The Reef Edit: Introducing the new collection

Our latest collection ‘Reef’ is one that has always been in the making. It draws on the connections and experiences that one has when in the water. The sea has always been such an important part of both mine and Allison’s life, however, my ‘sea’ changed when I moved to Australia in 1996. Gone were the stormy Cornish seas with the cries of the gulls and the damp, misty rain, instead I was introduced to, and fell in love with a different version; both places encompassing in beauty and danger, but different.

The Indian Ocean is warm and clear, ideal habitat for the underwater wonderland which inspired "Reef"

 Living in Australia meant I could travel to the exquisite Ningaloo reef, remote islands off Bali, as well as explore my local coastline in Margaret River. The underwater world here is a world best described by one of my favourite author’s Tim Winton, who captures it so beautifully in his novel Dirtmusic,

“There’s a delirium in the water, something special in the way the reef morphs and throbs below…He kicks down through the enfolded layers, the unseen byways of current and the changes of temperature that lace the clear water…He hovers motionless over soft corals and sponges, across hard yellow plate and rifts of purple-blue. There’s staghorn and brain coral, eels and blennies and black arse cod and the feelers of a hundred wary rock lobsters. The sea is thick with clicks and rattles, the encrypted static of the silent world speaking.”

Recently I was in Komodo national Park, where the coral reefs are among the best in the world. The colours are incredible and huge expanses of untouched coral reef, teeming with life lie just beneath the surface. You don't need to dive, just look down and the reef is right there! 

At the same time that I was sending Allison colour saturated photos, she was dreaming of colour too, the perfect antidote to dark January days. As always with us, our aesthetic is psychically attuned and so we had our colour palette and inspiration. With digital printing being so sophisticated now, the detail is amazing, I can almost imagine being back snorkelling in that warm water. 

This is Komodo National Park in Indonesia, the reef is just beneath the surface of the water, no need to get wet!

The colours in our reef collection came straight from the ocean

Tiny fish are everywhere, the colour is electric

Our Reef collection reminds us all of the beauty that lies beneath and one of the pleasures of creating this range has been using the beautiful colours found in these underwater wonderlands. True to Cream Cornwall style, it's bold and graphic and has everything you have come to expect form our designs. It's all not only made in Britain, but made in Cornwall by our team of makers. Knowing who has made our products is so important to us and being able to ensure that the highest quality is maintained at the best price, we like to call it affordable luxury.

The collection has all our usual soft furnishings, we will be adding to the range constantly, but waiting for some of our manufacturers to return to work so we can complete the story. Whilst the collection is called reef, we have three designs in some things, in others, it's a collection of sea creatures. For example, in the cushions we have Canyons, England's only coral reef and of course, it lies off the Cornish coast. The jellyfish are the main design elements here as we have so many of them in our waters, some as big as us! It had to be Rainbow for the Octopus, this is also the name of a beautiful reef in Fiji. Finally Ningaloo, this coral fringing reef is the largest in Australia, 260 kilometres long and the only one so close to land. Much of it is in National Park and you can camp right by the beach, walk into the sea and snorkel so easily, no boat needed. 

We hope you love it as much as we have loved creating it