Earlier this year I started writing the Interior News page for Scotland on Sunday, and, in a sense, looking for great products to showcase every week has been the catalyst for thinking about this new SPOTLIGHT category for the blog. Some posts will be more in-depth features, some will be Q&As with designers, and some will be shorter posts like this where I’m simply saying, look at this fantastic product range!
Which brings me to Design Lab – a bi-annual collaboration between Sofa.com and British textile designers to create fabrics that will work beautifully on Sofa.com’s furniture range. This Design Lab collection was created with the award-winning designer Anna Glover, who won in the ‘Best use of print and pattern‘ category in the ELLE Decoration British Design Awards last year. Taking inspiration from Japanese wood block printing and Indian miniature printing, Anna was described by ELLE Decoration as having a “masterful approach to form, scale and colour.”
This Design Lab collection was created for SS16 – I know it’s late in the season to be mentioning this, but Anna’s designs are so beautiful I had to share – and features two fabrics that are exclusive to Sofa.com: Paradise and Raindance.
This is possibly the point where I should raise my hand and acknowledge that I wouldn’t normally consider a printed fabric for a sofa. I am currently lusting after Sofa.com’s Isaac sofa upholstered in a really subtle Highland Tweed. My default mode is texture. But Anna Glover’s botanical-inspired patterns have a beautiful painterly quality that feels so fresh and contemporary. The Zeppelin sofa in the top photo looks perfect upholstered in Paradise in Mineral, and this fabric is also available in the Basalt colourway.
The photo above shows the Holly armchair in Paradise with the Holly sofa upholstered in Raindance, both in the Mineral colourway, while below, the lovely buttonback Sark armchair is upholstered in Paradise in Basalt.
In an interview with Sofa.com, Anna explained her design process, saying: “I always start with hand painting or drawing. I like pairing the traditional nature of these techniques with using computer and digital print technology. This allows me to create contemporary designs but with a sense of nostalgia.”
Beautiful, right? Can’t wait to see more design collaborations from Anna in the future.
There’s also a new Design Lab collection due to launch in September. See the full product range at Sofa.com; all photography by Sofa.com.
Visit Anna Glover to see more of her work.
