The Artichoke Queen Bed, Strawberry Thief Steamer Trunk and Poppy Armoire from the Morris & Co. collaboration with Selamat (Photo courtesy Selamat)
One hundred sixty years ago, a young William Morris, dissatisfied with the dearth of handcrafted embroidery and murals available in industrialized Victorian society, enlisted his pre-Raphaelite artist friends to help him outfit his Southeast London estate. Their work formed the basis for Morris & Co., a brand known for its textiles and wallpapers with repeating floral patterns, and cemented Morris’ role in the Arts and Crafts movement.
Morris & Co., along with fellow British heritage brands Liberty and Sanderson & Sons, created a ripple effect that’s still visible in contemporary art, fashion and interior design today. You’ll find Liberty patterns on J. Crew jackets, Neiman Marcus handbags and Pottery Barn Teen bedding, to name a few, while new eyewear collections, Poetic pillows and hotel rooms (at the Melia Kensington in London) all sport legacy Morris prints. Artist Kehinde Wiley, whose monumental statue “Rumors of War” debuted at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in December, has used Morris designs in his paintings for years.
Morris drew inspiration from his English countryside surroundings. His most famous pattern, Strawberry Thief, pays homage to the small birds that would steal fruit from his kitchen garden. It is one of the prominent patterns reimagined in a new collaboration between San Francisco-based Selamat Designs and Style Library, the U.K. company that owns the Morris archives. The collection, which includes both straightforward depictions and creative interpretations of 20 historic Morris patterns across 40 pieces of furniture, home decor and lighting, makes its Central Virginia debut at Palette Paint and Home this month.
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Selamat’s Poppy Armoire features Morris & Co.’s Pure Poppy pattern reimagined on a large scale. (Photo courtesy Selamat)
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Image courtesy Style Library
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Selamat’s Strawberry Thief Steamer Side Table (Photo courtesy Selamat)
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Image courtesy Style Library
“It’s exciting to see Selamat take originally hand-blocked patterns and translate them into special pieces that are relevant to current style,” says Palette owner Stephanie Snyder. Her clients, many of whom work in the design trade, have already placed orders for tables adorned in Strawberry Thief, and pendant lights and armoires inspired by Morris’ Pure Poppy.
Another standout piece in the collection is a rattan and mahogany bed frame that gets its headboard shape from enlarged artichoke flowers, the subject of an 1877 print. “The reemergence of these beautiful English patterns sits so well with the colors we’re seeing design embrace, which are nature-inspired, too,” Snyder says.
