House and Garden February 2021

TOBY JONES | Interior designer Following in the footsteps of his father, celebrated interior designer Chester Jones, Toby started his design education early. He recalls visiting his father’s projects from the age of 10 with his mother, the carpet designer Sandy Jones, and learning about Chinese, Middle Eastern and Classical influences on furniture and textiles. This appreciation of the history of design continues to influence his work. Alongside his brother Ben, Toby recently took over his father’s studio, which designed the Oxfordshire house featured from page 84. His favourite aspect of this project is the hall and ‘the light it borrows from the floor above’. In addition to his father, Toby cites Hugh Leslie and Philippa Devas as the designers from whom he has learned the most. When you are not working,…

As I write this, I’ve been busy thinking about ideas for my own house and it has made me consider what draws me to specific fabrics or wallpapers. Some patterns very quickly become so popular (the perils of Instagram, perhaps) that they feel too much of a cliché and I find myself steering clear at all costs – however lovely they might be. Other designs have been used plentifully over the decades and their time may have come, gone and come back again, but I still want to use them. Why is this? On our back page, in her column this month (page 160), Sophie Dahl muses on which of today’s wallpaper designs we shall all be falling in love with again and again – and will still be loved…

JULIE ANSIAU; HENLEY BAILEY; JONATHAN BOND; STARR DIGITAL…

For Bernie de Le Cuona, who founded her eponymous fabric brand in 1992, the natural world has always been at the heart of what she does. ‘I grew up on a farm and have always been very aware of our environment,’ says the South African-born designer, who moved to England shortly before launching the company, which offers wool, cashmere, silk, linen and alpaca blends. Bernie works with a handful of small mills across Europe – many in Belgium and France, where the best flax comes from – and has garnered a loyal following for her stonewashed linens, understated cotton velvets and woven paisleys over the past 29 years. Although Bernie has always worked closely with the mills, she began to question the traceability of her fabrics a couple of years ago.…