From the garden - a bunch of floral fabrics

 The sun is blaring down outside - a good excuse for a little internet browsing with the air con on! Here is a selection of colourful and painterly garden inspired florals that have caught my eye over the Christmas break.

Archipelago Tana Lawn from Liberty Art Fabrics. 

This design was inspired by the tropical gardens of Abbey Garden, Tresco. 

Tresco is one of the Scilly Isles, located south of Cornwall.

 Melbourne based printing duo Bonnie and Neil's beautiful homewares are printed on crunchy linen fabrics. I love how they have incorporated the begonia leaf in their designs - I have noticed a 

resurgence of this somewhat forgotten plant in a few Melbourne nurseries lately.

Hermosa is a vibrant and painterly floral design from Harlequin.

Fairfield by Nina Campbell is a loosely painted design of Lupins, reminiscent of 1950's summer dress fabrics.

Xanthe is another Liberty Art Fabric design inspired by the Tresco Abbey Gardens (with a sprinkling of sunny 1950's hand drawn style).

Zamera from Romo fabrics features painterly meadow flowers on a linen ground.

And last but not least....

Pandora Peony from Designer's Guild is a stunning fabric, digitally printed on linen. The large repeat combines an abundance of photographed and painted flowers. I can't think of a nicer way to bring some colour from the garden inside!

Inspired by foxgloves

These colourful foxgloves have been blooming in my garden for weeks now - they were well worth the long wait.

Although the foxglove rates as a favourite flower for many, there are surprisingly very few textiles and wallpapers featuring this beautiful motif in the interiors marketplace. 

One designer who has tackled this difficult flower is UK designer Louise Body.

Pictured above is Louise's printed wallpaper panel Plant Life Set 2.

Detail of Plant Life Set 2

And I love this Foxglove printed linen fabric too.

Blue & White, Old & New

The classic combination of blue on white has remained enduringly popular in the design of porcelain ever since the first Chinese vessels decorated with Cobalt blue were imported into Europe in the 16th century by Portuguese traders.

This strikingly modern dinnerware collection named Fable was designed in collaboration with London based German designer Karolin Schnoor and the master artisans at Royal Doulton.

The entire Fable collection can be viewed on the Royal Doulton website.

Another blue and white porcelain collection which recently caught my eye was first designed in the 1950's but has recently been reissued by the Swedish ceramics company Rorstrand.

Mon Amie was created by on a rainy midsummer's eve by Swedish textile and ceramic designer Marianne Westman in 1952, and has since become one of Rorstrand's best selling designs.

Marianne joined Rorstrand in 1950 immediately after graduating from the University of Arts, Crafts & Design in Stockholm, and she collaborated closely with the company for more than twenty years.

You can view more of Marianne Westman's wonderful mid century ceramic and textile designs at the Hus and Hem website. 

Heal's Fabric Design

Over on the always inspiring Heal's Reveals blog you can find a little give-away of the newly released V&A Pattern Book 'Heal's', which I blogged about here a wee while ago. 

One of the designs featured in the book has recently been re-worked by Heal's into a new bed linen collection. The vividly coloured 'Indian Summer' pattern was designed by Jyoti Bhomik for Heal's in 1966, and has now been re-worked with intricate embroidery on a fresh white cotton ground. I love the eye-catching colour combination of turquoise, lime, orange and hot pink.

This is the original fabric design for Heal's by Jyoti Bhomik, spotted on the wonderful design blog Fabulous Vintage.

Pictured above are the updated versions of Jyoti Bhomik's design for Heal's, re-coloured for a contemporary audience. 

And here is the retro inspired bed linen design embroidered onto crisp white cotton.

Washing up, 50's style

Whilst packing for my move to the country 6 weeks ago I came to the realisation that I have a bit of a 'thing' for patterned tea towels. Two boxes worth in fact! 

These new tea towels featuring textile designs from the 40's and 50's from the V&A Museum would fit in perfectly with my collection of vintage designs too....

 V&A 'Houses' Tea Towel

'Houses' was originally designed as a furnishing fabric by Joy Jarvis in 1950, and was manufactured by  Gerald Holtom Ltd, London.

 V&A 'Mugs' Tea Towel

This design is based on 'Full Measure' by Kenneth Rowntree, manufactured by Edinburgh Weavers in 1957.

V&A 'Vases' Tea Towel

Based on 'Urne', a furnishing fabric designed by Pansa Studios, and manufactured by Sanderson Fabrics in 1955.

V&A 'Fishes' Tea Towel

Based on a furnishing fabric design by Rhona Park under the instruction of the Central School of Art and Design, London, 1951.

V&A 'Fishermen' Tea Towel

'The Fishermen' furnishing textile was designed in 1956 by Keith Vaughan for Edinburgh Weavers.

V&A 'Harvest' Tea Towel

This design is based on a textile repeat by John Drummond, a student at the Central School of Art and Design in 1948.

A Cottage Hospital designed by CFA Voysey

Some of the most frequently visited (and googled) posts on this blog have featured the elegantly stylised design work of the English architect and talented all round designer C.F.A Voysey - without a doubt there are many fans of Voysey's Arts and Crafts designs to be found around the world.

Furnishing fabric designed by Voysey in 1905
V&A

A few months ago I received a lovely comment on my blog from Daniella, the Project Manager of the Winsford Trust in the UK. The distinctive C.F.A Voysey design of the Grade II listed Winsford Cottage Hospital was commissioned in 1899 by Maria Webb-Medley in memory of her husband George for the community of Halwill, a small village located in North Devon, England.

Voysey's sublime Arts and Crafts design for the Winsford Cottage Hospital took into account its rural location. The hospital is a single storey building with a deep slate roof and projecting wings with a sheltered veranda between them.

Voysey's plan for the Cottage Hospital dated 1899

Although the exterior displays some of Voysey's most recognisable features, the rather austere interior of the hospital was conceived to combine both the sanitary and practical considerations of the requirements of patients and nursing staff alike. The hall, corridor and veranda were paved with a yellow mosaic tile, contrasting with green painted doors. The kitchen floor was constructed from massive slabs of slate, and the floors were built on one level so that both beds and wheel chairs could be moved with comparative ease.

The Bluebird Wallpaper, designed by Voysey c.1900

Voysey's signature design aesthetic was apparent throughout the interior - his characteristic attention to detail was applied to the ventilation grills, wallpaper, ironwork door hinges and latches, and mantelpieces. 

Voysey's birds decorate this ventilation grill

Voysey applied his signature heart motif to the ironwork door furnishings

The Winsford Cottage Hospital served the local community for a hundred years before being deemed redundant to the needs of the NHS in 1999. The Winsford Trust secured ownership for the benefit of the local community shortly after, and now aims to restore the Voysey designed building back to its former glory. The Winsford Trust hopes to make this building a national (and in my case, international) focus for the Arts and Crafts movement. I would love to visit the finished result one day, as some of my ancestors farmed in the district. It's a small world!

A strong dose of colour

Once again, the new fabric and wallpaper collection entitled 'Colour for Living' from the UK company Sanderson features a vast selection of beautiful (and colourful) designs that are bound to become design classics. I really admire the collection for the manner in which it gently references historical design for a contemporary market. 

St Ives - a wallpaper and fabric design featuring the hilly streetscapes of this renowned artistic hotspot, carved into lino in a naive style .

 This Rainforest fabric design reminds me of the Austrian / Swedish modernist designer Josef Frank. I love the blue colourway.

The linen textures of this Block Leaf design hark back to the pared-down and graceful 1950's patterns designed by Lucienne Day.

 

Another of my favourite designs from this collection is Bellflower -  I love the Atelier Martine / Dufy influence. 

You can view the entire collection of fabrics and wallpapers from Sanderson's Colour for Living range here.