Spotlight

BACK TO NATURE

8th May 2019

I couldn’t resist this new wallpaper collection from Mineheart when it popped up as I was scrolling through products for the weekly interior news page I compile for a newspaper. At a glance, this ‘Back To Nature‘ design by Australian illustrator Courtney Brims feels like a classic flowers and fauna design, but then hang on, is that a snake I see…?

Known for her beautifully detailed illustrations of animals where nothing is quite what it seems, Brims uses a classic ogee-style floral pattern in this design, which features snakes, rats, snails, skeletons and moths adorning the flowing vines and flowers in various stages of incompletion. Brims’ intricate pencil drawings are half daydream and half nightmare.

Brims says: “Initially I took inspiration from William Morris’s beautifully intricate wallpaper designs. I wanted the design to appear to be a pretty English cottage garden with tulips, camellias and bluebells but with a subtle sinister feel to it, incorporating rats, snakes and fragments of hair and bones. We created a wallpaper design that’s a little bit whimsical with hints of darkness, showing the beauty and brutality of the natural world.”

Printed on paper using pulp from sustainably managed forests, with ultra-low VOC inks, and available in four colour ways – Coloured, Red, Purple and Parchment – even the packaging for the ‘Back To Nature’ range uses 100% biodegradable plastic-free materials. And for every roll sold, Mineheart pledge to plant one additional tree in areas of Africa heavily affected by deforestation.

I must admit, my fear of snakes extends to wallpapers, but I am drawn to this design with its dark undertones and William Morris references. And Brims’ detailing is exquisite, as are the colour combinations from the subtle tones of Parchment (my favourite) to the drama of Red.

The Back To Nature collection is priced at £152 per roll and is available from Mineheart. 

Photography from Mineheart.