Nature came handmade at this year’s PAD London outing

At PAD London 2026, nature was more than a source of visual inspiration. In many cases it provided the materials used by this year’s designers on show: salvaged timber, bleached wood, hand-built ceramics and surfaces that recalled shell and rock formations. Designers seemed drawn to the irregularities of the natural world, crafting pieces that resist uniformity and invite us to rethink the relationship we have with the objects we live with.

Many designs were completely handmade - with imperfections we should celebrate in our digital world. Beautiful and conceptual, they echoed the natural world. Yet what happens when we bring such objects into our homes?

At Gallery FUMI, the Armadillo series by Lukas Wegwerth and Corinna Dehn offered insight into this question. Cabinets and chairs were clad in wooden shingles collected from old barns and houses in Germany’s Vogelsberg region. Each piece was sanded, stained with natural pigments and assembled by hand, forming a textured exterior that recalls an animal’s scales or the shell of an armadillo.

The result was a piece that felt very familiar. The overlapping shingles gave the furniture an organic rhythm and the muted tones brought warmth to a room. These were sculptural pieces, but they didn’t feel remote or untouchable. Their tactile surfaces and irregular forms encouraged you to interact with them. In a home, a cabinet with such a layered history, made from recycled woods and made entirely by the hands of two artisans gives a room character, reminding us that furniture can be more than functional but something that carries history.

At Sarah Myerscough, a gallery known for its focus on contemporary craft and material-led design, works drew out the unexpected qualities of wood. Woodturner Eleanor Lakelin’s Hypha was a highlight. Lakelin often works with bleached timber, transforming a familiar material into something totally unique and otherworldly. The surface of this wall piece appeared almost microscopic, like branching structures of fungi or growth patterns found in nature. It was a reminder of how closely an artist’s handiwork can echo processes that happen without human intervention.

Ceramicist Luke Fuller offered another interpretation of the natural form at Sarah Myerscough’s booth. His sculptural vessels took their cues from the textures and compositions of rock, built up through layers that gave each piece its own distinctive surface. They sat somewhere between vessel and sculpture, with a substantial, grounding presence. In a domestic setting, a work like this could bring a welcome sense of permanence to a room, connecting contemporary interiors to the deeper material histories of the earth.

Pushing material experimentation further was Spanish designer Nacho Carbonell at Carpenters Workshop Gallery. His Delicacy table brought together cork, sand and fish scales suspended in resin, recalling the debris and textures of the Mediterranean seabed. The metal frame continued the suggestion of fishing nets, while the ceramic-concrete echoed the coral and rock of the seabed. The table was part furniture and part landscape, an imaginative piece that transformed discarded and unexpected materials into something functional and sculptural.

Together, the finest works showcased at PAD encouraged us to reconsider our surroundings. The impression of an artist's hand, the irregularities, asymmetry and tactile materials brought a different kind of energy into the home. Rather than disappearing into an interior, they asked to be noticed, touched and lived with. The natural influences didn't merely bring about a desirable aesthetic but a renewed appreciation for objects with a story - and for the human hand that makes them.

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