behind the scenes - the inspiration behind my rug and wallpaper designs

This month on the blog I am giving you a behind-the-scenes look at the inspiration behind a selection of my most popular designs.

Inspiration can come from anywhere. One of the really unique things about Interiors by Element products is that, because all of the designs are quite abstract and ambiguous, the end result often resembles something very different from the original inspiration. Indeed, it can be quite a fun game to try to figure out what some of the designs represent (and even more fun if you don’t look at the names)!

Living in London, it is a privilege to be able to easily pop over to world-class institutions such as Kew Gardens or the Natural History Museum for research trips, which is where I often look for inspiration when beginning a new collection and where many of these photos were taken.

palm frond rug

I snapped this beautiful composition on a research trip to Kew Gardens, and it has quickly become one of my most popular rug designs - the Palm Frond rug. Sometimes things just fall into place to create the perfect piece.

palmfrond-inspiration

palmfrond-brown-red-leaf-patterned-rug

 

dahlia rug

I saw such a fantastic display of Dahlias in the garden at Holland Park one September that I had to return later that day with a proper camera to photograph them. I knew one of these would end up being a fabulous Dahlia-inspired rug design.

dahlia-flower-inspiration

dahlia-orange-bold-retro-rug

 

dew drops rug

When I first moved to London and was studying in the Westminister/Pimlico area. I grew fond of capturing the texture of the tree bark on the old trees in the area. It was only after I created a drawing from one of the photographs that I realized it looked a lot like water droplets - and so, the Dew Drops rug was born.

dewdrops-treebark-inspiration

dewdrops-blue-circle-patterned-rug

 

prism rug

The rock and mineral collections of the Natural History Museum provided a wealth of inspiration for my Geology rugs and wallpaper, like this fan-like crystal formation that inspired the Prism Rug.

prism-crystal-inspiration

prism-art-deco-sunburst-blue-rug

 

kaleidoscope rug

Who would have guessed that the flamboyant, showy Kaleidoscope rug, the first rug I ever created and still one of my most popular, was inspired by this humble leaf?

kaleidoscope-leaf-inspiration

kaleidoscope-green-leaf-pattern-rug

 

flutes wallpaper

I have never seen such interesting, exotic-looking reeds until I snapped these at Kew Gardens on a research trip. I later found out they were called Pitcher plants and were actually carnivorous! They were the inspiration for my Flutes wallpaper.

flutes-inspiration

flutes-vertical-stripe-green-wallpaper

 

polygon wallpaper

While looking around for inspiration in the cactus section of the Cambridge Botanical Gardens I stumbled upon this intriguing hexagonal rock formation as well - which provided a great source of inspiration for my Polygon Wallpaper.

polygon-rock-inspiration

polygon-hexagon-print-wallpaper

 

posted on 2017 / 04 / 09

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