Chiswick based interiors company Sanderson to manufacture Designers Guild brands

Sanderson / Designers Guild interiors

Sanderson takes over Designers Guild brands as company goes into administration

Sanderson Design Group has announced an agreement with the Designers Guild.

The Chiswick based interior furnishings company now has a ten-year licensing agreement for Designers Guild wallpapers, fabrics, and paint.

The agreement grants the Group sole global rights to design, manufacture, and sell these product categories under the Designers Guild brand, ‘marking the beginning of an exciting new chapter for one of the most celebrated names in international interiors’, say Sandersons.

The company Designers Guild has entered administration.

Voysey House; Photograph dMFK Architects, who refurbished the building

Sanderson’s Chiswick history

Sanderson has a long and distinguished history in Chiswick. Arthur Sanderson & Sons opened their factory in Barley Mow Passage in 1879, a building designed by the celebrated Arts & Crafts architect C. F. A. Voysey.

The family gave their three-storey house on the corner of Duke Road and Bourne Place to the parish in 1898 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and it became Chiswick Library.

After a long period away from Chiswick the company returned to its original base two years ago, restoring the Grade II* listed Voysey House to its former glory. King Charles visited in May this year to mark the wallpaper brand’s centenary as a Royal Warrant holder.

READ ALSO: The King visits Voysey House in Chiswick to mark centenary of Sanderson’s royal warrant

READ ALSO: Boston Manor House wins architecture award and Voysey House in Chiswick is “highly commended”

Lisa Montague, Chief Executive Officer of Sanderson Design Group, said:

“As an internationally recognised brand with exceptional design heritage and a distinctive creative identity, Designers Guild makes an excellent addition to our portfolio of brands and a clear strategic fit with our business.”

Designers Guild

Designers Guild

Designers Guild was founded in 1970 by Tricia Guild, a creative pioneer whose design approach transformed the interiors market.

She opened The Designers Guild store at 277 King’s Road in 1971. They showcased the work of Kaffe Fassett and Lillian Delevoryas, building a reputation for bold, artistic expression and an unmistakable creative identity.

In the 1980s they were approached by George Davies, who opened Next fashion shops in 1982 and was appointed by Sir Terence Conran as chairman of Hepworth’s, to extend his ‘total-concept’ look into interiors with Tricia’s coordinated textiles, wallpapers and furnishings, and Designers Guild became a global brand.

Sanderson / Designers Guild wallpaper and fabrics

As Next Interiors launched a nationwide chain of shops, with all the products developed by Tricia Guild and associates, she took over from Laura Ashley as the high priestess of style and taste for the 1980s.

The company continued to grow, as Tricia received international recognition and awards, Designers Guild was named ‘Best British Brand’ by Elle Decoration, UK in 2010 and 2011, launching its online stores in 2015-16, and celebrating its fiftieth anniversary with an exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum in 2020.

Company now in administration

Today, it remains ‘one of the world’s most recognised luxury interiors brands, admired for its rich heritage, distinctive aesthetic and enduring influence on contemporary interiors’.

But Designers Guild has now entered administration after failing to secure new investment against a backdrop of weak demand and rising costs.

‘It is with great sadness that, after 56 wonderful years, my brother Simon Jeffreys and I are closing the doors of Designers Guild Ltd’ Tricia Guild wrote on the company’s website.

‘Above all I am proud of the lasting legacy that Designers Guild Ltd leaves in homes around the world’.