Emily Horton discovers Hamilton Weston, the wallpaper company preserving historic designs
Interior designer Georgina Hamilton has been specialising in classic interiors since 1981 when, along with architectural historian Robert Weston, she founded Hamilton Weston to reproduce and help preserve unique and historic wallpapers.
- Q) How did you get into your craft?
A) It was while my business partner Robert was working for Survey of London, a research project (and now published as a series of books) recording the capital’s urban landscape. He discovered a host of 18th-century scraps of wallpaper desperately hanging onto life on the walls of the old buildings he was surveying. He was fascinated by what he was discovering and began to research many of the designs and their origins. It ultimately led to him re-creating a few...
- Q) What is your style passion?
A) We naturally feel that wallpaper is a key element to any interior. It can give a room both style and atmosphere. Specifically, it is recreating the beautiful, underrated and often little-known historical wallpapers that is what inspires us. Our earliest design – the quirky Lambeth Saracen (pictured, below) – dates all the way back to 1690. Each of our hand-crafted wallpapers are treasured pieces.
- Q) How does a design evolve?
A) We produce each historical pattern in its original colouring and then we pair it with contemporary colourways
to give it a new lease of life that will appeal to modern tastes and palettes. We also love to create new wallpaper designs from original artefacts, often brought to us by our clients as inspiration for new creations, such as maps, textiles and embroideries.
- Q) Tell us about your project for Jane Austen’s House?
A) Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton, Hampshire, has commissioned the recreation of two early 19th-century designs that have been discovered in the cottage where Jane grew up with her mother and sisters. Robert is currently working to piece together the very fragile fragments of the paper, in order to redraw the designs and bring them back to life for the museum in time for the 200th anniversary of Jane’s death in 1817.
- Q) What inspires you?
A) We are inspired by the meticulous craft of hand-printed wallpapers. One of the British printers that we work closely with is artist Marthe Armitage who, with her daughter Jo, lino-block prints the papers by hand in their Chiswick studio. Earlier this year, Marthe created a design for a limited edition collection for London perfumer Jo Malone.
Hamilton Weston
- Q) What is your USP?
A) There are so many mass-produced wallpapers and interior furnishings these days that many of our customers comment about how they just love the hand-printed work and that it can last for years. Our clients choose their own print colour to make the wallpaper very special and bespoke – it is a work of art.
- Q) What are your tips for wallpapers in the home?
A) Always choose a design to complement the scale of the room and the way it will be used, but be bold and creative, too. As William Morris, the principal of the Arts and Crafts movement, observed, ‘Large scale patterns suit small areas,’ so don’t be afraid of making a statement.
I also always advise people to take note of the amount of light entering a space as well as the direction of the windows – you can be quite bold in design and colour if you have plenty of light to illuminate the room.
Adversely, keep the colours more muted with the cool, northern light. In addition, paint the ceiling and woodwork a colour that harmonises with the selected wallpaper colouring. At all costs, avoid a bright and stark white!
Hamilton Weston wallpaper featured in The Woman in Black starring Daniel Radcliffe
- Q) Tell us about your latest collection?
A) A current project involves reviving some original designs drawn by a colleague’s grandmother in the 1930s. She lived in Paris and socialized with many of the famous early 20th-century artists of the day. We hope it will reflect the period’s rich heritage and colourful stories of the artist.
- Q) Why did you choose Richmond as a base?
A) We have been living in Richmond for a long time. We love the area, its culture, the river, the parks and especially Kew Gardens.
- Q) Where can we learn more?
A) Browse our website and get in touch. If you are not local, we can advise locations for interior designers and shops where our wallpapers can be viewed and ordered.
- Q) Do you have an open studio?
A) Our studio is open by appointment and we welcome new and existing client visits.
For Marthe Armitage, please contact Hamilton Weston direct; jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk
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