Herefordshire-based design studio Rascal & Roses specialises in quirky, period properties and loves using colour to enhance their schemes. This passion for colour has led to a collaboration with paint company Fenwick & Tilbrook that is inspired by the studio's ‘contemporary country’ style.
The List's Lucy Boulton sits down with Rascal & Roses founder Verity Coleman to learn about the collaboration and the studio's design ethos.
Tell us about the origins of Rascal & Roses.
“I started Rascal & Roses in 2013 whilst on maternity leave with my daughter. At the time, I was an Army Officer, living in Rutland in an Army Quarter, and my husband was working abroad. When the business started, it was very much focused on window dressings and soft furnishings. We have since relocated to Herefordshire and work all over the South of England and beyond the UK as well.
There are five of us in the studio, designing and project managing. We all work across both residential and commercial disciplines and have our in-house workshop creating all our bespoke window dressings and soft furnishings. We have our own team of trusted tradespeople with whom we have built a relationship with over the past nine years, allowing us to offer a ‘Design & Build’ service to our residential clients.”
What is the underlying inspiration behind your designs?
“We are very lucky to live in a very rural part of the country, and I find the space and colours of the ever-changing seasons around us every day really feed our design work. Our approach is very collaborative and considered, and this ensures a shared vision from the start, which really allows our designs to come to life for our clients. I think most of our clients come to us as they want to use colour and live with colour, but they don’t know where to begin. Using colour as our main focus on projects really allows our designs to come to life and offers clients a new perspective for their homes.”
What advice do you have for people who want to incorporate colour into a room?
“Always think about the room as a whole – not just the wall colour, or the sofa fabric. In order to get the correct balance within a space, you have to take into account everything, from the amount of light to the ceilings and the floors and then the layers of furniture, fabrics and accessories on top of that. You can create a blue room by painting the whole thing blue, or you can have a neutral base and add the details in blue, and the overall room is still blue! I think it's key to remember there are many different approaches to achieving the same aim when it comes to colour.”
Have you worked on any exciting projects or collaborations recently?
"We are currently working with Fenwick & Tilbrook to deliver our own Rascal & Roses X Fenwick & Tilbrook range of colours. We will be launching at the start of 2023 and cannot wait to show everyone. We are just doing the final tweaks to a couple of the colours now, but already have plans to use them on existing projects. The range is very much within our house style of ‘Contemporary Country’ but is a small edit, purposefully to allow customers to introduce colour into their homes without being overwhelmed with too many choices!
Having worked with Fenwick & Tilbrook for a long time, it made sense that if we were to launch a paint range, it would be with them. The process has been such fun, and even though we are situated on different sides of the country, we liaise with their team continuously to tweak and adapt colours until we have achieved the perfect colour!
We are currently working on the names and piecing together schemes to show how the colours work with some of our favourite fabrics and furniture. The paint range will allow our non-interior design clients to get a slice of Rascal & Roses colour in their homes in a quick and cost-effective manner."
What colour are you most excited to try in a project? What would you pair it with?
"Within our capsule range with Fenwick & Tilbrook, there is a fantastic pale terracotta colour called Baked Earth, which I think is going to be very popular. It would be ideally suited to a sitting room or kitchen and works nicely when toned with a limestone fireplace or limestone flooring with blue accessories to knock it back slightly, but maintain a warm base, or it could be used with darker oranges and browns to create a really dramatic space. I can’t wait to see it in a finished room."
How do you envisage your company ten years from now?
In the 9 years since I started the business, we have grown considerably. Moving from my kitchen table in an Army Quarter to our 2-story studio, sample room, and showroom has really been a dream come true.
I think in the next 10 years it is likely that we will be working towards offering a full architectural service in-house, which will be perfect for residential clients and for commercial clients. We are already looking at bringing on a full-time commercial-only designer to lead on this side of the business! There were always thoughts of an interiors shop, so maybe this will happen one day too!
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