Our Story
We started Lewis & Wood in 1993 with a small collection of printed fabrics and a fairly straightforward idea that rooms should feel comfortable, interesting and properly lived in.
Over the last 30 years, we have gradually grown into a rather busy Mill in the Cotswolds, sending fabrics and wallpapers off to houses, hotels and projects all over the world. Somewhere along the way, we also pioneered wide-width wallpaper in Britain, which turned out to be a sensible idea after all.
We have never been terribly interested in following trends. “By the time everybody agrees something is fashionable, it is usually time to be suspicious of it,” as Stephen likes to say. We have always preferred making things we genuinely like ourselves, and which people might still want to live with happily ten years later.
Magdalen has always had a remarkable eye for colour and pattern, and an equally strong belief that almost everything has a use if you look at it properly. There is a great deal of curiosity at the Mill, and a genuine enjoyment in the process of making things, which is probably why it still feels, after all this time, like the best job in the world.
Everything is still designed and printed under one roof at the Mill, where colours are endlessly adjusted, samples pinned up and opinions offered freely until things feel right. A great deal of attention is paid to detail, though not much noise is made about it.
We have also always believed in making things properly and not producing more than is needed. Everything is printed to order, which keeps waste to a minimum and means every fabric and wallpaper is made specifically for the room it is intended for.
“Rooms should have enough pattern and colour to keep life interesting,” Stephen says. “One does not want to feel one is living in a very expensive envelope.”
The hope, really, has simply been to make fabrics and wallpapers with enough charm, character and staying power to become part of people’s lives for years to come.
Our fabrics and wallpapers now travel rather further than they used to, though we remain very much a working Mill in the Cotswolds, still doing things in much the same spirit we always have, with curiosity, attention to detail and a mixture of old habits and modern machinery.
