Above: Rug by Jack Teagle

This is the time of year when we start to batten down the hatches. When nights out in Dalston are traded for re-runs of Location, Location, Location and hour long conversations can be held about just how cold and how dark it's suddenly become. So since the great indoors gets all our attention, what could be more perfect than injecting some much-needed colour into the home with some exuberant rugs? Make that the cutting-edge artworks of 11 contemporary artists turned into luxuriously exuberant hand-knotted rugs, assembled into an exhibition by the innovative rug production house Foundation.

Having aptly called it The Rug Addicts, Foundation have challenged the artists to work within the textile medium for the first time, ending up with an array of stunning designs, from the fabulously graphic pop-art of Anthony Burrill and Paul Insect to the surrealistic animal illustrations of Alexone and Jack Teagle. True to their dedication to traditional carpet-weaving craftsmanship, Foundation have produced each design on their looms housed within a 19th century palace in Cairo, with each one-off rug having taken just over a year to create. An additional 20 of each design will be woven as a heritage project here in the UK, making also the work of Pete Fowler, Present, Tomato, Natasha Law (Jude Law’s sister), No Days Off, Si Scott and Yann Brien available to adorn your floors or walls. An overdose of pretty, you won’t need to be sweeping this addiction under the rug.

The collection will be displayed at the Dray Walk Gallery at the Old Truman Brewery from the 2nd to the 6th of November, with a private view on the 1st of November.

Pete Fowler

Coffee tables don’t usually steal the show but then there’s nothing usual about Tesler-Mendelovitch’s geometric wooden coffee tables and stools. Part of the duo’s “Diamond-Woods” series designed for Tel-Aviv-based Talents Design Studio, these objets d’art are crafted from a new flexible wood surface material created by Tesler-Mendelovitch, which is structured into different diamond-like shapes to create an array of unique “stage products,” as the duo call them, just made to play the leading role in any living room or gallery space.

Combining natural fibers with a sleek finish and defined edges, they look as a product of both traditional craft and mathematical precision; and thanks to the integration of African walnut veneer surface, the coffee tables and stools are also lightweight, ready to seamlessly integrate into everyday life use. Especially when it comes to making your guests jealous. You can order them here.

Very aptly named, the new solo exhibition “CRUSH” from design avant-gardes Fredrikson Stallard during London Design Week 2012 certainly promises not to leave you indifferent. The Central St Martins graduates in, respectively, industrial design and ceramics, Patrik Fredrikson and Ian Stallard, who formed their studio in 2003, have become known for their innovative approach towards fusing work done by the hand and the computer, and this showcase perfectly illustrates this synthesis. Coming to David Gill's new gallery space in London's St James's, it will feature a series of low glass unit tables and metal chaises centered on recreating the sensuous form of a crumpled metal sheet.

Using a water polished stainless steel and aluminum sheet, which they have formed by hand, and enclosing it in a glass box, the designers fuse industrial with sensuous forms. Their glass unit tables produced with a variety of crumpled metal sheets in black, gold, and silver and the suede-upholstered metal chaise, also create a playful, deeper dimension by the metal’s tantalizing reflections of surrounding space. Also on show will be a teal version of their iconic piece, the Pyrenees sofa created from Polyurethane Foam, which was acquired by the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2011.

Bringing innovative, mold-breaking design that reflects the new parameters of the digital age, Fredrikson and Stallard certainly make a must-see stop in this year’s design festival.

Maria Dimitrova