Sleek, rubbery floors and bamboo stalks set in resin used to be accessible only through top-end architects. But no longer. A revolutionary new shop is making futuristic materials available to all.

It’s not a moment too soon. “It’s like the moment we realised we wanted balsamic vinegar, not malt,” says Ben Marshall, the studio manager of Material Lab. “We’re now thinking: who wants plain white tiles when you can get bespoke textured felt panels, hip, hexagonal shapes [see Whistles’ revamped shop floors] or light-transmitting concrete [concrete that allows the light through without losing its structure]?”

Material Lab is part library, part showroom and part inspirational space. Although it’s aimed at designers and architects, anyone about to do up their home should drop in. It will save you hours of Googling suppliers of that fab new floor surface you spotted on Grand Designs.

It stocks samples of nearly 1,000 materials, from Carpet-Burns tiles (sections of grannyish patterned carpet, heat-treated and squashed into a solid sheet) to 3form’s resin-encased wood (which is cut so finely that you can see silhouettes through the wood grain, but is still a tough customer). Material Lab has chunks of each product that you can touch, hold next to each other and blether on to your architect about.

It also showcases new products such as Seamless’s spray-on metal, devised for the US military in the 1980s and now available to civvies. Spray it through something lacy to create your own gothic effect on a boring wood table, Louis XIV chair or MDF wall for results that are very this season’s McQueen.

Should you wish to educate yourself further, there’s a library of hip design books, as well as architectural magazines (which cost more than designer handbags) to flick through and Pantone books, which will save you from embarrassing moments such as realising that there’s a discrepancy between your and your decorator’s idea of Hermès tan.

Material Lab was set up by the British tile manufacturer H&R Johnson, which wanted to be seen in a cooler light, with the help of the architectural practice I-Am Associates and the shopfitter Railston. It represents 35 companies, and gives each product an environmental rating. Hats off to the lot of them.

It’s not that resource centres haven’t existed before. For professionals, there are loads: Scin, in London; Materia, based in Holland; and Material Connexion, which sourced materials for Fendi’s futuristic interiors. Material Lab’s crucial points of difference are that you can touch samples of everything, that anyone can go in, and that it doesn’t cost a bean — at most resource centres, you have to pay a subscription and be a design professional to join. Best of all, it has its own faux Tube station — Great Titchfield Street — in the basement. Kooky.

Material Lab; 020 7436 8629, www.material-lab.co.uk

Times recommends

• Second homes: credit crunch casualty or money-spinner?
• How I built my own sliding house
• Top 10 incentives for house buyers