Highlights from the world of materials at this year's Paris Design Week

Paris Design Week kicks off this week, a 10-day celebration of design and creativity, bringing the very essence of Maison & Object into the heart of the City of Light.

More than 200 venues are taking part in the biannual event, including showrooms, boutiques, galleries, ateliers, restaurants and cultural institutions, each housing an exclusive event. As there's always so much to explore, we at Material Source have handpicked a few highlights, focusing on the very materials that we use for our projects and designs, so you don't miss anything during your September trip to Paris.

Kicking things off nicely, Salon H will house Guéridon Mania, an exhibition by design duo Nicolas Jandrot and Florence Tajan, which proposes many interpretations of the pedestal table, a piece of furniture with an ancient history by reappropriating the most common pedestal table: a central foot with a circular tray. The tandem developed this principle and designed, with flair, a meeting of noble materials.

THG Paris will give carte blanche to the renowned Parisian designer, creative force and interiors extraordinaire, Stéphanie Coutas to transform its showroom at 152 Boulevard with a homage to the city’s elegance, creativity and sophistication.

Drawing on the launch of their recent collaboration together, Montaigne, Stéphanie and THG Paris will combine a love of fine materials and the desire for exceptional design to unveil their ultimate project together: a styled bathroom concept that is part sophisticated living room, part elegant boudoir. Inspired by the French joie-de-vivre, the stylised showroom will embody a sense of chic Parisian elegance.

In the showroom of Spanish brand Porcelanosa, in Rue du Bac, materials are gauged against one another. Natural stone, vinyl tiles, on the floor or on a façade: the possibilities are endless. In the kitchen, the bathroom or in the streets, claddings can be either natural or high-tech. Fully vitrified porcelain stoneware or Krion® basins, these highly technical, yet accessible solutions are the result of more than 45 years' experience and research.

This year, during Paris Design Week, Porcelanosa France will celebrate its 30-year anniversary, giving you the chance to rediscover a broad range of innovative materials and solutions in its Rue du Bac showroom, in the heart of the capital’s design hub.

Founded two years ago by Cécile Princ, Nûr Gallery Paris, in Rue de Savoie, falls somewhere between an atelier, a gallery and a boutique, blurring the lines between crafts and design.

Objects on display include a wide choice of materials used in unique ways. Linen, stone, terracotta, glass, paper, ink and colours come together in a gentle and delicate combination guided by local, contemporary and quality craftsmanship. Silhouettes materialise in Indian ink on cotton, velvet is paired with woven linen. Inside or outside the box, explore variety through the collections of Oxymore Paris and Ytl.Yentele.

On show during Paris Design Week is Elitis, a designer and manufacturer of wallpaper since 1988, which has chosen to express its creativity on the gallery's walls. Each collection is the result of research on the material’s aesthetic potential – for its 2018 collection, Elitis drew its inspiration from the city, the streets and urban environments in general. Expect unexpected décors sculpted from wood, mother-of-pearl, leather, mohair, seashells, using a colour palette evocative of Paris.

Those of you who like blue and, more specifically, RAL 5013, will need to visit the Tarkett showroom in Rue Saintonge, which will be exceptionally open to the public.

During Paris Design Week, Tarkett is launching iD Supernature, a new collection of decorative vinyl planks and tiles printed with natural wood and stone effects, covered with subtle, graphical "tattoo" motifs.

To discover more of what's happening at Paris Design Week, visit maison-objet.com. The biannual event launches on Thursday 6 September and runs until 15 September 2018.