Our latest collaboration: Lorfords Contemporary x Natasha Hulse

Our latest collaboration has finally arrived! We’ve been working on this design collaboration over the last few months with appliqué artist Natasha Hulse and we’re thrilled to be able to finally talk about it.

The project started when we met Natasha last year and the conversation got onto headboards as she had recently completed a bespoke commission for one of her private clients and we were thinking how we could expand and improve on our own range in terms of design and sustainability, and so we began discussing the idea of a collaboration. 

“Everything that I make in my own studio is made in the mindset of appreciating our environment, celebrating nature and creating designs that will last the test of time,” says Natasha. “ So when the Lorfords Contemporary team told me about their new environmental initiatives in the workshop, it felt like the perfect opportunity to collaborate on a project that celebrated our shared approach to hand-craft.”

After a visit to our workshop in The Cotswolds, Natasha began designing some new headboard silhouettes for us, using the local countryside and architecture as her starting inspiration. “I wanted to make sure I kept a curve to represent nature, however also something that had a good presence and that would hold its own in a large house with tall ceilings,” says Natasha. “The Rose headboard is the taller of the two designs while the Meadow headboard shape is lower in height and has a lovely width to showcase the field like meadow expansiveness.”

In the workshop we’d been working hard on improving the hand-construction of our headboards, introducing naturally sourced materials such as natural latex foam and FSC wooden frames. We also made the decision to completely eliminate all chipboard and MDF in our headboards going forward. You can read more about this here 

With the silhouettes designed Natasha then started to design the artworks for each of the headboards, inspiration again being taken from the Oxfordshire countryside and continuing her appreciation of the natural world. “Aesthetically I draw my inspiration from the beauty and simplicity of nature which I feel brings serenity into interior spaces. Since 2017 I’ve been combining hand-painted fabrics and appliqué to create unique three-dimensional botanical based artworks. I like to communicate through touch and texture outside of a frame, so creating three-dimensional works in this way feels a very natural language for me and something that translates really well into functional textiles and upholstered furniture.”

Each headboard is decorated by Natasha with hand-cut and hand-painted fabric applique which she creates in her London studio. Every design is completely bespoke so each will feature individual flowers and motifs in unique patterns, and the headboards can be created in any fabric that you like, although our favourite option is our Vintage Cloth collection that is made from salvaged hemp and linens. You can read more about these here. 

“When deciding on which botanical motifs to use for each headboard, firstly I turned to the fields around Tetbury which were full of summertime yellow meadow flowers. While I was wandering here I also found some oak tree branches in the surrounding woods that I thought could bring in a good sense of structure and framing to the designs. I then started to experiment with different florals, deciding upon a classic red rose motif for my second design that brings in a punch of rich red, intertwined with oak leaves. It was important to me also to create designs that would work within a variety of interiors and I think that's something that working with botanicals can achieve beautifully and for the bedroom especially creates a welcome sense of serenity.” 

Each headboard takes the Lorfords Contemporary team and Natasha about eight weeks to make, with every element constructed entirely by hand in our Cotswolds workshop.

You can see the full collection here.