wallpaper

Sea Feathers and Coral…Wallpaper from Min Hogg and Inspiration from Ben Pentreath

“Why does everything have to be so perfect? Nothing in real life is, you know.”
Min Hogg

Thanks to An Aesthete’s Lament for the quote above, but I do believe Min Hogg’s new line of wallpapers and fabrics is absolutely perfect.

First, this photo caught my eye because I have been thinking about using antique porcelain in the bathroom. But the wallpaper held it and sent me looking for more!

min hogg sea antler blue on white bathroom — Sea Antler Blue on White

This particular pattern comes in other colorways including the White on Pigeon Grey below and White on Pigeon Pink. I am obsessed with any color with the word pigeon in it – as they are always perfect softly grayed colors.

min hogg sea antler white on pigeon grey — Sea Antler White on Pigeon Grey

And I have to include this quintessentially English room – it comes alive with its sea feather patterned wallpaper.

min hogg Sea-feather stripe pink and grey — Sea Feather Stripe, pink and grey

As many of you know, I am in the thick of a bathroom renovation in our beach house in New Jersey. It is a late 19th century Victorian cottage and the bathroom fittings are simple and white. I had been planning on using Farrow & Ball’s Pale Powder on the walls, but now I might be headed in a different direction….towards Min! Add my blue-green glass and the coral I found in Guam this weekend and I am done!

I could post them all, but there are too many colors and patterns. They can also be printed on fabric and custom colored. But best of all, the prices are extremely reasonable!

For those of you who may not know who she is, Min Hogg was the founder and editor-in-chief of The World of Interiors for over 20 years. I look forward to reading that magazine like none of the other interiors publications as it often surprises but never bores me. It is exciting to see this new venture of hers!

My original obsession with coral and sea feather prints comes from early 19th century transferware. But this past year I have been turning to this photo from Ben Pentreath’s London shop again and again for inspiration in decorating my beach house. So I jumped over to check his website…

and this is the current post I found there!

Take a look at his website, or better yet, visit the shop on Rugby Street in London like I did last May!

Image credits: 1-11 via Min Hogg, 12-13 via Ben Pentreath

Nov 29, 2010 By tokyojinja in Design Motif, Interior Design Leave a comment Tags: Ben Pentreath, fabric, Min Hogg, The World of Interiors, wallpaper

A Riot of Color…Temo Callahan and Studio Printworks

The apartment in today’s post could not be more different from the John Saladino designed home posted last week. Instead of perfectly curated classicism, we have a wild riot of color and pattern. Temo Callahan’s New York apartment was featured in the November 2008 Domino and is one of those spaces that people either love to hate or absolutely adore. Callahan himself was a director of the legendary Clarence House fabric company in the 1980s and 90s. He left and launched Studio Printworks, a small art based wallpaper company. They commission artists and designers and make unique hand-printed papers. Check out their collaboration with artist Kiki Smith – it is amazing!

Callahan’s living room is covered in a wallpaper of one of their designs – Edo Pines – in a dramatic red colorway. Pines symbolize long life and happiness in Japan, so perhaps not a bad thing to have papering all your walls.

This living room has a little bit of everything! On the left there are typical Japanese lacquer tray tables stacked high, but they are done in a glossy modern white finish. In contrast, a polychrome Imari platter set in a tray table sits in the center of the room towards the back – something the design world seems to think of as kind of “grandma-ish”. The white iron garden chair has cushions upholstered in a Jed Johnson fabric called (coincidentally?) Kamakura in the Indigo colorway.

Callahan is quoted as saying “No one looks bad in a red room”. But I think I might consider some of the other Edo Pines colorways.

Robin’s Egg

Truffle

Dove

The bedroom, by contrast, is painted a dark soothing blue.

The headboard has been upholstered in the same fabric as the throw pillows on the living room couch to give the apartment a sense of continuity. The throw pillows on the bed look remarkably similar to a Japanese rayon shibori (tie-dye) fabric, but they are actually a very expensive linen/cotton from Jed Johnson called Medallion. (The Imperial colorway looks a bit darker in the swatch below).

Almost all the Asian blue and white porcelain seen in shelter magazines is Chinese, but this lamp is a converted Imari porcelain vase.

What I find so fascinating about it this apartment is the use of specifically Japanese patterns and objects (as opposed to Chinese for instance) as if he wanted to keep to a theme started by the wallpaper. With the preponderance of Chinese antiques and Chinoiserie readily available in the decorating world, it continues to be unusual to see Japanese items used. I really wonder if he did it on purpose.

And as a follow up to Tuesday’s post, Studio Printworks has a fantastic wallpaper called “Kiku Kamon” in eight different colorways. Here it is below in my favorite “raisin”.