On the sofa with Lucy from Rowen & Wren

If you look for stunning, beautiful and high quality products for your home, look no further than mydeco.com supplier Rowen & Wren. From their hugely popular Dayani button backed chair (seen in the image of Lucy below), to the smallest touches, every product is carefully chosen for its effortless style. We caught up with Lucy, one half of the creative team, to ask about their three beautiful product ranges, and the exciting new projects coming up in the Rowen & Wren pipeline.

Lucy and Graeme, the creative force behind Rowen & Wren

How do you combine your different tastes at home?

‘As with many couples, a great deal of compromise is needed when styling our own home. Graeme tends to opt for more contemporary pieces, whereas I’m always drawn to more classic and vintage items, therefore we usually meet in the middle with an updated classic style that has happily become our signature look both at home and for R&W.’

Which of your three design styles – Distant Home, Refined Rural and Timeless Living – most closely reflects your own style?

‘We tend to have a mix of all three, Graeme has always favoured Refined Rural as a look for home, however I naturally go for vintage finds and pieces from Timeless Living. We tend to have a mix of the two with a spattering of global accents thrown in. We’re highly influenced by our day to day workings on our collections, so  although we try not to have too many R&W products at home, we definitely represent a little of each in quite an eclectic manner.’

Refined Rural at Rowen & Wren

Timeless Living at Rowen & Wren

Alongside your products, you offer an interior design service. When did you decide to branch out to styling, and why?

‘Our strength has always been pulling together collections and styles, so we try to utilise this to make life as easy as possible for our customers. People are so busy nowadays that they don’t have time to shop around and put together a group of pieces that sit beautifully next to one another, not in a ‘matchy’ way, but in an eclectic, sophisticated way. Having assisted them with the homewares to do this, it seemed a natural progression to help those customers that wanted that little bit extra with an advisory service. We’re most frequently asked for colour advice, often having selected their accessories customers struggle to find the right soft furnishings and paint colours to complete their look, so this is where we step in to help them select the right shades to transform their room into a sophisticated living space.’

Which room do people most frequently need help with?

‘The most frequently asked for room is the living room. Probably for a number of reasons, firstly I think people often struggle with larger rooms as they can be a little overwhelming to fill and coordinate the many elements needed to complete them. Secondly, next to the kitchen it is the room in which most individuals/families spend the most time, so it is worth investing a little time and money in transforming it into a space that is both aesthetic and comfortable.’

Rowen & Wren living room styling

How do you source your ‘Distant home’ range?

‘Our priority with our distant home range is to source beautifully crafted pieces that have been ethically sourced. This means at times we do have to go a little further afield for the right pieces, but it gives us the opportunity to support some great projects for some great products. To name a few examples, we have our Aromy stone range, this is all hand-carved in Brazil under fair trade conditions, each artist that supplies us is encouraged to price their own work and exhibit their creations worldwide. Another great example is our Nuri and Nimali cushions, each cushion has been exquisitely handmade by an incredible haute couture teacher in India whilst he passes on his knowledge to young people training in the craft, making each cushion not only a beautiful masterpiece but also a symbol of sustainable culture and something to be proud of.’

Distant Home by Rowen & Wren

You donate a proportion of your profits to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, why did you choose to support this charity?

‘When we started R&W we were keen to support a charity, not only did we want it to be one that relates back to our brand, but we also wanted it to be one that we felt passionate about. Because we love and feel inspired by nature (and birds in particular as our logo probably reveals!) the RSPB seemed like the perfect choice, especially at a time when many native species are under threat and desperate for support.’

Your next project is a wedding design service – what exactly this involve and when will it launch?

‘Without giving too much away, we hope one day to assist people with making their weddings beautiful as we do with their homes. Our ability to pull together collections can be applied to many arms of the business and we have many plans to grow these arms over the coming years, weddings is one of them, however we’re also looking at future collections in other fields. We tend to have too many ideas and not enough hours in the day to fulfill them, however we have an exciting new development for next spring, which will hopefully be the first of many!’