Fromental

Beautiful Prunus in Samui from Decorex 2009

The magic that is created at Fromental is out of this world, when you walk into their showroom it is like walking around an art gallery of an exquisitely high calibre. Fromental are known for their hand painted wallpapers but what blew me away were the designs which also incorporated hand embroiderery. Yes, hand embroidery for the walls! It sounds oh so extravagant but once you've seen it, believe me, you will realise that you need some in your life or if you're a designer, your clients most certainly do!

The wallpaper will adorn your walls as if they were art, enchanting and mesmerising all those that lay eyes on the room. Of course by knowing a little more about how the wallpapers are produced will allow you to understand the amazing quality and craftsmanship involved to produce such a beautiful product. So I have talked to Fromental to learn a little more about the company...

Fromental is a relatively young company, what is the story behind its creation?

We started in 2005 to make hand-painted wallpapers, with the idea of specifically creating panoramic, non-repeating designs.

Combining highly skilled craftsmanship together with luxurious fabrics, our distinctly British style blends classicism with a little of London’s fashion scene to create contemporary, timeless designs. The creative team is a collaboration of talented designers and craftsmen from London and China.

Our founders Tim Butcher and Lizzie Deshayes hold years of experience in creating, painting and restoring traditional wallcoverings and European scenics. Through Fromental, they aim to bring something new to the world of interiors, combining a blend of both innovative and ancient techniques to create beautiful compositions.

Lizzie Deshayes and Tim Butcher at Fromentals 10th Birthday celebration

Can you walk us through the different styles of art that are used to create the beautiful wallpapers we have seen from Fromental? 

Our handmade wallcoverings offer an unrivalled level of quality, scale, impact and beauty. They are produced on the finest silk using the highest levels of craftsmanship. The tradition of skilled craft has almost disappeared in Europe so we chose to locate manufacturing in China, which plays hosts the world’s best painters and embroiderers for the designs we want to achieve. We have a window in history to produce works of the beauty and skill that have not been witnessed since the 18th/19th Century.  Our refined, silk wallpapers are made in Wuxi, now the centre of China’s silk industry.  

Hand-painting, hand-embroidery and hand-printing are the crafts used to make our wallpapers. 

Chinese painting is one of the oldest, continuous artistic traditions in the world. Their traditional style involves the same techniques as calligraphy with a brush dipped in black or coloured ink, without the use of oils. Chinese artisans are as highly regarded as their academics, their skills passed down from generation to generation for over 2500 years.

Embroidery is one of the most prestigious and beautiful arts in China, originating around 800BC. We pioneered the technique of embellishing hand-painted wallpapers with fine silk embroidery, taking an already supreme decorative form to new heights of opulence. Our embroiderers are located in Suzhou, a city with a long artistic history and whose hand-embroidery is renowned across the globe for its rich designs, its many stitches and its elegant technique. Artists spend up to 600 hours stitching individual wallpaper panels.

How are the designs initially created and presented to the client for approval before working on the real thing?

We have collections of standard designs that we can customize to fit the client’s space. Colours can also be customized.

If you are feeling very extravagant, we can complete a completely customized design just for you.

Customised part embroidered nonsuch in warrington

Is all of the artwork done in the UK or are elements done overseas?

All the initial designs are created in our London studio. They are then made in studios both in London and China

Is any of the painting done on site or are all elements painted on paper or silk before installation?

All of our wallpapers are painted before installation

Do you have any lines which can be bought off the peg so to speak? 

Yes all of our designs are standard designs and can be bought as a straight run but everything is still made to order- we don’t carry stock

Does Fromental have any other lines that we should look out for or collaborations coming up in the future? 

Last year, we collaborated with Raynaud porcelain collection – see here for more info, and more recently with Gainsborough on a fabrics collection as per attached release.

There are likely to be more collaborations in the future – watch this space!

To contact Fromental please feel free to take a look at their website and contact them directly. www.fromental.co.uk

This is not a sponsored post

Images are all courtesy of Fromental