Cultural Diversity in Interior Design: Balancing Global Influences with Local Authenticity

Cultural Diversity in Interior Design: Balancing Global Influences with Local Authenticity

At Penny Morrison, our philosophy has always been predicated on two key elements.

The first is the belief that breaking the rules – or perhaps just choosing to turn a blind eye to them – is the key to creating stunning and balanced interiors. If you’re driven by a passion for colour, print, texture and quality, then even the most thoughtful interior designs can feature an element of spontaneity. This is what we like to bring to every one of our designs, from our core fabrics to the love of form and colour imbued in our decorative lighting.

The second is a shared love of people and the planet. Everything we do is centred around the artisans who inspire and work with us and around carefully measuring our methods for producing and distributing our pieces to customers based around the world.

All art follows a process of inspiration and distillation – of absorbing ideas and, when inspiration hits, rejuvenating them in a new form. Here’s how we blend together the near and the far in our interior design and every element we create.

Every person involved in the processes of creating our fabrics, wallpapers, and products, has a part to play in the final quality of the product. This image shows a screen printer meticulously working on our Haveli Pink Fabric.

An Emphasis on Craftsmanship

Nothing can rival true craftsmanship. It’s the secret ingredient for stunning interior design, without which even the most beautifully planned space can fall flat.

As part of our mission, we are committed to celebrating craftsmanship and skills that have been passed down through the generations. Part of what gives any object, textile, or piece of furniture is the traditions that gave rise to it in the first place, and we don’t believe that connection can ever be broken – not without losing the certain something that gives beautiful objects their appeal.

We have worked with craftsmen and women from around the world – and much closer to home. Certain patterns, styles, and techniques are so tethered to the cultures that first created them that we couldn’t miss the opportunity to form those connections and, eventually, bring them back to our own customers, who share the same love of beautiful things.

When you work with skilled artisans, then quality and timeless beauty have a habit of shining through

A lamp sample being thrown in a studio in Portugal

The Appeal of Slowing Down

Mass production is the root cause behind a long list of issues. Not only does it contribute relentlessly to the ‘buy and discard’ philosophy so many of us have, at some time or another, felt inexplicably trapped within, but it also makes it all too easy for brands to forget about the stories and cultural influences behind the objects they create.

When production is slowed back down to a pace that feels more tenable and needn’t drive demand sky-high just to turn a profit, it’s possible to keep those influences and stories alive within the pieces we create.

Our linen fabrics are a wonderful example of this. Weaving flax into linen is a complex and time-consuming process, but it’s also one rooted in history. For more than 35,000 years, communities have woven linen for clothing and bedding; while the process has evolved in that time, the textile still carries that echo of history. Linen remains a key sustainable fabric, unspoiled by mass production.

The same goes for traditional skills as diverse as block printing, embroidery, hand-painting and hand-glazing for tableware and ceramics. These skills cannot be practised on a mass scale, and the people who practise them will never compete with the factories that produce thousands of identical units a day.

And that’s exactly what we love about them.

Our base cloths are meticulously assessed for sustainability, quality, texture, and durability.

Bringing it Home

We always want to uphold the beauty and creativity of the artisanal craftsmen and women who have influenced – and continue to influence – our own pieces here at Penny Morrison. We are passionate about bringing these designs to our customers’ own homes, no matter how far that creativity has travelled.

At the same time, our commitment to slower production and keeping our carbon footprint as small as possible means we choose to invest in local industry and keep the production of our core textiles and wallpapers within the UK. That way, it really is possible to condense a world of influences and creative magic down to the size of a single room – or even a single piece.

The risks posed by fast homeware are the same risks we see from the fast fashion industry. Not only are they threatening to destabilise the climate, but they’re also undermining the true meanings behind the various elements we bring into our homes. We want to preserve those meanings and ensure every one of our customers can feel them, while upholding the legacies passed down by countless artisans.