June 2026
I'm writing this month's Diary slightly early as I'm heading off to New York tomorrow - see why below - and by the time you read this I should be stateside.
The first day of June saw the much anticipated opening of our new LineUp showroom space at World's End Studios in Chelsea - being on the street has already transformed how we show the brands we represent, which rather amazingly now runs to nearly twenty British interiors brands. If you are looking for the finest independent British textile and wallpaper design under one roof - makers who care deeply about provenance, craft, and the quality of every print - there is nowhere quite like LineUp. We celebrated by throwing a drinks party for our showroom partners in the new space, and it was one of those evenings that reminds you why you do what you do. Seeing everyone gathered there - designers, brand founders, old friends and new ones - enjoying the space we had worked so hard to bring together was genuinely wonderful. We are very excited for what lies ahead.
Of course, none of this would exist without Kate Teyssier, with whom I founded LineUp in late 2024. I am not sure I fully appreciated, when we started, quite how rare it is to find a business partner with whom you are simply - from the very first conversation - completely on the same page. We charged into this venture at some speed: lease signed in May, keys in July, opened in September. Same instincts about the brands we want to represent, the same ideas about how a showroom should feel, the same high standards about getting things right. How lucky I am to have chanced upon exactly the right person to travel down this road with.
— ✦ —
HOME AT LAST
After the busyness of launch week I headed back up to Scotland after nearly a month in London, and the estate had done what Scotland does best in June - gone completely, extravagantly green. Everything had grown about two feet. The gardens were lush in a way that stops you in your tracks, and it felt so relaxing and immersive after the heat and endless pavements underfoot in London.
Then, almost inevitably after the intensity of May, I went down with a horrible bug that wiped out the best part of two weeks. The body has its own way of calling time.
We headed over to the Escape Pod on the west coast, in the hopes that a change of scene might shift the bug. It didn't. The Pod is currently demanding rather a lot of attention. I am slightly embarrassed to admit that we are now ten years into having this glorious place in our lives and it is nowhere near as it should be - though in my defence, I have always loved that it is the a place where I can let things be a little scruffy. The plan was always to do it slowly, thoughtfully, without rushing. And then since lockdowns happened, somehow six years evaporated, and the cottage is still almost as dishevelled as the day we bought it. The lime render alone is a project: the outside needs re-doing in traditional lime render, and finding the right people with the right window of time is proving to be one of those jobs that resists hurrying. In the meantime, I satisfied my need to 'improve' on this trip by painting the outside doors a pretty seaside blue - Lulworth Blue by Farrow & Ball - which made me very happy and the doing of it took my mind off how grotty I was feeling.
But however under the weather I was, I never fail to be lifted by the scenery surrounding us and the sunsets that weekend didn't disappoint.
— ✦ —
LINING UP
The last week of June brought one of the highlights of the month: the first Northern LineUp, our networking event for brands and interior designers, which we held at the beautiful Hutton Wandsley Stables near York. Owner Sasha York has created something quite extraordinary - a magnificent walled garden created from scratch in just four years that is really remarkably established for a garden so young. It is, as you can see, utterly beautiful.
Interior designers came from across the north of England to meet our designers in person and see the latest in their collections. The weather was glorious (we landed squarely in the middle of a serious heatwave), and the food and location were both wonderful. We will be back! Do email Ellie, LineUp Events Manager, if you would like to be notified about the 2027 LineUps.
Joining Inchyra were Teyssier, Rapture & Wright, Fermoie, Zardi & Zardi, Nile & York, Parker & Jules, Chloe Jonason, and a very exciting new British brand, Vanbrugh Britain. Founded by Alice Swire this is an incredibly accomplished first collection and I'm excited to see where Alice takes it. The energy was exactly what these events are meant to generate - and it was fantastic to bring so many creatives together.
— ✦ —
FROM PERTHSHIRE TO MANHATTAN
Running alongside all of this, and consuming rather more mental bandwidth than I had perhaps anticipated, has been a big installation project for the D&D Building in New York.
I was so honoured when the team at John Rosselli Associates - one of the oldest and most respected fabric and wallpaper showrooms in the world, and Inchyra's home in New York - invited me to create a display as part of the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the legendary John Rosselli being in business, having opened his first antique shop in New York in the 1960s.
The brief was to represent Inchyra in a grand display case in the foyer of the D&D Building. I wanted to do it in a way that felt true to the collection's quality and provenance. I hit on the idea of building a Scottish landscape entirely from fabrics and wallpapers: a series of what we are calling 'hillboards' - headboards made in the shapes of hills - with a linen 'river' running through them, and as a backdrop, an oil painting of the west coast of Scotland that I painted years ago, blown up and printed onto wallpaper. The whole thing was shipped to New York ten days ago, and I will not pretend I was entirely calm about what customs might make of two huge packages of fabric hills. I shouldn't have worried - they arrived at the John Rosselli showroom in four days flat. I fly out on the 30th for installation, heading into what promises to be a very hot and steamy New York - I will report back in full next month!
— ✦ —
A ROOM GROWS UP
New York will be a flying visit - just two nights for the installation before heading straight back to Inchyra, where the next project is already well underway. Our eldest daughter Ellie's bedroom is being transformed for a photo shoot for the new Labeaume Collection which I am very excited to say is being shot by the incredible Abbie Melle. The wallpaper is going up as I write, with full installation to follow over the next ten days. It's been slightly bittersweet as clearing it out has really felt like closing the door on a childhood. Silly really as she's in her thirties (not to mention being the extremely capable manager of the LineUp showroom) but I'm quite sure this resonates with others.
There is something incredibly satisfying about seeing a first space coming together around fabric and wallpaper you have created yourself, and I cannot wait to see it all land. Here's the bedroom before the redecoration - look forward to showing you the finished project in the next Diary. More on that - and on New York - next month.
Have a great July!
Much love
