Plantasia Wallpaper

A champion of maximalism in what was in 2011 a largely minimalist world, the fledgling British brand House of Hackney offered fantastical wallpapers, sumptuous fabrics and playful accessories layered so daringly and intensely that it caused quite a stir in its inaugural year. Fast-forward a decade or so, and the company had gone from strength to strength, thanks to an ever-expanding collection of high-quality British-made products and a set of social and environmental values that have earned it the prestigious B-Corp Certification. 

“When we first launched, there was a real focus on Scandi design, and everyone, including us, was living in white boxes,” recalls Frieda Gormley, who founded the business with her husband, Javvy M Royle.

“We found ourselves in this very sterile environment at what was politically and economically quite a bleak time in the UK. What we wanted was color, pattern and to really bring nature into our home. But at one end of the market was IKEA, and at the other were the kind of traditional wallpapers and furniture our parents were buying.”

Desperate for beautiful, well-made products, they created the designs themselves. Thus was born the House of Hackney, named after the East London borough where Gormley and Royle lived. The couple drew on a rich melting pot of inspirations, including Victorian-era palm houses, their urban neighborhood and the iconic William Morris. 

Right from the start, the pair knew they needed their heritage-inspired range to be made in the UK. With no little black book of suppliers, they embarked on a six-month road trip around the British Isles in search of craftspeople with whom they could collaborate.

“It was so exciting to discover factories that had been family run for generations — ceramics in Stoke-on-Trent, for example, and weavers in Lancashire and Suffolk,” Gormley said in 2023. “Almost thirteen years later, we’ve forged important relationships with those people and grown together. They’re very much part of our family.”

With no physical shop or showroom, they shot photographs and presented the designs to buyers in their own Victorian house, swathing the living room and bedrooms in layer upon layer of bold and botanical prints.

The company focused in 2023 on an initiative that Gormley and Royle were calling the Year of the Garden, a series of projects with an emphasis on both nature and sustainability that included an exclusive partnership with 1stDibs. Along with an edit of core House of Hackney items, including wallpapers, textiles, rugs, lighting and furniture, the 1stDibs collaboration had Gormley and Royle curating a selection of vintage pieces by the likes of Mario Bellini, Tobia Scarpa and others, several of which have been given a new lease on life with vibrant House of Hackney fabrics. 

A continuation of the couple’s ongoing mission to connect people with the great outdoors, the project also reflected their dedication to bringing maximum joy into people’s homes.

“We don’t look at trends, but we do stay close to nature, and we’re quite tucked in to that,” says Gormley. “It’s exciting when people are playful with decorating and just want to have fun with it.”

Find House of Hackney sofas, armchairs and other furniture and decorative objects on 1stDibs.

Arguably the world’s most ubiquitous man-made material, plastic has impacted nearly every industry. In contemporary spaces, new and vintage plastic furniture is quite popular and its use pairs well with a range of design styles.

From the Italian lighting artisans at Fontana Arte to venturesome Scandinavian modernists such as Verner Panton, who created groundbreaking interiors as much as he did seating — see his revolutionary Panton chair — to contemporary multidisciplinary artists like Faye Toogood, furniture designers have been pushing the boundaries of plastic forever.

When The Graduate's Mr. McGuire proclaimed, “There’s a great future in plastics,” it was more than a laugh line. The iconic quote is an allusion both to society’s reliance on and its love affair with plastic. Before the material became an integral part of our lives — used in everything from clothing to storage to beauty and beyond — people relied on earthly elements for manufacturing, a process as time-consuming as it was costly.

Soon after American inventor John Wesley Hyatt created celluloid, which could mimic luxury products like tortoiseshell and ivory, production hit fever pitch, and the floodgates opened for others to explore plastic’s full potential. The material altered the history of design — mid-century modern legends Charles and Ray Eames, Joe Colombo and Eero Saarinen regularly experimented with plastics in the development of tables and chairs, and today plastic furnishings and decorative objects are seen as often indoors as they are outside.

Find vintage plastic lounge chairs, outdoor furniture, lighting and more on 1stDibs.

Forget everything you believed about wallpaper (including mental images of your great aunt’s outdated decor). While paint has long had its place, there are fresh, modern designs these days in wallpaper that offer endless possibilities.

“There is undoubtedly an excitement surrounding pattern at the moment,” says Nick Cope, who cofounded Calico Wallpaper with his wife, Rachel. “Wallpaper has had certain connotations over the years. However, we are always focused on our mission to elevate wallpaper to high art.”

And today, paper is challenging paint’s long dominance. “In the late 1990s and early 2000s, everyone was painting and doing faux finishing,” says Sarah Merenda, founder of Merenda Wallpaper. But “there is currently a spotlight on wallpaper, and I find that people are interested in custom and large-scale designs. Printing digitally has been a game changer for the wallpaper world.”

Explore a variety of motifs and patterns in modern and vintage wallpaper options on 1stDibs today.