Feldspar
Image: Hana Snow
Grand Designs for your dinner table. Cath and Jeremy Brown left London for a falling-down farmhouse on Dartmoor in 2015, bought a pottery wheel, and made a 20-piece dinner set for Christmas. Feldspar launched the following year. The fine bone china is slip-cast and hand-painted in their signature colour rim, using techniques the Heritage Crafts Association lists as critically endangered. The china clay comes from Cornwall, an hour up the road.
Nkuku
Ethical needn't mean earnest, as evidenced by Nkuku. Founded in 2003 after Ali and Alex Nicholson's round-the-world trip, Nkuku works with artisans across India, Africa and South East Asia, using hemp, jute, brass, mango wood and recycled glass. The pared-back, texture-rich aesthetic has made it a shorthand for a certain kind of relaxed British interior. Best experienced in person at the Lifestyle Store outside Totnes, set in a restored courtyard of stone barns, with an excellent café attached.
Naturalmat
It began, improbably, with boats. Founders Mark Tremlett and Peter Tindall are sailors who loathed the synthetic mattresses on yachts, and discovered natural fibres self-ventilate. Nearly three decades on, they're handmaking organic mattresses, beds and bedding in a solar-powered workshop on the banks of the Exe at Topsham, using lambswool from certified organic farms within a 50-mile radius. A serious investment, but the sort you make once and don't look back.
Atlantic Blankets
The blanket that started as a search for one soft enough for a child. Gemma and Al Graham run this family business from Perranporth, designing throws in Cornwall and weaving them at traditional mills across the British Isles — supporting the British wool industry in the process. Recycled wool and cotton feature heavily, and every order removes ten ocean-bound plastic bottles from the sea. The wide herringbone wools are the perennial favourite.
Tom Raffield
You'll recognise the silhouettes even if you don't know the name. Working from a woodland workshop near Falmouth since 2008, Raffield developed his own steam-bending method to coax sustainably sourced ash and oak into sculptural 3D forms, including pendant lights, hanging chairs, coat stands. It's a genuinely low-energy process with very little waste. Future antiques in the making.
Cabbages & Roses
The gentlest, most English fabrics you'll find anywhere. Founded in 2000 by Vogue Living alumnus Christina Strutt, and now run by her daughter Kate, the house look is faded floral and classic stripes, printed onto natural linen, to order in England. The wallpapers are British made too, with a new cushion and oilcloth collection just launched.
FAQs: South West Interiors & Homeware Brands
Which interiors brands are based in the South West?
The region is home to a strong cluster of design and homeware brands, including Feldspar, Nkuku and Naturalmat in Devon, Atlantic Blankets and Tom Raffield in Cornwall, and Cabbages & Roses in Somerset. Most design and make in the region, and several run showrooms open to the public.
Where can you buy South West homeware in person?
Nkuku's Lifestyle Store and Café sits in a restored courtyard of barns at Harbertonford, just outside Totnes; Naturalmat has a showroom at Odhams Wharf in Topsham alongside its factory; Atlantic Blankets has a store on St Piran's Road in Perranporth; and Cabbages & Roses has a showroom in Bruton, Somerset.
What is steam bending?
Steam bending is a traditional woodworking technique in which timber is softened with steam and shaped around a former. Tom Raffield developed his own method to create complex three-dimensional curves, allowing sustainably sourced ash and oak to be formed into the sculptural lighting and furniture the Cornish studio is known for. It's a low-energy process producing very little waste.
Are these South West brands sustainable?
Sustainability is a genuine thread rather than a recent add-on. Naturalmat works from a solar-powered workshop using wool sourced within 50 miles, Tom Raffield uses timber from responsibly managed forests, Nkuku builds its collections around natural and recycled materials, and Atlantic Blankets removes ten ocean-bound plastic bottles from the sea for every order placed.
What is fine bone china, and why does Feldspar use it?
Fine bone china is the strongest ceramic material, capable of being made exceptionally thin and translucent. Feldspar slip-casts and hand-paints it at their Devon workshop and with a family-run pottery in Stoke-on-Trent — mould making, slip casting and industrial bone china production are all classed as critically endangered crafts in the UK.
Are these brands worth the investment?
Each of these makers is producing for longevity rather than season. Tom Raffield guarantees his pieces for a lifetime, Naturalmat runs a Mattress for Life initiative, and Feldspar's founding principle was to make objects that last as long as the ones their grandparents used. Buy well, buy once — and support a small regional maker in the process.
