Decorex Cape Town is the kind of event that rewards going in with a plan. Four days, hundreds of brands and a programme dense enough that wandering without direction means missing the parts worth seeing. This year’s edition at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) runs from June 25 to 28, and the line-up suggests visitors will be inclined to stay longer than usual.
Here’s what to look out for.
The installations
The exhibition’s most compelling offering has always been its designer-led installations, and 2026 delivers on that front. Ten x Ten brings together 100 design objects from across Africa and beyond, tracing the connections between makers, materials and cultures in a format that rewards slow looking rather than quick browsing. Nearby, 100% Local keeps the focus where it belongs at an African design exhibition: on the makers, materials and ideas emerging from this continent.
FloodLight, created in collaboration with acclaimed lighting designer Martin Döller, makes the case for light as a design material in its own right. Some installations at a design show leave you thinking differently about your own home. FloodLight is likely to be one of them.
The Lexus presence
The Lexus Recharge Garage, designed by interior and product designer Tshepo Sealetsa, is built around stillness rather than spectacle: neutral tones, gentle lighting and refined textures that translate the Lexus RZ 450e’s sense of flow into a spatial experience. Rather than centering the vehicle, Sealetsa has built an environment that communicates the same values through material and atmosphere alone.
The Lexus VIP lounge is available exclusively to guests of the Lexus concierge service.
The Soft Life Kitchen and Design Pods
In Moments of Attention with Woolworths, the Soft Life Kitchen by NUMU and the Soft Life Design Pods by Arcpop, Styleast, Karoo Baba and Constantia Fabrics, the focus is on domesticity: material choice, tactility and spatial arrangement brought together in an intimate, considered way. For anyone renovating or furnishing a home, this is the section most likely to generate ideas that translate directly into real decisions.
The programming
The talks and workshops are worth building time around. Future Talks, presented by Oggie, brings leading voices in interiors, architecture, craft and materials together across all four days, with attendees able to earn two CPD points. The @home Cooking Studio, built by Sprung Outdoor and featuring chefs Zola Nene and Lerato Maleswena, demonstrates how thoughtful kitchen design functions in practice rather than simply in theory.
The Discovery Bank DIY Studio opens the floor to practical building and making sessions with hands-on guidance, insights from interior designer Bridget Meier on current home décor trends, and advice from Angela Glover of Discovery Home Loans on financing renovations and home projects.
For those who prefer to leave with something tangible, the Capitec Design Market brings independent makers, small studios and established brands together in a format designed for serious design shoppers.
The practical details
Decorex Cape Town runs from June 25 to 28 at the CTICC. Doors open at 10am and close at 6pm daily. Tickets are available online at register.decorex.co.za/cape-town and at the door.
Adult tickets are R150 online and R160 on site. Pensioners and students pay R120. Children between 12 and 16 pay R50. Under 12s enter free. VIP tickets are R400.
For those who cannot make Cape Town, Decorex Joburg follows at the Sandton Convention Centre from July 30 to August 2.
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