From a French château in 1788 to our Dorset factory in 2024, the story of The Purnon Papers spans centuries and countries. Today, we’re taking you behind the scenes of their latest chapter.
It started when Charlotte, our Creative Director, was invited to Château de Purnon by owners Felicity and Tim, who are in the process of lovingly restoring this historic home. She poured over every scrap of pattern she could find, from disused room dividers to fading fragments in the attic. Stepping into the once magnificent — now slightly dishevelled — building, there was a whole world just waiting to be rediscovered.
“When I first saw the original patterns,” said Charlotte, “I was just blown away. They’re so beautiful and intricate that it’s astonishing to think they’d be tucked away and forgotten for all those years. It was like discovering a treasure trove that I couldn’t wait to share with the world."
Charlotte wasn’t the only one making discoveries, Felicity was also seeing her home in a whole new light:
“Wandering through Château de Purnon with Charlotte was a magical experience. We felt like we were rediscovering our home through her eyes, as she selected the wallpapers, patterns and motifs that could be reawakened. To our surprise, she seized upon some designs that we had brushed past with scarcely a thought.”
From one home to another, the next step was bringing the inspiration back to our wallpaper factory in Dorset. Here, our team got to work reimaging the original patterns with the signature Farrow & Ball flair. As Charlotte explains: “We revised elements of the patterns like colour and scale, to make them feel as relevant to contemporary spaces today, as they were to the château a hundred years ago.”
Then it was time to bring our interpretations to life using the same, traditional techniques we use to handcraft all of our wallpaper. These age-old methods lend themselves perfectly to these patterns because they’re similar to how they would have originally been made all those years ago.
Before sharing the finished range, we made sure to get the stamp of approval from Felicity and Tim themselves. We invited them over to see our wallpaper factory in action and discover the new collection before anyone else.
Felicity said: “Visiting Farrow & Ball was an emotional milestone. Each roll of paper was placed on the line, and we watched mesmerised as colour was added. Suddenly, voila! There they were. Patterns that had laid dormant since the end of the eighteenth century, regaining their luminosity and elegance before our very eyes. Tangible evidence of the reawakening of our incredible château.”
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