Images: Quirky B Lattice and Cube Ben Pentreath for Alternative Flooring; Flowers of Thorpe Liberty Fabric with Alternative Flooring; Chainmail Ashley Hicks for Alternative Flooring and Fair Isle Margo Selby for Alternative Flooring
We are all crazy for collaborations. From Topshop and Wedgwood to the Dolce & Gabbana fridge and the Fendi Chair, fashion brands are stepping off the catwalk and into the world of homewares. These happy partnerships show that two minds are sometimes better than one.
Creative collaborations grab the headlines. It’s a strikingly simple and clever concept that is instantly newsworthy. Brands either want the big names or those individuals on the ascent of becoming a high-profile designer. It is also about someone who is going to bring something different to the table. Someone who can take a collection in a fresh and perhaps a more alternative direction.
Lorna Haigh, head of creative and marketing at Alternative Flooring is making carpet cool. She has scouted some of the UK’s best designers who have added great British pattern to the award-winning Quirky B collection.
Go on work these collaborations in your own home!
Great interior designer style
Ben Pentreath is an A-list architectural interior designer and exponent of English style. His distinctive and playful style draws inspiration from the great practioners of the 1960s and 70s and historical interiors. He also writes a brilliant blog.
Cube, Tetra and Lattice are his designs in Ben Pentreath for Alternative Flooring. These are inspired by stone and marble flooring patterns by the prolific 18th century architect, Batty Langley but now re-worked as carpets in vivid colours that are named after Georgian architects and fuse country-house with contemporary quirky.
‘The designs create three-dimensional patterns that trick the eye and play with space, in a way, which create rich textures for the contemporary English interior. Rooted in tradition, I am always surprised how fresh and modern these classical designs can be, and it’s been a real honour to work with the talented people at Alternative Flooring to bring this collection to fruition.’ Ben Pentreath
Ashley Hicks is another alternative collaborator and interior design icon. His recent ventures include creating sets for the Corian Cabana Club during Milan’s design week, where he indulged in the world of maximalism. He also is a prolific instagrammer!
Giant hexagonals loomed large in the world of his father, the legendary English interior designer David Hicks. A flamboyant personality and bold use of colour (Coca-Cola and Yellow Duster) made him one of the most successful interior decorators of the 1960s. His son has reissued some of his father’s geometric patterns but in new guises. Ashley Hicks for Alternative Flooring is a collaboration that sees hexagons take to the floor with great originality.
‘I was keen to make a hexagon-based design that was new and different, with a random edge to its geometry rather than the usual symmetrical, formal layout. Playing around with this idea, I came up with Chainmail. Having grown up surrounded by Seventies geometrics, I love them, and very much wanted that quality in the design, but mixed with a more contemporary style.’ Ashley Hicks
The other design is Daisy. Inspired by wall-decoration in an old temple in Sri Lanka, it has a punchy, Pop presence that will inject a touch of 60’s glamour into any room.
Why weaves are magical underfoot
Have you used Margo Selby pattern in your interiors? Well she is definitely our queen of weave. You can now find her famous textiles translated onto flooring in her first ever carpet collaboration. Her Fair Isle and Shuttle designs are beautifully crafted in Margo Selby’s trademark three-dimensional style and feature her distinctive graphic patterns.
‘Margo Selby for Alternative Flooring is inspired by a collection of hand-woven silk and wool fabrics developed on my handloom, which have been upscaled and recoloured to make them suitable for flooring. I am excited with my first flooring collaboration and see both carpet and colour coming back into fashion.’ Margo Selby
How to show flowers on floors
Two great British brands that share a rich heritage of design got together to dress our floors – Alternative Flooring with Liberty Fabrics. This is the first time that Liberty Fabrics has used its iconic patterns including for summer florals on a wall-to-wall carpet, stair runner and bespoke rugs.
‘Classic Liberty prints have been expertly woven into contemporary rugs, runners and carpets creating a new visualisation for these iconic designs, bringing them into our interiors in a unique, original and innovative way. Walk on woven heritage gardens, meadows, shells and exotic y created to adorn the floors of both modern and vintage interiors.’ Liberty Design Studio
Collaborations are all the rage. In fashion, they induce shopping frenzy – remember the camping fans for H&M for Alexander Wang) and flooring our collaborations make patterned carpets, rugs and runners super cool.