Arts and Crafts Style William Morris Pillow/Cushion Reinterpreted Ben Pentreath

Tomato/Olive, Olive/Turquoise and Sky/Leaf Green

Designer Ben Pentreath’s interest in the work of the Arts and Crafts visionary William Morris developed when he was a teenager. He recalls visiting his godmother’s house just across the road from his parents in Dorset, which – like many homes in the Seventies – was bedecked in Morris’s designs. ‘It is extraordinary to me that patterns developed in the mid to late 19th century still seem as fresh and relevant 150 years later,’ says Ben, who confesses to including a Morris pattern – be it a wallpaper or a single upholstered chair – in almost all of his interiors projects.

It was a happy moment, then, when Morris & Co approached Ben last year to ask if he would like to recolour a selection of Morris’s original
designs. Fourteen patterns have been produced across nine fabrics and eight wallpapers in a variety of colourways. The collection is called
Queen Square, reflecting the serendipitous fact that the Bloomsbury location is where Morris had a workshop and home, and also where Ben lives when in London.

The starting point for some of the colour choices was a book produced by Sanderson, which recoloured many of Morris’s designs in the Sixties. Ben had previously seen a vivid turquoise and olive green version of ‘Willow Bough’ from that range on a friend’s sofa in Tuscany. ‘The tones are so rich – it’s one of the most beautiful combinations,’ says Ben, who tracked down the Sixties book on a visit to the Morris & Co archive. He
has used the turquoise and olive colourway for three fabrics and three wallpapers in the new collection.

Ben has selected a broad spectrum of designs in terms of scale and colour. Along with classics such as ‘Marigold’ and ‘Honeysuckle’, he has reintroduced four lesser known patterns, such as ‘Daffodil’, which had not been in production for many years. Some of the designs have been remade with completely new colour combinations chosen by Ben. ‘I wanted to give some of Morris’s Classic designs a change of atmosphere,’ he explains. Although the final results are created using traditional processes – the wallpapers are surface-printed, while the fabrics are screen-printed – digital printing was an effective way to trial different colour options. The overall palette reflects Ben’s playful aesthetic. ‘For me the whole collection is filled with nostalgia,’ he says. ‘There is a sense of comfort and happiness in these fabrics, which
could not be more relevant today.’ *

*Attributed House & Garden.

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