By Sandra Jardim, Marketing Director; Decorex Africa

You could scroll through the photographs afterwards.

You could save the posts. Ask your friends what they saw.

But Decorex has always been one of those experiences that is difficult to explain unless you were actually there.

Because the best part isn't simply seeing beautiful things.

It's experiencing them.

Walking into a room and immediately wanting to recreate it at home. Discovering a piece you didn't know existed. Finding a local maker whose work stays with you. Seeing a familiar material used in a completely unexpected way. Sitting down for a coffee and realising you've been talking about kitchens for twenty minutes.

That was Decorex 2026.

Cape Town brought four days of design, creativity and discovery to life, followed by an equally immersive Johannesburg edition that filled five levels of the Sandton Convention Centre. Together, the shows created a remarkable snapshot of how we are thinking about our homes and the way we live now.

Comfort featured strongly. So did individuality.

There were spaces designed to make you stop and look twice, from the Soft Life Design Pods and The Bedroom Project to The Kitchen Project. There were independent makers and design-led brands at the Capitec Design MRKT, emerging creative voices through 100% Fresh, and some of South Africa's most exciting design talent celebrated through 100% Local and 100% Iconic.

And then there were the unexpected moments.

The Lexus Recharge Garage reimagined what a garage could be. Woolworths turned homeware into an immersive experience through Moments of Attention. Ten x Ten brought 100 standout designs together. The Sacred Pause explored our relationship with water. Future Talks offered new perspectives, while cooking, DIY and hands-on creative experiences gave visitors plenty of reasons to stay a little longer. 

The result was a show that didn't ask you to simply look at design.

It invited you to step inside it.

And perhaps that is why the feedback from visitors has been so enthusiastic. One Cape Town visitor summed up the experience perfectly: “one day is not enough to soak it all in.”

We couldn't agree more.

Because somewhere between the inspiration, the beautiful spaces, the new discoveries, the conversations and the things you suddenly started imagining in your own home, Decorex became more than somewhere to go.

It became a place to get excited about design again.

So if you were there this year, thank you for being part of it.

And if you weren't?

We'll give you another chance.