Creature Comforts

“I started this project really as an excuse to keep going to auctions, because I’ve totally filled my own house,” laughs Timorous Beasties designer Paul Simmons about the latest quirky pieces of furniture to emerge from his studio. The Glasgow-based company Simmons founded with Alistair McAuley in 1990 made its name by going against the grain of luxury interior design, producing wallpapers and textiles that pastiche traditional toile by depicting urban landscapes, insects and psychedelic graphics in place of gentle, pastoral scenes. Having spearheaded a trend appropriated by establishments such as London’s Rough Luxe (a 9-room boutique hotel managed by the owners of internationally renowned restaurant El Bulli) and The Crest (a high-end residential development on NYC’s Wall Street whose lounge is clad in Timorous Beasties designs), a logical next step for the studio was to recast antique furniture. Simmons transforms his auction finds by re-upholstering them in Timorous Beasties fabrics, utilizing the latest in digital placement printing technology. On a piece named Rise and Fall, the noble silhouette of the Duke of Wellington graces the back of a chair, juxtaposed by another adorning the seat—a lounging, dissolute tramp. These one-offs can be bought from the Timorous Beasties store in Glasgow, Scotland, or—as they typically sell within hours—made to specification on request.