Headboards introduce drama and detail. They can be used as artwork in a bedroom and provide a wonderful opportunity to show off beautiful designs on a large scale. We collaborate with very talented artists and artisans who create one-off detailed appliqué and unique embroidered designs. I am always championing crafts and beautiful handiwork—the touch of the artist or craftsman’s hand always enhances the story behind a piece. Every headboard tells a story.
Friendly Folk
Andrew Martin Showroom, London
Last year, we launched the Kit Kemp collection, available through Kravet in the U.S. It comprises five wallpaper and six fabric designs in an array of painterly colorways. The collection embodies a lyrical spirit, like an imaginative folktale that sits happily in both town and country settings.
We wanted to create something exquisite. The creative process began when studying tapestries from the 15th and 16th centuries. Fascinated to see the magical creatures hiding behind leaves and under hedgerows, it inspired the idea to give them new life in a contemporary world. Artist Melissa White and I had fun taking this idea and transforming it into reality. We did not want to lose the hand-drawn effect and depth within the designs, so we spent weeks at the mills and wallpaper factories in the north of England, hand-selecting different background fabrics. Friendly Folk appears on a linen mix, Hedgerow on cotton twill, and Pear Tree on a chintz.
Along with traditional tapestries, Native American art provided a lot of inspiration. Taking cues from American folk art, Mythical Land is a monumental, nearly 10-foot repeat mural. First seen in our Whitby Hotel in New York, it was designed to encourage layering and defines a room with the unfolding twists and turns of a story.
Dashing Red Knight
The Whitby Hotel, New York
One of our favorite artists, Kumi, creates exquisite designs using vintage kimonos sent from her mother in Japan. My brother introduced me to her work when he bought me a bag made and embellished by her for my birthday. Kumi is so quiet and unassuming, she had never thought about embellishing a headboard before. But as you can see, her attention to detail, observation, and execution of her art is exemplary.
This headboard was inspired by an illustration I saw of a huntsman in the woodlands on the top of an old Russian black-lacquered box. Kumi replicated the design using appliqué and embroidered remnants of the old and damaged textiles. With the collage of fabrics, a new level of detail emerges, showcasing hand-dyes and block prints that emulate a folkloric tale.
The Terrace Suite
Ham Yard Hotel, London
We fell in love with this headboard by fabric artist Natasha Hulse, which now resides in the new, bright and airy Terrace suite at the Ham Yard Hotel. We knew it would work perfectly in the sunny second bedroom with its combination of soothing green and blue tones. The beautiful flowers and butterflies are all hand-embroidered and painted, introducing a botanical feel into the room.
Tree of Life
The Whitby Hotel, New York
We worked with Natasha Hulse once again to help craft the master bedroom in the Whitby suite. The space comes alive with her exquisitely hand-embroidered headboard. The height adds excitement, while its vibrant colors and textures create a dramatic palette. Cushions in the vivid green of Seema Krish’s handblocked and embroidered Juhu fabric marry with Hulse’s bespoke and appliquéd headboard. It is a magnificent Tree of Life design with little beads sewn onto the leaves, appliqué butterflies, and 3D centers on the flowers. These tiny details bring the room to life and show a true skill in the craft. You can almost imagine the artisan’s hands working over the fabric—it’s all in the details. Natasha was at school with my daughter Minnie, and it has been a pleasure to watch her grow into an accomplished designer. This is one of the joys of my job, watching the progress of talented designers and artists who have grown up around me. It is like watching a beautiful butterfly emerge from its chrysalis.
Under the Sea
Kit Kemp’s Pop-up Caribbean Suite at the Turnell & Gigon Showroom, London
Turnell & Gigon represents wonderful textile companies such as California-based Raoul Textiles, whose fabrics are clear and bright; Jean Monro, whose traditional and handblocked fabrics we so admire; and Schumacher, whose fabrics are innovative and unique. Our Flora headboard is named after someone on my team, upholstered in Schumacher’s Under the Sea fabric, complete with coral embroidery. The fabric is calmed by the intricate but beautiful white-on-white linen half-tester around it. The cushions echo the theme, and so do the bedside lamps with coral and friendly fish circling the turquoise ceramic base.
Under the Rainbow Tree
Ham Yard Hotel, London
I regularly work with the charitable social enterprise Fine Cell Work, founded more than 20 years ago with the aim of helping prisoners develop new skills and earn money. Volunteers currently work with inmates in 32 British prisons, engaging with more than 500 prisoners each year.
The prisoners consistently produce lovely stitching and needlework, from simple cross-stitch designs to the most complicated embroideries. I have seen them transformed by their work. It gives them a feeling of value and achievement; they are paid for what they do and are enormously proud of the objects they have made. It is always so surprising to see the biggest and boldest men create the most intricate and fine pieces.
Under the Rainbow Tree is one such piece, and it can be found at the Ham Yard Hotel. We wanted to extend the appeal of Fine Cell Work to designers and interior decorators, so we developed the range to include a headboard, footstool, breakfast tray, lampshade, and mirror.
Charleston Flowers
Covent Garden Hotel, London
This headboard can be found in room 215 at the Covent Garden Hotel. We always call Covent Garden our grande dame because it is a typical English hotel—dripping in romance and situated on a cobblestone street in walking distance to the Royal Opera House and many London theaters.
The Charleston Flowers headboard is inspired by the Bloomsbury Group and the works of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. They were the original artists of the Omega Workshops that opened at the beginning of the 20th century. Started by Roger Fry (who brought the first post-Impressionist art exhibition to London), they have been rich pickings for inspiration, and their color palette looks perfect through the English light.
This headboard—our Ruby design—is divided into three panels. Leather outlines the Bloomsbury flowers trailing down the panels of the headboard. Alex Sherman used a technique of reverse appliqué to stitch them onto my Lost and Found fabric, which is inspired by Vanessa Bell’s abstract paintings.
The Asafo
Haymarket Hotel, London
One of my favorite combinations is black, white, and red. It’s a classic style that still looks contemporary, and there are so many ways for the colors to work together. This Asafo-inspired headboard found in room 101 at the Haymarket Hotel is black with a witty appliqué of an airplane flying through clouds and an interesting embroidered windblown tree with red leaves. We have used vibrant dashes of red to awaken a contemporary combination of black and white. The soft textures of the Nuvolette Fornasetti cloudy wallpaper wrap this elegant Regency room. Indeed, the gray color palette enhances the vibrancy of the red touches.
