{"id":348605,"date":"2026-11-12T12:34:28","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T17:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.sothebysrealty.com\/?p=348605"},"modified":"2026-11-12T12:34:28","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T17:34:28","slug":"bloomsbury-revisited-the-enduring-luxury-of-hand-painted-decor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sothebysrealty.com\/extraordinary-living-blog\/bloomsbury-revisited-the-enduring-luxury-of-hand-painted-decor\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloomsbury Revisited: The Enduring Luxury of Hand-painted Decor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

More than a century on, the Bloomsbury group\u2019s exuberant creativity continues to inspire interiors, writes Elizabeth Metcalfe<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"photo
A Charleston-inspired mural by Tess Newall at the Bloomsbury Publishing Group\u2019s London head office by Minnie Kemp \/ Kit Kemp Design Studio. Photograph: Simon Brown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Bloomsbury group of early 20th-century artists, writers and intellectuals has long captured the imagination. From their freewheeling relationships to their free-spirited approach to art, decoration and homemaking, this influential collective of liberal-minded creatives\u2014including Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey and Roger Fry\u2014embraced experimentation across many fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As American poet and critic Dorothy Parker quipped: They \u201clived in squares, painted in circles and loved in triangles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the squares in question were in London\u2019s Bloomsbury, nowhere was the group\u2019s creative vision more vividly expressed than at their countryside retreat of Charleston<\/a>, in the foothills of the South Downs in Sussex, which was both home and studio to Bell, Grant and his partner David Garnett from 1916. Having whitewashed what Woolf described as the house\u2019s \u201cawful\u201d Edwardian wallpapers, Charleston\u2019s bohemian tenants, aided by family and guests, made almost every available surface a canvas for artistic expression, adorning fireplaces, fixtures and furniture with exuberant, painterly motifs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"painting
Vanessa Bell, \u201cInterior with the Artist\u2019s Daughter,\u201d c1935-36. The Charleston Trust. \u00a9 2026 Estate of Vanessa Bell. All rights reserved, DACS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMessy creativity was a way of life,\u201d observed Bell\u2019s granddaughter Virginia Nicholson; surfaces were painted and overpainted, and designs created for pleasure rather than posterity\u2019s sake. Fabrics and ceramics from the Omega Workshops, an enterprise established by Fry in 1913 to bridge the divide between fine and decorative art, added to the atmosphere of creative informality. Bell\u2019s son Quentin described the house\u2019s \u201cwonderfully uninhibited irreverent quality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than a century later, this confident, fearless approach to decoration continues to captivate, as evidenced in a newly opened Tate Britain show \u201cVanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury\u201d (until April 11, 2027), and the group\u2019s obvious influence on the ongoing appetite for hand-painted elements in high-end interiors, both residential and in the hospitality space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"photo
The drawing room at London\u2019s Charlotte Street Hotel by Kit Kemp Design Studio, featuring original works by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, and a desk hand-painted by the Omega Workshops. Photograph: Simon Brown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Bloomsbury group lived how many people wish they could live now, and today\u2019s designers look to them for their layered approach and how they added character and stories to rooms,\u201d observes British decorative artist Tess Newall<\/a>, who is known for her Bloomsbury-inspired designs. Newall\u2019s work ranges from hand-painted furniture to murals for designers including Stella Weatherall, Isabella Worsley and Rebecca Wakefield, for whom she recently created a Charleston-inspired children\u2019s room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the heart of this enthusiasm for the Bloomsbury look is a desire for interiors to feel less prescribed, more personal. \u201cThere is a subtle irregularity in the brushstrokes, a variation in the color, a sense that someone spent time creating something specifically for that space,\u201d says Henriette von Stockhausen, founder of VSP Interiors<\/a>, a specialist in historic homes. \u201cYou can feel that, even if you cannot immediately identify why.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For one project in Berkshire, England, she commissioned a bespoke mural to wrap around the walls of a drawing room. Unlike a printed wallcovering, such a site-specific work can respond directly to the architecture of a space, becoming part of its character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"mural-wrapped
A mural-wrapped drawing room conceived by Henriette von Stockhausen of VSP Interiors. Photograph: Paul Massey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kit Kemp, founder and creative director of Firmdale Hotels<\/a>, has long embraced this philosophy. Inspired by Charlotte Street Hotel\u2019s proximity to Bloomsbury, she collected original works by Bell and Grant, now displayed alongside a hand-painted Omega Workshops desk. More recently, she invited artist Eliza Downes, who has a background in theatre, to paint a ceiling mural in the hotel\u2019s Dora Carrington dining room. It has transformed the space, says Kemp, into \u201ca living work of art.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the Atlantic, at Warren Street Hotel in New York, Kemp commissioned Newall to paint an imposing dresser with painterly motifs and a riotous color palette inspired by the collective. \u201cOften, a large piece of furniture can feel domineering in a room, but by painting it, it becomes a pattern and an element of craft,\u201d she explains. Both projects echo the Bloomsbury group\u2019s belief that art belongs in everyday life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"wood
A Bloomsbury-inspired hand-painted dresser at the Warren Street Hotel, New York, by Kit Kemp Design Studio. Photograph: Simon Brown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Beyond its decorative impact, hand painting can lend a room a sense of natural evolution. London-based interior designer Isabella Worsley, who commissioned Newall to paint a floral ceiling, prizes \u201cthe sense of timelessness it can create\u2014a mark on a project that feels like it could have been made at any point over the life of the room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is, of course, a certain irony in the fact that an aesthetic associated with a bohemian disregard for convention has become so coveted in luxury interiors. At Charleston, Bell and Grant painted furniture they already owned, often working with limited resources. Today, Newall is commissioned to decorate exceptional antiques and bespoke pieces, sometimes incorporating modern technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"children's
Tess Newall detailing in a children\u2019s sleepover room by Rebecca Wakefield. Photograph: Helen Cathcart<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For Studio Ashby, she painted a folkloric chest from which a widescreen television rises. \u201cThis felt like the definition of folk luxe,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re living in an age where we want the modern conveniences of life, but for our surroundings to have character and humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the contradiction is less pronounced than it first appears. In an age of mass production, the time, skill and imagination required to make something entirely bespoke have become luxuries in their own right. Indeed, Bloomsbury\u2019s most enduring legacy may not be a particular palette or pattern, but the confidence to create interiors that are individual to the people who inhabit them. In a world of increasingly uniform design, that freedom\u2014and the unmistakable presence of the human hand\u2014could be the ultimate luxury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury\u201d<\/a><\/em> is at Tate Britain, London, November 12, 2026 – April 11, 2027.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find out why the Bayeux Tapestry is another major design inspiration this fall<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than a century on, the Bloomsbury group\u2019s exuberant creativity continues to inspire interiors, writes Elizabeth Metcalfe The Bloomsbury group of early 20th-century artists, writers and intellectuals has long captured the imagination. From their freewheeling relationships to their free-spirited approach to art, decoration and homemaking, this influential collective of liberal-minded creatives\u2014including Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232770377,"featured_media":348612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":348612,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1399,1565,1398],"tags":[1472,1505],"class_list":["post-348605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-and-design","category-home-style-ideas","category-featured","tag-new-york","tag-united-kingdom"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pf4gbL-1sGF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":343887,"url":"https:\/\/www.sothebysrealty.com\/extraordinary-living-blog\/343887-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":348605,"position":0},"title":"Inside The Homes Of Artists Today","author":"Kate Marburger","date":"May 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Creatives can\u2019t help but inhabit eclectic art-filled homes that reflect their life, work and travels around the globe, writes Laura May Todd Artist William Kentridge\u2019s dining room displays many of his works, including a drawing of a fish for one of his daughters. Photograph: \u00a9 Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Jaussaud. 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