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Profile on Sophie Conran

Published: 17-Mar-2009

This member of the Conran design dynasty has many strings to her bow — fashion, ceramics, cookery and furniture to name a few. Now she is hoping to ‘bring joy to the home’ with a range of warm and pretty wallpapers.

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The interior of Sophie Conran’s Bayswater flat is in the process of being overhauled. The rooms are being papered with designs from the new pattern book she has created for Arthouse in readiness for the range’s launch party later this month.

 

‘I think Chantilly is going to look great with the bright red carpet in the hall,’ smiles Conran, referring to the mustard yellow and floral paper, one of 10 designs in the Arthouse collaboration.

 

‘The whole range is inspired by a family holiday to the Dordogne when I was little,’ she explains. ‘We stayed in a crumbling chateau, with peeling wallpaper and dusty curtains. It felt so romantic.’ This idea of faded glory can be seen in designs such as Chantilly and Belle with their slightly aged look and traditional floral patterns in pen and ink. The pattern book also features plainer designs, tactile elements such as a suede effect and papers with a geometric edge. Valentine, for instance, has an Art Deco look — an era that Conran ‘just loves’.

 

This is the second time Conran has worked on wallpapers with Arthouse. The first range came out last year for B&Q but this latest offering will be available from independent outlets. It is much more design led, has a higher price and is aimed at interior designers rather than consumers.

 

‘Although there are some zingy pieces, this collection is a little more relaxed,’ says Conran, ‘and I think that is the direction in which wallpaper is going. Softer greens or blues are coming through. It’s a sign of the times — people are making less risky choices.’

 

Although it is certainly not Conran’s plan to create ‘safe bet’ designs. Her style may be warm and pretty but there is always a quirky twist.

 

‘I would like my wallpaper to bring joy into the home, especially if we are all set to stay in one place for longer,’ she says, alluding to the recession and the fact that people are now more inclined to improve their existing homes than move house.

 

Conran’s own home is full of brave and joyful choices. As well as combining mustard yellow wallpaper with the red carpet in the hall, the flat has hot pink walls, boldly upholstered sofas, huge clocks, framed comic covers and vintage film posters.

‘I like to play with scale and mix reclaimed, traditional and modern pieces, just to see what works best together,’ she says.

 

Reclamation has been a feature of Conran’s interiors over the years. Following a stint in the fashion world, working with milliner Stephen Jones and her brother Jasper on his clothing range, one of her first interior projects involved show flats at London’s Butler’s Wharf development in the late 1980s. Conran moved to Australia in the 1990s and fell in love with a rammed-earth shack, which she turned into a cosy retreat using, among other things, an old bath she found dumped at the side of the road. She also designed the interior of a flat she shared with a boyfriend, using antique pieces found in the basement of a castle belonging to his family. Her Bayswater flat contains many salvaged pieces, including a giant, old sewing machine in her office. This was found by her aunt, Priscilla Carluccio, owner of Few and Far, an interiors shop on Brompton Road.

 

Much has been said of Conran’s design heritage; as well as being Priscilla’s niece, she is the daughter of Sir Terence and food writer Caroline Conran and sister of Jasper, Sebastian and Tom, who have all followed their father into the design world. It is clear that she is proud of her family’s achievements.

 

‘When I think of my position in my family, I always consider the quote about standing on the shoulders of giants,’ she says, ‘I grew up in an environment where conversations were geared towards the way we look at the world, with a real wonderment about design. We have all taken that in different ways,’ she adds. ‘Sebastian’s way of thinking is very mechanical, whereas I’m much more swirly!’

 

After the Australian adventure, which also involved cultivating her own food (including rearing pigs) and developing a homeware range called Country Road, Conran returned to England to put her skills to use on home soil. She launched her first food range, Sophie Conran Pies, in 2004 and her debut cookbook, Pies, was published two years later. In 2006 she created a 60-piece kitchen and tableware range for Portmeirion, which later expanded to 120 pieces, including candles and storage containers. And she has just released a fine dining range, White Oak, with the company.

 

Last year Conran returned to interiors when she was asked to refurbish the showroom of bathroom company Drummonds. She is currently talking to kitchen company Harvey Jones about designing a bespoke piece for its range. And as we speak, she is preparing to travel to Petersfield in Hampshire to work on a house she is refurbishing — it’s a chance to use her new wallpapers, she informs me.

 

Conran is also planning a cookery school in a barn in the Cotswolds. ‘It will include jam-making, butchery, knitting and history of art classes too, so a mixed bag,’ laughs Conran, ‘and the interior will be simple and rustic.’

 

Much of her work aims to support craftsmanship and sustainability in the design industry. For example, her ranges for Portmeirion start life with a master potter, who throws hundreds of shapes before reaching the chosen design. Conran has also started designing chairs with a company that she cannot yet name but can reveal has ‘great green credentials’. The furniture will use only British wood taken from sustainable forests. Similarly, each of her wallpapers was created with specialist craftspeople, such as the screen printer she worked with on the pastel pink Juliette design, with its thick layer of painted floral shapes. This design has been the inspiration for a huge cake for the launch party, proving that Conran’s designs are beautiful, homely, fun and good enough to eat.

 

 

This article originally appeared in idFX magazine

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