Years ago during a visit to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris I glimpsed, at the end of a corridor, a bright, alluring flash of colour. It drew me towards it like a magnet, and I found myself in a light-filled gallery standing in front of Van Gogh’s “The Church at Auvers” with its rich expanse of cobalt sky and vivid orange splash of the roof.
I had a similar experience during my visit to the TENT show during this year’s London Design Festival. In the distance a riot of vibrant orange and turquoise caught my eye, and before I knew it my feet were taking me in that direction, to the Parris Wakefield stand and their new homewares collection. It’s maybe no coincidence that I had felt the same siren call of irresistible colour; the work of design duo Sarah Parris and Howard Wakefield is strongly influenced by art, as well as nature and fashion. (The catalogue for this new interiors range – Parris Wakefield Additions – even reproduces the paintings that have inspired some of the colour palettes for their bold, contemporary designs).
Sarah and Howard have a background in graphic design, working with clients from the fashion, music, creative and design industries. Their Additions collection currently comprises cushions, lightshades, fabrics, and wallpapers, all of which are manufactured in Britain. The designs cleverly balance complexity with cleanness of line; there’s no shortage of detail, but the patterns never become over-frenetic. Some designs have a very digital style, whilst others are more painterly; colour palettes range from bright and bold through more muted shades to soft and subtle tones. Pictured below clockwise from top left: Marthe 2 cushion, Garden 2 cushion, Field 3 cushion, Destiny large lampshade and Garden wallpaper.
What had so caught my eye at TENT was a panel of wallpaper in their extraordinarily uplifting and joyous design “Bliss”, pictured left. These particular shades of orange and turquoise are two of my favourite colours and together they always look glorious. In the hands of Parris Wakefield this pairing has been taken to a whole new level of gorgeousness. The palette was inspired by a new Pantone colour “Tangerine Tango” which, the designers say, “we couldn’t resist – even its name puts a smile on our faces”. They teamed it with other equally exotically named Pantone shades including “Margarita”, “Cockatoo” and “Starfish”, and add that “the combination is uplifting even on the dullest days.”
The above quotes are from the catalogue that accompanied this new products launch. Reading it on the way home from the show, I was struck by the eerie similarity to the copy I had written for the Home Page of this website literally just a few weeks previously; my own version of this theme is:
“Great colour has the power to alter your mood, change your outlook and make you smile – even on the greyest day.”
Sharing as we do our belief in the uplifting and inspirational power of fabulous colour, I’m absolutely over the moon that Sarah and Howard have given us permission to use their design “Bliss” as the very first slide that appears at the top of our Home Page; I can’t think of anything that sums up the spirit of colourful beautiful things more perfectly or more beautifully.
The Additions range is now available to buy direct from Parris Wakefield Additions, and also from CultureLabel and.
Update: 9 April 2013
It’s 5 months since I wrote the above piece, and I’m delighted to report that the Additions range has been a fantastic success, and been featured in UK magazines such as Elle Decoration, GQ, World of Interiors and Vogue, plus other international interiors publications too. The collection is now available from a range of online retailers and, as of last week, will be stocked in-store by SCP.
Parris Wakefield will also be launching a range of rugs later this year, in collaboration with Knots Rugs. These designs made it to the final three in the Carpet Design Awards “Best Collection: Modern” category – a great achievement for their first rug collection, especially as they were up against stiff international competition – 214 entries from 25 countries.
And finally, do check out Parris Wakefield Additions’s fabulous blog, a great mix of design, art, and interiors inspiration. I always find something different there, most lately being feather installations by French artist Isa Barbier and also Olioboard, where you can put together mood boards and play interior designer to your heart’s content.
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