, and highly functional — striking a perfect balance between elegance and practicality.

Children and Education Focus

With education projects forming a core part of our design and refurbishment work, our interior designers were particularly excited to discover a range of innovative products at Clerkenwell Design Week that would be ideal for the learning environments we create.

• MagScapes – Magscapes’ magnetic products include wall coverings, paints, and trims that open up a world of creative possibilities for educational settings. Their whiteboard and chalkboard finishes can be written on and used with magnets to pin up pictures and notices. These versatile solutions allow teachers to diversify their teaching methods, creating interactive and engaging learning environments that go far beyond traditional desk-based learning.
• Fuxo Chair – Designed by Alba, the Fuxo Chair is available in a child-friendly version that features adjustable backrest, seat height, and armrests. This flexibility allows the chair to grow with the child, offering excellent longevity and making it a smart investment. Bright fabric options also give the chair a fun, playful aesthetic — perfect for educational spaces.
• SA Möbler – This charming child’s desk and upholstered chair from SA Möbler stopped us in our tracks while exploring the Project venue at CDW. With its atrtractive design, vibrant colours, and compact size, it’s an excellent choice where space is limited, without compromising on style or comfort. The Swedish company also boasts strong sustainability credentials and offers customisable options.
• Smiles Swivel Castor – These characterful castors bring the fun factor to any children’s setting. Their function allows spaces to be flexible and easily reconfigured with moveable furniture — ideal for dynamic learning environments.

Mias

Our long-standing furniture partner, Nott Office, is now the exclusive UK supplier of the Czech furniture brand, Mias. To mark this exciting new partnership, they launched their brand-new London showroom just in time for Clerkenwell Design Week — introducing Mias products to the UK market for the first time.

This milestone is the result of many years of hard work and strategic planning by the Nott Office team, and we’re incredibly proud of their achievement. We were delighted to visit their new showroom and explore some of their office furniture range.

We were particularly impressed by the integrated TV feature within their bespoke reception desks, their smart locker systems, as well as the elegant muted tones offered in their laminate furniture finishes. We’re excited to begin specifying some of these innovative products in our upcoming office refurbishment projects.

Sustainability Ethos

Ultrafabrics is a company with sustainability woven into every thread of its mission. When we visited their stand, we were inspired to learn how seriously they take waste reduction—repurposing all their offcuts into stylish key rings and card wallets. It’s a small but powerful example of how thoughtful design can meet responsible manufacturing.

Have You Been Inspired by our Clerkenwell Design Week Visit?

Clerkenwell Design Week 2025 was a fantastic source of inspiration for the Rap Interiors team. From innovative biophilic design and standout educational furniture to exciting new suppliers and long-time partner collaborations, the event offered fresh ideas we’re eager to bring into our future projects.

If you’re planning a fit out or design project and want to incorporate the latest trends, sustainable solutions, and expertly sourced products — we’d love to help.  Get in touch today with a member of our team by completing the form below or giving us a call on 01622 663232.