When the renowned British architect and interior designer Ben Pentreath announces a collaboration, we just take observe. Which is why we are sharing the sumptuous new visuals of Cornubia—his most recent assortment for Morris & Co—the furnishings and decorative arts company launched by William Morris in 1861.
Followers of Ben’s work will know that he has a normal affinity with the historic manufacturer, who keep on to use classic methods. (Their wallpapers are floor-printed their materials monitor-printed.) In point, Ben has bundled a Morris pattern in practically all of his interior tasks for numerous years now.
Named Queen Square (the Bloomsbury area exactly where Morris lived and labored), the 1st assortment was released in Autumn/Winter 2020 and hailed as a present-day reinterpretation of Morris’s authentic designs. Cornubia is Ben’s 2nd, sunnier assortment featuring 18 fabrics and 18 wallpapers. (Material is out there from £99 wallpaper is available from £109.)
Bold and playful with out tipping more than into pastiche, the collection invokes two moods: an awakening landscape and a pervasive perception of nostalgia. “I was keen to establish a array that had a diverse temper and atmosphere to Queen Square—perhaps sunnier and brighter,” Ben describes. “I commenced, as a result, with a complete new palette—colors which are on my brain at the moment: tangerine, lemon yellow, primrose, smooth pinks, blues, and vivid apple greens—the colors of spring and summertime.”
He proceeds: “As we translated these new combos into the historic styles, there was a visible thrill in observing how new and happy every thing looked and felt! I was like a baby in a sweet shop. Maybe intentional, probably accidental, but these were being the hues and styles of my mid-70s childhood all more than once again.”
“In establishing this selection, as with the previous, there are two simultaneous excitements,” points out Ben. “The very first is getting timeless and much-beloved classics and casting them in a new light with new hues and combinations—but the second is in reviving previous styles that haven’t found the light of working day for as well very long.”
The selection recolors timeless classics and sees the re-launch of two substantial scale designs that haven’t been in manufacturing for decades: Merton (formerly Eden)—which Ben to start with fell in adore with following noticing it on a friend’s parents’ sofa much more than 20 several years ago—and Woodland Weeds. “These, jointly with the new colorings of Compton, make me happier than nearly everything else I have witnessed this calendar year,” he effuses.