Object of the day: Sanderson 'Manila'

It's holiday time of year for the organised among us. 

If that's not you (it's not me), or if your holiday is about open fires and British countryside, you could always bring the heat home instead. And these two prints, in Sanderson's new Manila range, would do it for me.

A good tip if you don't want to commit to wallpapering properly, or can only stretch to one roll of the stuff, is to paper a board instead – as above. Use MDF if your panel won't be as big as this one (the stuff weighs a tonne) or even plywood if sturdy isn't a requirement, and you fancy making it portable.

You could also buy a roll with a buddy and split it to make a bed headboard or fill picture frames, top an old table (smother it with PVA glue or non-yellowing varnish), renew a paper drum lampshade (get a hot glue gun – amazing things), spruce your stair risers (wallpaper paste and matt varnish)... Any other ideas?

The fabric could be fashioned in a similar way but using an artist's canvas stretcher.

The Manila wallpaper is £52 RRP per roll and the fabric is £49 per metre. Find it at Sanderson-uk.com

Object of the day: CUSTHOM's latest embroidered fabric

I've written about Custhom before: the young design company's particular speciality is their unusual and striking digital embroidery technique, which gives their textiles a tactile, 3-D quality.

Now they've just launched a new range of cotton wallpaper and fabric using the same methods.

The south London-based pair behind Custhom Nathan Philpott and Jemma Ooi only met – at the Royal College of Art – in 2009 but have already created designs for Anthropologie, Liberty and John Lewis among others.

This latest collection from them has been inspired by ancient Mexican Otomi embroidery: graphic and organic shapes combined to depict man living in harmony with the natural environment. The style is said to date back to prehistoric cave paintings in Tenango.

But Custhom have given it a contemporary twist, not least with their innovative use of digital embroidery which gives the patterns a sharp precision. Each piece design has been created with skilled British craftsmen who embroider onto non-woven paper or cotton fabric.

The textiles come in navy on an off-white background, or in off-black. The fabric is £126 a metre and the wallpaper comes in 55cm wide rolls and costs £84 per metre. Not cheap, but the work involved makes these pieces works of art. And a little, I think, could go a long way with a bit of creative use.

Do check out some of the other striking designs from Custhom: I would particularly recommend their distinctive Offset cushions, and the elegant Palladian collection, which features ceramics and textiles. I have particularly fallen for the Palladian Loop wallpaper. For a budget buy, they also sell some of the designs in tea-towel form, for £12.

Check it all out at Custhom.co.uk

Post by Kate. Images from Custhom

Can't afford the new Sheila Bownas sofa?

What do you think of this sofa/daybed, designed using fabric from the Sheila Bownas archive and created in collaboration with furniture-makers, Parlour? 

It's called the Edwin, and I think the shade of blue, the smooth solid walnut, 50s-ish legs and back and the classic, boxy shape make it very good indeed.

Alas, thanks to rather beautiful details like these...

...it costs £2400. But if you can't stretch to that, you might like the accessories in the same range.

The cushions, above, and prints, below, come in olive yellow, steel blue or grey. Cushions, £55 each.

The prints are limited editions and come with the official Sheila Bownas archive stamp (more of which shortly). They're 50x70cm so can fit into a standard frame, which saves a bit of money – and the prints themselves cost cost £65 each.

There are lamps in the range, too. These were designed in collaboration with English lamp designer, Zoe Darlington, and cost £125. The base is solid ash, and the shades come in two main colours: white or grey linen, with a choice of lining colours, again in the Edwin range fabric.

Check out the Edwin range at Shielabownas.com

The backstory of the Sheila Bownas range, in case you don't already know it, is an interesting one. The Yorkshirewoman and prize-winning Slade graduate exhibited five of her paintings at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1949. She then went on to turn her talents to textile design, producing fabrics for Liberty, Crown Wallpapers and Marks and Spencer. But it wasn't until her death, in 2007, that her family discovered a vast archive of other work in her studio. This archive was bought by superfan, Chelsea Cefai, a year later – she is gradually producing pieces that showcase Sheila's work.

Not a dissimilar rescue story to that of the company behind the archive of Australian mid-century designer, Florence Broadhurst. I have some of Florence's textiles in my living room; that massive monochrome canvas on the wall, above left, is one of hers – and there's more about that in this previous post about how to make expensive textiles or wallpapers go a long way. You might also like Florence Broadhurst's amazing rampaging horses fabric, which you can just see poking out (also black and white) in the cushion mountain on my sofa.

Post by Kate

Fabric of the day

It's been a while since I browsed the Ikea fabric department. And I'm rather liking these new-ish designs...

HÄLLEKNOPP, £4 per metre

STOCKHOLM, £6  per metre

TRÅDKLÖVER, £7 per metre

Because I'm a very lazy sew-er (I have a machine I was given on my 18th birthday. Back then I was an enthusiastic sew-er. It is currently rather dusty) I'm thinking the top and the bottom ones would make great half-bedspreads (no hemming, just fold – adorn bottom of half of the bed with the result). It's an instant bedroom refresher. I wonder what else I could do with some nice new fabric that wouldn't require excavating the machine...  

Excellent upholstery

This chair, which I posted on Facebook yesterday after lusting over it on Etsy got a lot of love.

So I thought I'd share it here for anyone who didn't see it (not in the YHIL Facebook loop? Want to be?). And for the sheer celebration of brilliant furniture re-invention, here are a few more too (and don't miss the wonderful job Out of the Dark did for me on a Parker Knoll a few months back, either, posted here). It all makes me wish I had the patience to upholster. Maybe I do... maybe one day, anyway.

African wax cloth armchair Here she is again. You can buy the beauty if you are in the States. Or, like me, you can dream of learning to make one yourself. What makes this chair so glorious is the zingy nature of the fabric combined with the age of the original chair (check out those brass-tipped, tapered feet... beautiful), and the almost obscenity of its depth. It looks extremely comfortable.

A floral flash This sofa is made by a cool Dutch company I have just discovered and which I will be writing more about soon. I love peach and emerald green together, and that the floral cushion is so small; it really stands out. Good sofa for resting your mug of tea on, too, with those arms – though not sure how comfortable it'd be in a sitting room. If you like the walls, by the way, did you see the amazing room I featured a while back where they'd used plywood to clad the whole room, including the floor? It was – surprisingly – beautiful. See it here.

Tasty Peruvian pair These two upright chairs have been tarted up with a Peruvian fabric. If you want to have a look at the transformation taking place, check out the blog post about it on the website of another new shop, A Rum Fellow.

Monochrome marvel This stunning fabric is the work of a South African graphic and textile designer called Sera Holland in her Cape Town studio. There's also a version of this chair with black woodwork, which looks striking; I like how modern the effect is. Black and white do create a very crisp finish. Sera does this design in different colours and on wallpapers and tea-towels and other accessories, in case you are local. See Sera's other designs at her blog, Handmade by Me.

'Mum, I'm on the PHONE!' Oh, those were the days. Telephone in the hall on a special table/stool thingamy. Well, I can't remember them, but I like to imagine that's what it was like in my house anyway. This beautifully olivey design is by one of my favourite re-people who make things, Heather Linnett, aka Eclectic Chair. She is based in Yorkshire and makes stunning antique kimono-covered cushions as well as reinventing pieces of furniture with panache. Her Facebook page is a good bookmark too, if you are an upholstery fancier. Which, if you've got this far, you probably are. Find out more at the Eclectic Chair website.

The super Sofa.com Emerging Designer Award

I love it when big brands do good stuff. And the Emerging Designer Award hosted by Sofa.com, in which the winning student designer will bag £3,000 and see their design put into production, is very good indeed.

But who would you pick? These are my favourites. Today at least. There is lots of talent and 15 brilliant shortlisted entries in total.

Natalie Raines from Nottingham Trent University, was inspired by Swedish 1960s textiles to create this chirpy repeat pattern, which began as a drawing of a stem of grapes

Sophie Berry, from Bath Spa University, has entered this graphic interpretation of cutlery in clean, simple monochrome.

Harriet Popham, at Swansea Metropolitan University, drew on traditional blue and white Dutch porcelain for this intricate, striking design

Ruth Duggan, another Nottingham Trenter, studied moths around a light to create the original drawings for this digital print.

Yvonne Shore, is the second Swansea Metropolitan shortlister. I think the combination of wool, muted, sludgy colours and bold black lines, look fantastic mocked up on the sofa.

Louise Coleman, also at Nottingham Trent, has played with the theme of the Mad Hatter's tea party, combined with inspiration from the Norfolk countryside.






Although the winner will be picked by a judging panel next month, there is a People's Vote (with the chance to win £1,000 to spend at the store): voting is a marvellously simple button click, and you can see all the shortlisters here.