How interior designers are innovating by reflecting on the past

To move forward, sometimes you have to look back. Anya Cooklin-Lofting shows how the top design companies rely on the history of interior design for inspiration

John Booth X Floor_Story Technique hand knotted rug, £3500 (Floor_Story)

I know I’m not the only one to have taken pleasure in the resourcefulness this strange time has required of us. Crawling into the darkest depths of the pantry to retrieve cans and spices from which to conjure something vaguely edible (a compliment, in my household) has brought with it such a thrill, all to save one less unnecessary trip to the supermarket. We are, in many aspects, looking back to move forward, and not just in the kitchen. We are using our resources upon which to reflect, innovate and adapt.

This resourcefulness is not limited to haphazardly combining red kidney beans and dusty stock cubes, however. Working with what’s in our cultural and visual archives to learn and progress, the design community shows us that the history of interior design can provide a wealth of inspiration for exciting new developments. Reaching back into the history of design, the proverbial kitchen pantry of visual reference, trends, and movements, we can derive a huge amount to suit contemporary tastes and excite the modern consumer.

This week, I pick out some of the top examples of design brands that have delved into their industry’s history to bring the best of interior design to the modern day. Whether that is through new product launches or the dissemination of educational content on the ancient canon of design on social media, the design industry has the ultimate privilege of a recorded history from which to borrow, and to which it can add.

18.01 x Floor_Story carve citrine hand-knotted rug, from £2,950 (Floor_story) (Floor_Story)

Martin Waller, the founder of Andrew Martin, a design brand based on London’s Walton street, has been busy during this period of lockdown recording enlightening videos about his top 10 influential interior designers throughout history. The homewares brand itself is a melting pot of historical and global cultural reference, with commissioned pieces of furniture in distinct collections as well as unique pieces Waller has accumulated on his travels. His online round-up travels not only across the world but through time. From ancient Greek architect Pheidias to Yuan dynasty court adviser and architect, Liu Bingzhong, and from pioneering female interior designer, Elsie de Wolfe to Thomas Jefferson, Waller spans many of interior design’s milestones in his lockdown round-up. For the full list of Waller’s top 10 interior designers, you can watch his insightful Instagram TVs on the @andrewmartin_int Instagram grid.

Another homewares brand to channel bygone eras into its offering is Sofa Workshop and its recent collaboration with the V&A. The British manufacturer of sofas, armchairs and footstools has teamed up with the leading museum of the arts and culture to produce a collection of new models completely inspired by the V&A’s furniture archives. From the silhouettes of the pieces to the fabrics in which they are available (although customers can choose any fabric from the vast range Sofa Workshop holds including the likes of Sanderson and Zoffany), every detail has been weighed against original antique designs in the archives and brought up to date for the modern day.

Another hit of retro design for your living room comes with Floor_Story’s recent chain of collaborations with some of the most popular designers of our time. The producer of handmade rugs is based in east London, and its recent projects with 2LG, Camille Walala, Carmella Indrawati, Eley Kishimoto, Kitty Joseph, Zandra Rhodes and Sebastian Wrong amplify the designers’ styles and voices. Two designs in particular from the latest collection of collaborations hark back to different aesthetic movements of the 19th century. Carve Citrine by creative consultancy, 18.01 is a musing on traditional knitting stitches such as Aran from the 1930s, while Technique by illustrator, ceramicist and artist John Booth channels the vibrancy of the 1980s and visuals associated with the artwork of Keith Haring, David Hockney and Richard Hamilton. The use of colour, material and texture in these rugs points directly to these historical inspirations but still prove testaments to the signature styles of the collaborators, perfect for the contemporary living room or bedroom.

The Kavanagh Collection in avocado by Tom Howley (Tom Howley)

The kitchen, too, can benefit from great design inspired by the annals of history in which this specific type of room endures. The kitchen style currently in vogue has its roots in Shaker home design, a style named eponymously after an English religious group formed in the late 18th century. The style is characterised by its functionality, limited ornamentation and simplicity. Tom Howley, a British kitchen manufacturer whose showrooms have opened as of 1 June, prides itself on its lack of “gimmickry” in the kitchen such as soft-close cabinetry or overcomplicated mechanisms.

“We prefer to keep things simple and traditional,” Howley, design director, tells me. “So do not offer soft-close cabinets. It distracts from the weight and quality of the Shaker-style cabinetry, and there is very little more satisfying than the light knock of wood on wood over the underscore of a sizzling saucepan.” British Standard by Plain English has also adopted some of the design style of the 1700s in its launch of the new standalone larder cupboard. Design director Merlin Wright says the new larder cupboard is “inspired by the standalone furniture found in Georgian kitchens, for which there is increasing demand”.

If you’re on the lookout for smaller items or accessories for a storied hit to update your home, English pottery Burleigh has launched its first collection of mix-and-match ceramicware for an elevated dining experience, drawing on designs from its archive. The collection, named Collection One, celebrates the past, present and future of the pottery via three distinct designs which can be layered and styled together.

The past is represented by a Christopher Dresser-inspired design from the archive, Palisade, while the present is embodied in its current and popular Hibiscus design. The future is represented by a pattern that looks back on Burleigh’s story of industriousness, skill and uniqueness through the motif of bees and a striking geometric honeycomb pattern called Pollen. LSA International, a glassware and tableware producer, has also looked back on the history of design for its recent collections, including the Eastern Bloc architecture which inspired the highly stylised, satisfyingly chunky Vodka collection, and Brutalist architectural references as seen in the Metropole range, paying homage to the building style of the mid-late 20th century.