Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
I come from a long line of decorators, being into my family tree I've
discovered that my family were decorators right back to the beginning
of the nineteenth century
And my father's still alive, and my grandfather they were all decorators
one one way or another
So I was brought up with the interest in period properties, my Father
used to
take me to period properties he was a room steward and so was my Mother
in National Trust property
So that was in the blood. What's popular at the moment in the design sector
is the
background story to things people are buying things knowing where they
come from
they don't just want it out of the blue particular sector of the market
and that adds value to it
i thought well in my
heritage side, my period side, I know that the Ancient High House in Stafford
when they were renovating it
they discovered layer upon layer of period wallpaper
and it's had at at the end of the eighteenth early nineteenth century
which spot is spot on for my period
an owner who was,
we presume, showing up his new-found wealth
and he papered the house and he papered over the old timbers, because it's a timber framed building
obviously he wanted to do what was fashionable at the time
and he
papered over the window frames, the mullions, he did everything
when they were renovating it the not only found the layer,
the top layer
but layers underneath
so that was all removed and archived and it's become well-known amongst
wallpaper historians as a resource
period for wallpaper
and it's in Stafford
So with Staffordshire University it seemed a perfect fit
so for our first range of wallpapers we've worked with the Ancient High House
and the students and recent graduates who've been designers
have had access to those resources
in order to
influence and inspire their designs. I think the students are getting
a full experience from pitching their designs to High House
so they're having to go through that process of working on something that they don't
whether their going to win, their designs going to win
then they go through to having the experience. The first collection that we've
developed we've worked with designers and wallpaper historians so
designer are actually working and doing designs in industry, they've also had the
expertise from everyone from the university
and they're getting the
output for their designs straightaway, sp we're doing the marketing, the PR for them
and we're lucky enough to have won the wallpaper direct contract, which is
great and also the students are getting their names on designs. If they go into
industry their designs, they might lose their name, we want the designers to have
their name on their design.
It's amazing, it's such a massive opportunity. It's just unreal to see it actually there on the wall. Everytime
I look at it I just can remember the initial drawing phase, when I was actually sat there
in the High House doing some drawings
and now to see it on the wall is quite an achievement