Celebrating the launch of the flux collection at The Grain Store Lewes
Featuring circular rhythms of sandy mounds and swift brushstrokes of gusts of wind, Dune and Breeze are the two designs that make up our new range, the Flux Collection. These textile designs are an ode to the natural world. They build on our collection's founding principles of biophilic colour and sustainable design with their colour palette and designs directly inspired by ever-changing landscapes. To celebrate the launch of these jacquard woven designs, we teamed up with luxury holiday accommodation, The Grain Store Lewes alongside some other brands we love to shoot and capture the essence of our new collection.
The Flux Collection
Nature is as intrinsic to the design of the Flux Collection, as it is in all Claire Gaudion homeware and furnishings, The colour palette for the flux collection, inspired directly by nature, is soothing and balanced, with the chosen tonal colours inspired by biophilic designs. The colours sway from warm earthy tones, which are reminiscent of sandy terracotta shores and mixed with the colours of blushing sunsets, to sky blues and cool green ocean hues.
Though nature is calm, it is never completely still. Inspired by the ever-changing natural landscapes, such as the ones we see in sand dunes and the breeze, we wanted to incorporate this sense of movement into the design. The design of the cushion shows how Claire Gaudion's takes an abstract approach to biomimicry, (mimicking patterns in nature) which focuses on how we experience the ebbs and flows of nature.
The two new weaves are designed to evoke a sense of motion. The abstract patterns are full of movement, and the cushions themselves are reversible and double-faced, which can also be swapped around to reflect ever-changing nature.
The Flux Collection is by design, a celebration of the natural world, and we wanted to collaborate with brands that reflected these qualities. We teamed up with Grain Store Lewes and Brook Studio not only to bring our designs to life, but also to reinforce the biophilic attributes of the Flux Collection.
Why Choose The Grain Store Lewes?
The Grain Store Lewes, situated in East Sussex, is a beautiful converted old grain storage building that has been transformed into unique luxury holiday accommodation. Situated in the South Downs national park, The Grain Store Lewes has sweeping views over the rolling hills and is truly naturally in keeping with it's surroundings.
A Luxury holiday getaway
For most weekends of the year the property is used an exclusive luxury holiday self catering accomodation. They welcome guests from around the UK and indeed worldwide to enjoy the beautiful surroundings of the East Sussex countryside. The accomodation being on the south downs way in the heart of the East Sussex countryside and a stone's throw from the historic county town of Lewes as well as all that the seaside resort of Brighton has to offer is a popular choice for a luxury holiday getaway.
Biophilic Design
The Grain Store Lewes was the perfect location for our shoot, its location and design reflecting its natural origins. The Grain Store is in every sense built around the principles of biophilia, something we are also deeply passionate about as a brand. It's design is deeply connected to its roots as a working agricultural farm building. The concrete beams which run through the internal structure are tell tale signs of it's past life. The open plan structure incorporates metal work usually seen in industrial buildings but perfectly in keeping with the tradition of what was once a rural farm building. The exterior of the building is cedar-clad reflecting the building's natural surroundings, whilst much of the accommodation including the large open plan ground floor living space is designed to be south facing and making the most of the sunlight.
The interiors have been carefully chosen to reflect the location and history. Much of the furniture in the living rooms and bedrooms was made by local craftspeople. There's even a stool made from a tree felled on the Grain Store land!
As well as locally made furniture, much of the decor was made by local artisans or sourced from independent Lewes stores. The walls are adorned with maps, prints and paintings of stunning south downs landscapes. There's so much more to biophilic design than simply having a lot of plants indoors! This considered approach to design really does bring the outside in, in effect into the very fabric of the buildng, truly reflecting and including the landscape and culture of this creative rural East Sussex community.
A natural photo studio
The Grain Store Lewes' open plan design was an ideal studio for the shoot. Though the Grain Store is also committed to using green sources of energy, they hardly need to use it when the building is so beautifully filled with natural light. The abundance of natural light made the building a perfect photo studio.
A collaborative approach
To bring our new range to life, we also partnered with UK-based designer makers who also uphold our core values of quality, sustainability and beautiful design led home products.
Claire Gaudion designs are made in partnership with artisans to create our timeless homeware goods that are intended to last forever, because of this we appreciate other brands that create designs with craftsmanship, material and longevity at the forefront, working with nature to create sustainable pieces. Craftsmanship and longevity are qualities so integral to our own ethos and we wanted to work with brands that shared that vision.
We loved the furniture selected by The Grain Store, and in particular these beautiful armchairs, pictured above and below, from local store, No. 1 Lewes.
We also chose to feature some of the toy collection from Grovely Wood. The business started life from a small collection of toys made for the founder's daughters. All of which were based around horses and farms that the girls loved.
The collection expanded to include farm vehicles and these lovely "Grover" vehicles. Layers of textiles are an essential element of making a house a home. Imagining children playing on our soft rugs with these fun toys which last for years and years conjures up a picture of wellbeing in a happy and sustainable home!
Finally, we partnered with The Dormy House to create our stools. With a tradition of high quality craftsmanship loved by interior designers and offering a uniquely personalised service they're the perfect partner to offer our new stool design
We felt this shoot really captured the essence of the Flux Collection with The Grain Store Lewes, creating a lifestyle setting that perfectly captures the biophilic tones of the collection. We are always pleased to work with brands that share the ethos behind Claire Gaudion and showcase UK-based designs taking inspiration from nature and valuing quality and craftsmanship .
To view all of the pieces in the Flux Collection visit the 'new in' page.