The Design Barometer for July — What's on the Rise This Month

a revolving gif of interiors, a canal boat, a green tile, the exterior of a mansion, and a table lamp in a shadowy place — (Image credit: Liberty / badweather / Granby Workshop / RH London / Fritz Hansen)

It's been a hot, hot month so far, but rather obsessing on the temperature outside, let's focus on what's hot in design right now.

The Zeitgeist Edit is my monthly round-up of the stories and moments that have arrived in my inbox or captured the imagination of the wider design culture for July. This month, we've got new, spectacular openings, collaborations, sustainable innovations, and even a cool take on the biggest wellness trend right now.

So, let's dive into the moments that are setting the tone for July.

↑ Going Up — Modular Seats Outdoors

an outdoor armchair surrounded by cacti in a greenhouse — Saba's newest campaign imagines its outdoor Oasi range in a beautiful public garden in southern Italy.

Sitting in your garden often comes with a side-effect — always a feeling of being perched, temporarily, rather than as 'settled' as you feel inside the house. That's because generally garden furniture, even if comfortable, isn't designed the same way a deep, relaxing sofa for your living room is.

Saba's Oasi, an outdoor furniture range designed by Robin Rizzini and launched during the latest Milan Design Week, is one of those designs that changes the feeling of an outdoor space. Organic, modular, and like a proper sofa, it's a design that changes the dynamic of your home's exterior.

I also can't help but love these photographs, captured by Piorgiorgio Sorgetti at Puglia's Giardino Botanico La Cutura.

↑ Going Up — Twists on Tradition

a sofa upholstered in a green liberty print — This classic Cassina Maralunga sofa takes on a new life in Liberty's Shadow Stripe Weave fabric.

When you think of heritage fabric brands, Liberty probably tops the list. But while it's a brand that preserves its history, it's also one not afraid of a little reinvention. Take, for example, its collaboration with Vinterior, which launched this month.

The curated edit of six one-of-a-kind furniture pieces, sourced through Vinterior and reupholstered in fabrics selected by Liberty, brings these classic patterns to more unexpected (yet no less classic) furniture silhouettes, proving that 2026's take on timelessness is about mixing eras fluently.

↑ Going Up — Light and Sound

a turn table and lamp on a green surface — This limited edition collection in a deep burgundy sees a reissue of a Bauhaus era lamp designed by Christian Dell.

I love a collaboration that brings together two areas of design that don't always co-exist. Our home's relationship to sound and music is often pre-dictated by the sort of design tech brands prioritize (though, of course, there are lots of beautiful examples of designer-led tech collaborations, too).

For Copenhagen's 3 Days of Design this year, furniture brand Fritz Hansen teamed up with Hi:Fi audio brand Technics for a collaboration highlighting two products, paired for their natural relationship between light and sound.

Together, Fritz Hansen's KAISER idell™ Luxus 6631-T and the Technics SL-40CB, finished in the same oxblood red color, set the ambience for a room.

↑ Going Up — Unexpected Saunas

a sauna on a canal barge — Image credit: Kaye Song. Design: Badweather

Pop-up saunas are the wellness trend of the moment — every up-market coastal town has them on its seafront, while Brighton even held its first 'sauna festival' in May this year. However, if the view from your window is more canals and waterways than it is pebble beaches, there's a pop-up that's arrived just for you.

SOAK is a traveling, off-grid bathhouse, finding a home in a 56-foot canal boat. With a sauna, cold plunge, and social space (saunas are the new pub, if you didn't know), it's a solar-powered retreat, designed by architecture studio badweather as a series of connected sensory spaces.

The boat is based in London, and moors at a different location every two weeks.

↑ Going Up — RH Comes to Mayfair

the dining room at rh london in mayfair, with large columns, chandeliers, and a gold-leaf ceiling — Whether you're shopping for a home, or looking for somewhere elegant to eat, RH London is a spectacle worth seeing.

When RH opened its first outpost in England back in 2023, it was hard not to be impressed. The US brand took over historic Ayhno Park, bringing its modern, elegant style to the house in a way that somehow managed to feel equally respectful of the property's legacy as much as a showcase of its own designs.

However, for Londoners, it's a bit of a trek out to the Cotswolds, and this month saw the opening of RH London, the Gallery in Mayfair. Again, it's taking a role in preserving an historic building — this time one of the last surviving Palladian mansions in London.

Again, it's a spectacle, especially if you're looking to dine there. The glass birdcages by Anouska Hempel and the gold-leaf-ceilinged dining room are particularly glitzy highlights.

↓ Going Down — Unethical Color

a bright green speckled tile in a hand — These tiles are created using a process that's half as energy intensive as traditional ceramic.

Those brightly colored ceramic tiles you've fallen in love with? Well, often they require the use of materials with questionable ethics. The likes of cobalt, cadmium, lead, and rare earth minerals each have supply chain issues related to health and sustainability, making them less suited to a truly sustainable home.

However, for this new, colorful tile collection, just launched by Liverpool-based Granby Workshop, Dr Lewis Jones of Matter at Hand has worked with the ceramic makers to find an alternative approach, using more common metals.

The hand-glazed collection also uses a process known as devitrification, which transforms glass waste into durable ceramic, with this soft, organic pattern on the surface. This sustainable material trend uses half the energy of traditional ceramic firing, but results in tiles as strong as porcelain stoneware.

↓ Going Down — Basic Outdoor Taps

an outdoor kitchen in a mediterranean garden with an olive tree — These faucets can bring new functionality to outdoor spaces.

Any luxury garden these days, even in the UK, will have an outdoor kitchen, and many of the elements making up these al fresco cooking spaces have evolved to become ever more stylish and less outdoorsy in recent years.

The outdoor kitchen tap is no exception, and while outdoor taps used to mean choosing a simple, basic garden spigot, the faucets of today are just as good-looking as the ones you find indoors, and just as feature-packed.

Take Wodar's Design+ Pro-Pull boiling water tap for example, which the brand recommends for outdoor use, and, with the right plumbing and electric setup, can be used to bring boiling, filtered, sparkling, and chilled water to outdoor kitchen spaces.

We're already halfway through July, and the summer (often considered a bit of a desert for cool design moments) feels alive with ideas this year.

If you've missed any of them, then look to Livingetc's ICYMI feature, which chronicles the best new launches and finds for the previous month, and sign up to the Livingetc newsletter, so you never miss a moment.

Hugh is Livingetc.com’s editor. With 10 years in the interiors industry under his belt, he has the nose for what people want to know about re-decorating their homes. He prides himself as an expert trend forecaster, visiting design fairs, showrooms and keeping an eye out for emerging designers to hone his eye. He joined Livingetc back in 2022. Hugh has previously spent time as an editor for a kitchen and bathroom magazine, and has written for “hands-on” home brands such as Homebuilding & Renovating and Grand Designs magazine, so his knowledge of what it takes to create a home goes beyond the surface, too. Though not a trained interior designer, Hugh has managed several major interior design projects to date, each for private clients. He's also a keen DIYer.