Scottish design: Simple Pleasures

December is studded with gorgeous gift guides, however the season also has our thoughts turning towards sustainability and items with longevity in mind. So, this month, we’ve brought together our favourite interior items. All can be a well-deserved gift to ourselves, our family, or to a friend who appreciates our thoughtful eye for what might look wonderful in their home.

Enhancing a space with contemporary design from Scotland is a great way to #shopsmall and support the local design and craft community. Our selected designers from across the country are working with a spectrum of looks from the minimal and conceptual to the zesty and colourful – all would happily sit together in a room as a snapshot of the contemporary design scene and its key trends.

Glasgow’s Shweta Mistry has just launched her Harmony wallpaper design. It is meticulously hand-painted with delicate brushwork detailing depicting stylised fish and rhythmic water, creating a timeless design for any style of decor. Luxury wallpaper is a frugal way to beautify a small intimate space such as a recessed alcove with a vanity – it needn't be applied to a whole room.

Shweta Mistry

Tokes Sharif is the Edinburgh-based ceramicist behind Studio Brae whose sleek, modern silhouettes bring elegance and tranquillity to any space – we particularly like his handmade functional pieces such as the Minimalist Candelabra in textured grey stoneware.

Katy West is a designer and educator based in Glasgow. The Bread ’n Butter butter dish has been made in collaboration with local bakers two.eight.seven, using a model cast from one of the first loaves of bread that they made and sold on the Southside of Glasgow. It evokes traditional creamware, clear glaze on slip-cast earthenware clay and stamped with cobalt blue. This object celebrates the everyday luxury of bread and butter, reminding us to take time to enjoy simple pleasures in life.

Katy West

Also exhibiting with the popular two.eight.seven is Saskia Pomeroy. Her colourful and contemporary glazes for hand thrown stoneware plates retain a seventies earthiness of tones. Her work is distinctive, employing a traditional throwing technique married with a modern approach to decoration bringing warmth and playful joy to kitchens and dining rooms.

Saskia Pomeroy

Zitozza are an exciting new find for us – based in Fife and led by Hungarian-born designer Zita Katona, their wide range of jute products are breathing new life into a traditional, sustainable material. The rug from the Semafóro collection has been hand block-printed in brutalist architecture-inspired motifs. The zesty colours are toned down by the coarse texture of the natural jute bringing warmth and comfort together with practicality.

Zitozza

This Lace Lichen Cushion by Camban Studio is created using fine quality cashmere offcuts that may have otherwise gone to waste. The cushions are one-off pieces that are designed to make the most of available luxury offcuts. These cushions are and screen-printed in Aberdeen with Camban Studio’s signature ‘Lace Lichen’ design in a metallic copper pigment against a dark navy in 100% cashmere.

Camban Studio

Nestled in the Cairngorms are Yellow Broom, where zero-waste, hand-turned pendant lights are made. Created using sycamore they are complemented by natural tan leather handles and braided fabric flex in pastel hues. Inspired by a traditional industrial inspection lamp, these simple lights can be presented individually or in groups. They are made using wood that is sourced and milled locally.

Yellow Broom

In Orkney, Hilary Grant shows once again that her studio is unsurpassed in terms of its approach to sophisticated colour palettes. The new collection features hues with names like Ink, Rosehip and Haar, or North Sea, Barley and Oatmeal. All feature highly specialised knitting patterns, including cascading colour changes, that lend a folky character to the designs for which the studio is internationally renowned.

Hilary Grant

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@localheroesdesign, @stacey_hunter_edi