As French artist, Paul Cezanne said, “Art is a harmony parallel with nature”. We see some artists take the beauty of nature and transpose it into new mediums while others create directly from nature itself. Either way, the seasons are always profoundly influential and we find ourselves harbouring a deep appreciation for the way in which individual creators are able to convey the subtle changes in nature from season to season.

We frequently find ourselves irresistibly drawn to the distinctive rhythm of the summer season and this year we’ve been most taken with all things floral. Most recently, we stumbled upon the enchanting botanical artistry of Bex Partridge. Bex is known on Instagram as @botanical_tales and her beautifully curated feed feels warm, slow and inviting from the moment you arrive.

Bex combines her love of gardening and nature with her experience and creativity to bring us her unique and inspiring story of embarking on a slow and steady creative journey.

“Every season is one of becoming, but not always one of blooming. Be gracious with your ever-evolving self” — B.OAKMAN

As a floral artist, Bex follows the ebb and flow of the seasons and aspires to help people bring nature into their homes in a creative and achievable way. Her creativity, passion and honest, heartfelt captions have had us lost in a world of slowed down, botanical wonderment; dreaming of handmade wreaths and floral crowns.

One of the things we adore most about Bex is the way she encourages her community to spend more time outdoors, connecting with nature and settling into the rhythm of the seasons. We’ve dreamt about our own allotment many times. A little patch of nature to call our own. A place to feel at one with the land. And, when we read, “My favourite place to be in the world is in my greenhouse, garden or down the plot”, we knew we’d found someone who shares our values.

Bex effortlessly brings together the intricate details of nature with the simplicity of slow living and aids us into a place of calm and peaceful being. We also couldn’t agree with her more on this: “The meditative benefits of making daisy chains is definitely something that should be studied further!”.

With the days, months and years seemingly passing us by so fast, we are learning to take more time to appreciate the now and be mindful of the beautiful world in which we live. Bex’s work is encouraging us to get creative and appreciate we have. Nature is an endless artist’s palette, as well as a place of restoration and renewal.

Whether you’d like to learn more about botanical artistry or you’re simply looking for some slow, seasonal inspiration – Bex is the one to follow. 

5th of July 2019

When it comes to upholstery, we believe in two things: keeping it simple and finishing it beautifully. Adhering to our signature palette of natural hues, we insist on provenance, using only wools, velvets and fabrics that were crafted using traditional methods.

The generously proportioned Wilford Linen Armchair is inspired by the furniture of Napoleon III’s 19th-century court, its relaxed and textured earthy grey linen would see it at home in a light and breezy French coastal beach house, miles from the formality of Paris, without sacrificing any of the elegance that the design exudes.

21st of June 2019

Whether your celebrating, Pops, Pa, Dad, or in our case, Bampa – we’d like to send well wishes to you all this Father’s Day. 

16th of June 2019

Earthy, cool and solid: three words that encapsulate all the best paterfamiliases. And in homage, our Father’s Day gifts reflect these resoundingly dad-like qualities. Handmade drip-glazed terracotta tumblers are rustic enough for knocking back glasses of cool water on summer days and red wine by fireside in the winter, while the Bruna Serving Board, a great slab hewn from the sustainable mango wood, is gratifyingly hefty for presenting hunks of bread and cheese: two simple but perfect accompaniments for eating and drinking to mark a celebratory day for our inimitable brilliant dads.

4th of June 2019

As spring steadily meanders into summer, we are gently reminded of the simple pleasures the warmer season brings. The botanical freshness that fills the air lures us out into the garden to witness the early morning sun, and we can almost feel the house taking a deep breath as a gentle summer breeze flows through an open window. Time leisurely passes by as we take joy in tending our gardens, while away candle lit, al fresco evenings and escape to the seaside for relaxing long weekends surrounded by nature.

With the change in season we also feel ourselves adapting to a slower pace of life. We find ourselves sinking into a restful rhythm and taking time to appreciate nature’s idiosyncrasies. And with a slower pace of life comes a slightly more minimal sense of style—we’re drawn to natural, earthy tones and ‘less is more’ design, from bathroom basics to outdoor lighting.

In celebration of our love for simple, summer living we wanted to share with you the beautifully calming work of Tessa and Sanne Hop—we’ve always admired the way the pair turn the simplest, day to day activities into effortless scenes of happiness. The warm simplicity and calming tones that fill their feeds reflect well their passion for natural style and peaceful approach to family living.

Both inspiring women have a natural eye for interior design and engaging storytelling which is why we love their feeds so much. We feel connected to their work, their families and their lifestyle in a way that is rare through social media these days. They help us to appreciate the little things in life, to slow down our days and take mindful moments with our families, and to take pride in our unique and personal styles. 

While social media can have its unfavourable side, we believe that there is a positive side to sharing your favourite moments with others. Your Instagram feed is what you make it and we strongly believe in only filling your feed with inspiring individuals that lift you up and motivate you to live the life you want to live. And whether you’re on the lookout for nature-inspired home ideas or you’re simply looking for a summer style inspiration, we highly recommend visiting the feeds of @sannehop and @tessahop.

1st of June 2019

There is beauty in everything, just so long as you have the right lighting. Our collection of table lamps, pendants, wall lights and floor lamps strike just the right note between the elegant and the industrial, and bathe all who bask in their ambient glow in radiant light.

Reading in bed is so indispensable a pastime and so constant a joy that it transcends seasons or even time of day. Indeed, can there be any more extravagant escapism as tucking up with a well-thumbed book in the middle of the afternoon? To illuminate the heavenly pursuit of a literary world of escape, there’s nothing more perfect than our newest brass companion; the Edgar Spotlight.

14th of May 2019

So renowned are mad dogs and Englishmen for their shared folly of being unable to resist the hottest part of the day that there are even songs sung about their ludicrous conduct. There remain, however, a contingent of us who do exercise some sanity by retreating indoors at such times. Even so, only the defeatist would dispense with the atmosphere of summer. Instead, us less barmy English folk(along with the occasional sensible hound) transition indoors to make like our Mediterranean cousins and recline amidst scattered relaxed linen cushions in a kaleidoscope of soft summer colours, with the day’s papers tossed into a Palm Leaf Woven Basket, thus sinking happily into a scene of effortless coastal-style living. Since this is England, no matter the season, there will of course be inevitable rainy days puncturing short sharp heat waves. Happily, the tableau works just as well when retreating from summer rain as from the heat; after all, the British may not be entirely rational when it comes to our collective over excitement at the first sight of the sun, but we are, naturally, well-practiced at contingency plans for poor weather and enjoying the great indoors.

25th of April 2019

From all of us at Rowen & Wren, we’d like to wish you and your family a wonderful Easter.

Savour the long weekend with as much chocolate as you could possibly hope for!

21st of April 2019

Easter is a time of renewal, a beacon of hope after sometimes seemingly endless winter that happens to chime, too, with nature’s own renaissance. And since spring’s flowers have begun to peer sunnily out of the soil, it seems apposite to marry the two. When it comes to setting the table for a familial Easter lunch, a relaxed and informal aesthetic – here courtesy of our natural linen table cloths in pink plaster or a fine black stripe – sets off natural decorative flourishes from the garden. For a charming handmade embellishment to your tableau, dot around woven baskets containing eggs adorned delicately with pressed flowers of the season. Total eschewal of foil-covered chocolate eggs may, however, not be met with universal approval by some of the smaller members of the family; for the avoidance of outrage, our mini baskets serendipitously double up as the ideal repository for Easter egg hunts in the garden(duringwhich time, they can also gather a harvest of yet more spring flowers – win win). 

11th of April 2019

To peruse our Spring Summer Collection in full, visit our Lookbook here.

6th of April 2019

We’d like to wish you all a very Happy Mother’s Day! As always, we’d like to send a special note to all our wonderful R&W Mums, we couldn’t do it without you!

31st of March 2019

As we decamp to nature’s dining room, it is only fitting that the scene of lazy lunches with friends should be dressed with materials evocative of her bounty. Layering up our relaxed natural textured linen tablecloths in dusky pale pinks and fresh fine black stripes creates a beautifully breezy canvas for an idyllic al fresco lunch. Great generous hunks of crusty rustic bread lie like defeated dominoes on top of a rustic Bruna wooden board; lemons ripe for cutting sit prettily in palm leaf woven baskets; recycled tumblers sweat with condensation from the ice-coldness of the white wine they contain; and drip-glazed terracotta tumblers, reminiscent of sizzling Mediterranean holidays, keep water icy cool. 

28th of March 2019

As mother’s day advances ever close, who more apposite to defer to on this day of maternal celebration than Mother Nature herself? Since experience always steals a march on stuff, and creating treasurable memories wins over the dizzying cornucopia of designated ‘gifts’ vying for our attention in shops, we repair this year instead to the garden. Our table, dressed up with natural linen cloths and relaxed linen napkins, will be adorned with blousy florals, harvested from the garden and left to tumble out of our recycled bottle vases, while completing the picture of fresh florals for mum, are jugs full of refreshing lemon water. As the sun sets on our garden party, we shall illuminate the scene with the lantern light and toast the women who gave us everything.

11th of March 2019

It is one of the world’s most recognisable designs. The classic Chesterfield – with its deep buttons, its gracefully low-slung back and its sublime comfort – has enhanced gentlemen’s clubs, high society sitting rooms across the empire, and is even the psychoanalyst’s couch of choice, in homage to the original that Sigmund Freud’s patients once reclined upon. Our latest collection puts a relaxed yet refined spin on an icon; available in luxuriant velvet and homely wool finishes, the restrained colour palette – in shades of grey and pale pink – speaks of understated refinement, while the details, in the form of beautifully turned legs on wheels, dial up the elegance yet further. Choose from armchairs, sofas and footstools; but for best effect, mix and match colours and finishes for a fresh take on a masterpiece.

21st of February 2019

As we prepare to wave a warm goodbye to the bleak wet winter, we start to anticipate the freshness of spring. There’s nothing more blissful than the first sighting of blossoming yellow daffodils, so as we begin to look forward to the slow awaking of sweet springtime florals, we also begin to get a taste for our most favourite seasonal recipes. 

Of late, we have been greatly inspired by Kym Grimshaw’s plethora of content on instagram, as she shares her tantalising recipes taken from her wonderful ‘On The Plate’ blog. Our firm favourite has to be Kym’s spinach, cheddar and onion tart, featured centrally here and looking deliciously wholesome. Kym reflects the seasons perfectly throughout her instagram feed through the delicate hues of her beautiful back drops mixed with a host of scenic images from her latest adventures around the globe. 

Whether your an amateur chef or fancy prepping a spontaneous supper for a loved one, Kym has many tantalising recipes that will most definitely tickle your taste buds. Head over to ‘On The Plate’ today for more seasonally-inspired dishes and if they fail to nourish your springtime needs be sure to peruse @kymgrimshaw for more travel and lifestyle inspiration. 

20th of February 2019