Interior decorators were out in force at London Design Week 2012

Some people might say working on a Sunday is pretty grim but I’ve never minded using the so-called “day of rest” to go to the big trade shows. It’s the day they open, which gives the whole business a frisson of excitement, and you get a chance to steal a march on tardier pursuers of news and views.

Thus it was that a balmy spring Sunday found me in a sun-drenched Chelsea Harbour surrounded by the rites of decorating. They do things very well here, from the huge pink lampshade outside to the giant underwater mobiles. I wasn’t quite sure about the shoals of black fish, but loved an ariel view from the gallery, showing design devotees dining off pink tablecloths (London Design Week is at Chelsea Harbour, Lots Road, SW10 until Friday 16 March; www.dcch.co.uk)

The place oozes atmosphere, and the interior decorators were indeed out in force, busy rifling through the racks of new designs, dutifully scribbling notes with the pencils that are so plentifully supplied for that very purpose. I took along Milly, my eldest granddaughter, who is in her final year of architecture at Lincoln, and has always loved colour and pattern, which we found in abundance.

It’s lovely meeting old friends from the trade, and making new ones. Liz Cann, design director of Zoffany and Sanderson was introducing a new collection based on Elizabethan wall-paintings. Artist Melissa Whyte, whose work this was, was also there to launch the impressively heavy pattern book.

It was also fun to see Brian Yates and Sheila Coombes, and to show Milly the Zaha Hadid wallpaper collection, along with other designs by Italian architects. It was interesting to see these strong abstract designs with a new take on pattern that is geometric rather than floral.

Anthony Ferringo provided a welcome pit-stop, with a quick run-through of key brands: Colefax and Fowler (the decorators’ decorators), Jane Churchill (so pretty), Manuel Canovas (c’est chic alors) and Larsen. I photographed Jack Lenor Larsen once at Chelsea Harbour years ago – he is the ace of cool.

Chief executive Richard Chilcott was over from the States and celebrating J.Robert Scott’s 40th anniversary – he posed for a picture with international sales director Margarite Zouppas, against a woven fabric where the pattern is digitally printed onto the warp and weft, for amazing clarity and depth.

The Americans really excel at high-class decorating products for the top end of “the trade”. After all, according to the New Yorker, “interior design as a profession was invented by the American decorator/actress Elsie de Wolfe”, who in 1913 published The House in Good Taste, and later, on seeing the Parthenon, enthused: “Beige! My colour!”

Apparently, Elsie hated Victoriana, so would not have been happy at Watts of Westminster (with its impressive background of Victorian ecclesiastical design), where director Fiona Flint enthusiastically showed us her imagery of new designs photographed in a church. “It was the obvious place,” she laughed, “but I never really dared before.” The church – Abbey Dore in Herefordshire – was perfect for Watts’s unique blend of heavy pattern, large, strong motifs, and rich colour.

I am delighted the furniture emporium Chaplins – so dear and yet so far in Hatch End – now has a style outpost in Chelsea Harbour. So sad to hear that Jimmy Chaplin, the man originally behind it all, passed away a few weeks ago. Now son Simon continues a great tradition for selling top brands in modern furniture, sourced from all over the world and presented with elegance and elan. Their website at www.chaplins.co.uk is one of the best web catalogues there is.

Design Centre Chelsea Harbour provide free transport back and forth from Sloane Square twice a year, for people attending their events, and this year had laid on Land Rover cars, lined with so much leather you could actually smell the hide.

Later on in the week, after lunching with John Lewis near their head office on Victoria Street, I was intrigued to see a sign outside Westminster Cathedral that said you could take a lift to the top of their wonderful tower (otherwise apparently it’s 303 steps).

This must be the best value in town: £3 for a stunning 360 degree view, with charming signs to explain landmarks. I was there on my own, allowed to linger as long as I liked, simply ringing a bell to summon the lift down.

Talking of John Lewis, my hot news is that they will be soon stocking the Love London range of products based on my photographs (www.lovelondon.uk.com).

* Photographs by me. Follow me on twitter: @sunnyholt