Founded in the early 2010s, the English wallpaper label House of Hackney is still highly influential today. It succeeds in combining British wallpaper tradition with urban avant-garde.
In keeping with its name, the story of the British wallpaper brand House of Hackney began in 2011 in a typical Victorian townhouse in the London district of the same name. From here, Frieda Gormley and Javvy M Royle set out to revolutionise the wallpaper world with extremely powerful designs.
From the beginning, the patterns of House of Hackney wallpapers were opulent and executed in luminous bright or dramatically dark colours. In doing so, Gormley and Royle and their now ever-growing design team draw on the rich heritage of British tradition.
Time and again, they draw inspiration from the legacy of design virtuoso William Morris. House of Hackney succeeded in redefining the iconic floral motifs of the Arts and Crafts movement founded by Morris, fearlessly for the 21st century. Take the Golden Lily wallpaper, for example. And so the label became an avant-garde counter-movement in a decade when white minimalism moved in everywhere. In the meantime, it has become an integral part of the British design and fashion world and cooperates with the traditional brand Barbour.
To this day, the designs of House of Hackney break conventions and at the same time convey the nostalgia of opulently wallpapered English living rooms and bedrooms of past decades. House of Hackney is therefore one of the pioneers of Granny Chic and the Cottage Core movement, which boldly use the heritage of English design principles for new interior design. This has been masterfully implemented in the Hollyhocks wallpaper, for example.
To this day, the House of Hackney team travels the UK to discover forgotten traditions and craft techniques. In this way, they have a lot in common with the Arts and Crafts movement of the 19th century, which, like German Jugendstil, aimed to bring old crafts to life anew and interpret them in a contemporary way.
Most wallpapers from House of Hackney come in a set of several panels. This allows for impressively large repeats, making the wallpapers particularly suitable for a statement wall. This is also evident in the Plantasia wallpaper, one of the classics from House of Hackney.
House of Hackney is certified as a so-called B Corp. This British seal requires companies to meet the highest ecological and social standards. The wallpapers are produced sustainably in the UK and Northern Europe.