INTERIORS
Fed up with the weather? Fill your home with exotic palm trees, says JENNY COAD
THIS chilly spell is getting us all down. But you don’t necessarily need to buy a plane ticket to sunnier climes in search of spring.
Instead, find space in your home for a palm tree or two.
The palm tree motif is one of our most enduring interior fashions and, with snow forecast over Easter, this could be the year to let them run riot.
Palm trees have long been a source of fascination. It was the Victorians who started our love affair with the holiday fronds. This was the era for exploration, collection and even replication of exotic locations.
Some, like the wealthy Quaker Charles Fox, planted their own sub-tropical havens. His ‘pleasure garden’, Trebah, in Falmouth, Cornwall, is open to visitors.
Other Victorian homeowners displayed arresting plants in sunny bay windows or created green utopias in glass houses.
In 1844, the iconic Palm House at Kew was built to house the botanical souvenirs from explorers’ travels.
using ship building technology, the architect Decimus Burton and builder Richard Turner created a vast light and airy space which, at the time, was the largest glasshouse in the world. It’s still revered as a masterwork and, housing 242 species of palm, is an inspiration to artists, designers and those who want to warm up after a brisk walk through Kew.
Art Deco saw the adoption of the palm theme for interiors — and we’ve not looked back. Palms are lovely to look at but, more importantly, they are transporting.
‘ For the English, with our infamous climate and reputation for talking incessantly about the weather, the palm tree represents an exoticism and allure that reminds us there are sunnier places in the world,’ says Peter Osborne, co-founder of Osborne & Little.
Its Palmaria jacquard fabric, new for spring, is gloriously verdant. Named after an island in the Ligurian Sea, it will lift your spirits (£117 per metre, osborne and little.
com). The pleasing pattern and textured bark of palm trees make them ideal for graphic prints.
HOUSE
of Hackney has made its name playing on and updating Victoriana and its Palmeral design appears on everything from deckchairs to lamp shades (pictured right) and a De Beauvoir Screen, houseof hackney.com.
The dark colourways, midnight/ green and midnight/azure, are more stormy than ‘pour me a
daiquiri’. But perhaps that’s better suited to our changeable climate. Certainly they’ll add drama to an interior and, in velvet, even an element of cosiness. Palm trees can be fun, too. ‘There is something sculptural about a palm tree and I find them immensely cheering,’ says Kate Watson-Smyth, author of a new book Mad About The
House, which even has a palm tree light on the cover.
‘People feel that they should be sensible when it comes to interiors as the sums of money are much larger than for, say, a £3 pair of earrings, but be bold. If a palm tree in the sitting room makes you happy, then go for it,’ she says.
Watson-Smyth’s palm tree light is from Rockett St George, known for playful, exotic homewares.
‘Palm trees and jungle prints never cease to inspire us. No matter what your decor choice there is a palm tree themed piece to suit; from luscious green leafy faux plants to monochrome palm leaf prints, palm tree patterned kitchenware and dazzling metallic palm tree wallpaper,’ say the founders Jane Rockett and Lucy St George. Their palm-tree floor light is £595 and palm leaves coffee table, £360, rockettstgeorge.co.uk. Palm trees don’t have to be wacky. They can be subtle and elegant, too, like background planting. Soane’s palm lamps, Great Palm, Palmetto and Pygmy, are influenced by antique 19th century oil lamps and wax cast in solid brass, showing off their fine details, (£1,250, soane.co.uk). Barneby Gates has a smaller scale palm print, Marrakech Palm Fabric, which comes in soft gold on parchment or gold on natural cloth, (£63 per metre, barnebygates.com). But if only warmth, sunshine and swaying palms will do, and you can afford to treat yourself, then book a room at Jocelyne Sibuet’s Villa Marie in Saint-Barth. She’s decorated it, ‘in the spirit of tropical chic’ and celebrated the hotel’s lush palm and parrot filled setting. ‘I loved working with this print because it has such a cheerful spirit and you can play around with the colours,’ says Sibuet of her palm tree design.