Sample storage solutions for interior design studios

The best sample storage for a design studio is a system, not a piece of furniture: each sample type held in the format that suits its shape, every item carrying a unique reference, and one record that says where it is and who has it. Fabric memos hang or stand upright, small flat pieces go in folders, larger lengths on tubes, and hard materials in shallow labelled drawers or boxes. A written checkout policy then keeps borrowed samples from disappearing between the studio, the client meeting and the site.

This guide is for UK interior designers, architects and contractors who keep their own samples. It covers how to choose formats, how to label and locate, what a checkout policy should say, and what to do when space is the constraint.

TL;DR

• Match the container to the sample: hangers or upright files for fabric memos, folders or shallow boxes for small flat pieces, tubes for larger lengths, drawers for hard finishes.
• Give every sample a unique reference and a location label that follows one hierarchy, such as room, aisle, bay, shelf, container.
• Keep one inventory (supplier, range, colour or finish, source, date) so you can find a sample without handling it.
• Write a short checkout policy: who borrows, for how long, how it is logged and what happens on return.
• If space is tight, keep a working set in the studio and use a trade showroom or materials library for the long tail.

Table of Contents

• Why sample storage goes wrong in studios
• Choose the format by the type of sample
• Label so you can find things without handling them
• Keep the physical library and the digital record in step
• Write a sample checkout policy
• Storage when space is limited
• Technical files belong with the samples
• Our view: a sample library is working infrastructure
• Using Faura’s materials library
• A simple setup you can finish this month
• FAQ
• Sources

Why sample storage goes wrong in studios

Most studios do not set out to build a sample library. It accumulates: a swatch from a rep visit, a stone offcut from a project, a finish board kept “just in case”. Within a year there are carrier bags under a desk, a shelf of unlabelled tiles and three versions of the same linen in different drawers.

The cost is rarely the storage itself. It is the time spent looking for a sample before a client meeting, the duplicate request to a supplier because nobody knows you already hold the item, and the swatch that went to site and never came back. A system fixes those three problems, and it does not need to be elaborate.

We look at the question from the showroom side. A working London base for designers has to hold samples, technical files and a materials library in one place, which means the discipline of labelling, locating and tracking is part of our daily operation. Our journal piece on sample management systems goes into the tracking side in more detail.

Choose the format by the type of sample

Start by sorting what you hold into a handful of physical types. The container follows the shape, not the other way round.

Fabric and textile samples

Fabric is the sample type that most often ends up in piles, and piles cause creasing, crushing and loss. Professional guidance from the UK museums sector on textile storage is a useful model, because collections staff have spent decades solving the same problem at scale. The Museums & Galleries Commission’s illustrated guide to the care of costume and textile collections advises keeping small flat pieces in folders or shallow boxes and larger pieces on suitable tubes, not under piles. It also cautions against overcrowding, unstable conditions and direct contact with acidic packing materials.

For a design studio, that translates into a simple split:

• Frequently used fabric memos: hang them on consistent hangers, or stand them vertically in accessible files, so you can flick through a range the way you would in a showroom.
• Small and medium flat pieces: folders or shallow boxes, grouped by supplier or by project palette depending on how you search.
• Larger cuttings and lengths: roll on tubes rather than folding into drawers. Folds become permanent creases, which matters when a client judges a velvet or a linen by its hand and drape.
• Wallpaper: the same logic applies. Keep small samples flat in folders and larger lengths rolled, not crushed at the bottom of a box.

If you are archiving samples for the long term, use acid-free packaging. For a working library that turns over with projects, the priority is simply that nothing is crushed, damp or in direct light.

Hard materials: stone, tile, timber and veneer

Hard samples are heavy, and weight dictates the furniture. Shallow drawers or low open shelves with dividers work better than deep cabinets, because a deep drawer buries the item at the bottom. Keep stone, ceramic and engineered surfaces together by material family, and store timber and veneer flat so they do not bow.

A practical rule is to keep the heaviest items between knee and shoulder height, and to avoid stacking different finishes on top of each other. Polished stone scratches and some lacquered finishes mark. If a sample has a protective film or a backing paper, leave it on.

For reference on how coatings behave and which finishes are sensitive to handling, our finishes and coatings guide for interior designers is a useful companion.

Three-dimensional pieces and hardware

Handles, taps, switches, small lighting components and mosaic tiles do not suit folders. A textile archive such as the one at Glasgow School of Art uses boxes for three-dimensional pieces and drawers of varying depths, with boxes and drawer fronts labelled so each can be retrieved individually. The same arrangement suits architectural hardware: shallow trays for small items, a few deeper drawers for anything bulky, and a label on every front.

Finish boards and presentation boards

Boards made for a specific scheme should live with the project, not in the general library, until the project closes. Store them upright in a slotted rack, similar to a drawing rack, so you can pull one without disturbing the rest. When the project ends, break the board down: return reusable samples to the library with their references, and discard the rest. Our guide to interior design presentation boards covers how boards are built in the first place.

Label so you can find things without handling them

The point of a label is retrieval without opening, unfolding or rummaging. The textile-care guidance above says secondary labels should allow identification without handling, and that location labels should form a consistent hierarchy such as room, aisle, bay, shelf and container. You can apply this directly to a studio.

A label that works

Every sample, or every container of small samples, should carry:

1. A unique reference. A short code, for example a material prefix and a running number. Never reuse a code.
2. Supplier and range. The name as it appears on the supplier’s price list, so an order can be raised from the label alone.
3. Colour or finish name and the supplier’s own reference. Colourways in a range are easy to confuse.
4. Source and date. Where it came from (rep, showroom, supplier post) and when you received it. Samples go out of date when ranges are discontinued.

That last point follows heritage practice too. ICCROM’s 2025 guidance on heritage sample archives recommends a documented arrangement and a unique identifier, with an inventory recording source, date and a basic description. A design studio is not an archive, but the logic of identifier plus inventory is the same.

Location labels

Decide on a location hierarchy and keep to it. In a small studio it might be cabinet, shelf, box. In a larger one it could be room, bay, shelf, container. Mark the location on the container and on the shelf edge, so a sample can be returned to the right place by someone who did not take it out.

Pick one way of ordering

The ICCROM guidance lists several arrangements: numerical, alphabetical, chronological, hierarchical, geographical or by record type. For a studio the useful choices are usually these:

Most studios settle on material type for the physical layout and add a searchable record on top, so the catalogue answers questions the shelves cannot, such as “which of our oak veneers are from a supplier we use in London?”

Keep the physical library and the digital record in step

A label tells you what a sample is. A record tells you whether it is in the building. The simplest version is a spreadsheet with one row per sample: reference, supplier, range, colour or finish, material type, location, date received, status (in, out, retired) and, when out, who has it and which project it is for.

Some habits keep it accurate:

• Log on the way out, not afterwards. If logging takes more than a few seconds, it will not happen. Put a clipboard, a tablet or a shared sheet at the point of access.
• Photograph each sample once. A clear image against a neutral background, linked to the reference, lets the team shortlist from a screen before anyone opens a drawer.
• Do a short stock check at fixed intervals. Check one cabinet at a time rather than the whole library in a single afternoon.
• Name an owner. Libraries drift when everybody is responsible. One person, often a junior designer or studio manager, should be accountable for keeping it current. Some design schools use a similar model, with students sorting and replenishing the material library.
• Retire samples deliberately. When a supplier discontinues a range, mark it retired and remove it from circulation, so no one specifies something that cannot be ordered.

If you want to see how a larger, shared collection is organised, our article on how a materials library speeds up projects describes the principle from the designer’s point of view.

Write a sample checkout policy

Samples leave the studio constantly: to a client’s home, a contractor on site, a joiner who needs to match a finish. A checkout policy does not need to be bureaucratic. A page is enough, if it answers a few questions in plain language. There is no formal standard for this in interior design, so what follows is practical advice rather than a rule.

What the policy should cover

1. Who can borrow. Staff only, or freelancers and contractors too? Decide whether anyone outside the practice can take originals, or only copies or fresh supplier samples.
2. What can be borrowed. Rare, one-off or discontinued samples should be treated differently from ranges you can reorder in a week. Mark those items as “studio only” on the label and in the record.
3. How long. Set a standard loan period tied to the project stage, for example until the next client review, and ask for a revised return date if it changes.
4. How it is logged. Reference, borrower, project, date out and expected return date. One line in the shared sheet is enough.
5. How it is returned. Returned to a named place, checked for damage, relogged and shelved by the person returning it or by the library owner.
6. What happens when it is lost or damaged. Say whether the project absorbs the cost of a replacement, and who orders it. Agreeing this beforehand avoids an awkward conversation afterwards.
7. What goes to clients. Decide whether clients ever receive originals. Many studios send a duplicate or a photographed board, and keep the original in the studio.

Send out only what you can lose

A good habit is to keep a master copy of every sample in the library and to send out a second one, ordered from the supplier, whenever the sample is going somewhere you cannot control. That is cheaper than losing a unique piece. For larger loans, a simple loan form with the item list, signed by the borrower, is enough.

Return logistics matter as much as loan rules, especially when samples travel by courier across London or beyond. Our guide to fixing sample return logistics for UK studios walks through the practical steps.

Storage when space is limited

London studios are rarely generous with square footage. A few approaches help when the collection is outgrowing the room.

Go vertical

Wall-mounted racks, tall slim cabinets and ceiling-height shelving use space that is otherwise empty. Hang fabric memos on rails, store tubes in a vertical rack, and put the rarely used boxes at the top with a clear location label.

Split the collection into working and reserve

Keep a working set at hand: the materials and suppliers you specify most often. Move the rest into a reserve in boxes or a secondary location, with the same reference system, so a sample can be fetched when a project calls for it. Review both sets once a year and retire what you no longer use.

Use fewer, better samples

It is tempting to keep every swatch a rep leaves. Instead, ask suppliers for the sample size that you actually need and decline the rest. A short list of trusted ranges, kept up to date, beats a large archive of discontinued items.

Do not duplicate what a showroom already holds

For the long tail of materials you use only occasionally, the sensible answer is not to store them at all. A trade showroom with a materials library gives you somewhere to see, handle and compare samples when a project needs them, and to book a client meeting there. Our trade-only interior design showroom in London is set up this way: samples, technical files and finished interiors under one roof, visited by appointment. Visits are worth planning; our checklist for visiting design showrooms shows what to bring and what to ask.

Technical files belong with the samples

A sample tells you how a product looks and feels. It does not tell you whether it meets the project’s performance requirements. Keep the data sheets, certificates and installation guidance for each material alongside the physical sample, or at least linked from its record. When a specifier or contractor asks for a fire, durability or finish document, you should be able to find it in the same place as the sample.

For fire performance, VAT treatment of samples and any regulatory question tied to a particular project, confirm the position with your adviser, building control or the relevant supplier before you specify. Our FF&E specification writing guide covers how to carry this information through to the schedule.

Our view: a sample library is working infrastructure

We treat samples as working infrastructure, not decoration. In practice that means three things.

First, a sample is only useful if it can be found. A beautifully merchandised shelf with no references is a display, and a display does not help a designer assemble a scheme at 5pm on a Thursday. We would rather see a plain drawer with a clear label and a record.

Second, the library and the order should connect. When a designer chooses a sample, the next step is a specification line and a purchase. That is why we keep samples, technical files and procurement under one team: one order, one invoice. The fewer places a reference has to be retyped, the fewer mistakes reach site.

Third, no studio should have to hold everything. The designers we work with keep a tight working set of their own and use the residency for the rest, including presenting schemes to clients in finished rooms. Trade terms are agreed individually with each approved trade account, so we do not publish a price list; the point of the arrangement is time and accuracy, not a sample cabinet in every studio.

— Faura Editorial

Using Faura’s materials library

Faura is a trade-only showroom and residency in Westminster for interior designers, architects, developers and contractors. Across two floors of finished interiors, you can see and specify from over 200 brands, with samples, technical files and a materials library in one place. Visits are by appointment, Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 18:00.

If you are setting up a studio library, start with the categories you specify most. We cover furniture, lighting, stone, tiles and finishes and more, and our team can handle procurement, logistics and delivery once you have chosen. To find out how trade access works, or to see what the residency offers designers, take a look at our page for interior designers.

A simple setup you can finish this month

If the library is already a mess, do not try to fix everything at once. A staged approach is more realistic.

1. Week one: sort. Empty one category, for example fabric, and group by supplier. Remove duplicates, discontinued ranges and anything you cannot identify.
2. Week two: label and record. Give each remaining sample a reference and a location. Start the spreadsheet with just the essential columns.
3. Week three: re-house. Buy containers once you know what you hold: hangers, folders, tubes, shallow trays. Buying first leads to the wrong sizes.
4. Week four: write the policy. One page, agreed by the team, pinned where samples are signed out.
5. Then repeat with stone and hard finishes, hardware, and finally project boards.

The order matters. Sort before you label, label before you buy storage, and write the policy last, once you have seen how samples actually move through your studio.

FAQ

How should I store fabric samples in a design studio?

Hang frequently used memos on consistent hangers or stand them upright in accessible files. Keep small flat pieces in folders or shallow boxes, and roll larger lengths on tubes instead of folding them into drawers. Avoid overcrowding and direct contact with acidic packing materials, as museum textile guidance advises.

What is the best way to organise material samples of different sizes?

Choose one ordering logic, such as material type then supplier, and give every sample a unique reference. Then match the container to the item: folders for flat pieces, boxes or trays for three-dimensional items, tubes for long lengths and shallow drawers for heavy stone. A single inventory recording source, date and description ties it together.

What should a sample checkout policy include?

It should say who can borrow, which items are studio-only, how long a loan lasts, how each loan is logged and where samples are returned. It should also state what happens if something is lost or damaged. A one-page policy with a shared log is enough for most studios.

How do I keep a physical sample library in line with a digital catalogue?

Log every sample out and in at the point of access, give it a single owner, and check one cabinet at a time at regular intervals. Give each item a reference that appears on the label and in the record. Mark discontinued ranges as retired so they are not specified by mistake.

What can a London studio do when it has no room for a large collection?

Split the collection into a working set and a reserve, use vertical storage, and ask suppliers for only the sample sizes you need. For occasional materials, book an appointment at a trade showroom with a materials library instead of holding them yourself.

Sources

• An Illustrated Guide to the Care of Costume and Textile Collections (Museums & Galleries Commission, 2000)
• Heritage Samples Archives (ICCROM, 2025)
• Update on our Textile Storage (GSA Archives & Collections, 2020)

Recommended

• A sample management system that stops swatches going missing
• 7 steps to fix sample return logistics for UK studios (hybrid)
• A materials library gives designers faster, better-sourced projects