A few bright-eyed and bushy-tailed SiD-goers were out early on Saturday, lining up even before the showrooms opened in cosy Levey Street. They were followed shortly after by busloads of eager visitors. Corporate Culture and Designer Rugs welcomed the crowd with breakfast pastries and piping hot coffee.

Inside, all our favourite brands from Corporate Culture were out in force – it was hard to know where to look. Visitors had a chance to get up close and personal with the new and much-talked-about Favn sofa by Jaime Hayon for Fritz Hansen.

International guest Rolf Hay was in attendance to meet and greet star-struck SiD-goers and to talk about new designs from Hay including the ’About a Chair’ collection.

In the back of the showroom, Designer Rugs showcased rugs from the Evolve competition, and also celebrated their 25-year anniversary with a photo wall featuring the inspirational designers who have collaborated with Designer Rugs over the years.

Down the street, HASSELL and UNSW Interior Architecture students created an overgrowing vine with leaves from the Yellow Pages for The Project, leading visitors all the way through the three-storey building which housed Envoy, Tapetti and Viabizzuno.

Envoy showed us their new Turkish Koleksiyon range for the home and commercial office, characterised by its beautiful timber detailing.

Tapetti Fine Hand-Crafted Rugs created an installation with their custom designed collection. ’Projected Landscape’ and ’In Perpetuum’ were artfully arranged on the floor and the wall respectively – a concept depicting the tenuous relationship between our natural resources and human development in the built environment.

Upstairs, you could’ve mistaken the Viabizzuno showroom for an art gallery, with its black stained floor, their newly launched lighting products displayed on white plinths like sculptures, and even film art projected onto the wall. The zig-zagging green landscape – The Project by Tonka Andjelkovic – rests on a mirrored floor was the centrepiece of the showroom.

Around the corner in Myrtle Street, Insitu Furniture created a winter garden with the Lebello outdoor range, and visitors got a first hand look at the fine woodcraft of the Zeitrum range. A subtle black curtain of threads designed by UTS and Smith Design Studio for The Project connects the outdoor and indoor spaces.

If you were feeling a bit sore from all the walking by this time, you would have stopped by Argent, where they were offering free massages amidst the gleaming new products dotted through the showroom including the new Bette steel basin and bathtub.

Next door at Thonet, we were taken on a tour of their European factory via a video projection on the back wall and the industrial aesthetic leapt off the screen with unvarnished No.18 chairs hung from the ceiling and pieces on the floor.

A short walk over to Chippen St led us to Thinking Ergonomix and Inlite, where the carnival atmosphere was in full swing with a street performer and a hotdog stand.

Taking centre stage at Thinking Ergonomix was the new Eona table, with a high lacquer timber top, a refreshing departure from the usual white laminate commonly found in office furniture.

At Inlite, a chocolate fountain and a DJ kept the party atmosphere going. A tangle of black elastic cord greeted the visitors off the stairs. The Project installation by Two Studio is a representation of the ’web’ of online specification in architecture and design industry.

Upstairs, we meandered through a maze of white curtains veiling purple lights recycled from the Vivid Festival – a very moody installation and a calm end to our whip around Chippendale.