Interview With The Designer: Swyft x Morris & Co.

After keeping it a secret for what feels like years, we can finally talk about it. Introducing the Swyft x Morris & Co. collection, where heritage meets modern, the outside comes in, and homes get a just a little bit brighter.

To give you the scoop on our latest collaboration, we sat down with Swyft designer, Beck, amidst the wisteria-clad sandy stones of the sunny Lincolnshire shoot location, where she shared the story behind the collection’s inspiration, challenges, and unexpected moments of creative discovery.

Okay Beck, let's start at the beginning. What excited you most about collaborating with Morris & Co. on this collection?

I think what was nice about this collection is it's something that we've never done before. We've never had a pattern fabric before, and this is a totally new customer for us. We were trying to draw in a new demographic whilst trying to keep it light and a little bit more modern. It's also our first ever collaboration, so we were working with a whole new company, which is something we've never done before, either.

How did you approach bringing the heritage of Morris & Co. into modern homes through Swyft’s design lens?

I learned a lot of Photoshop during this period of time. I pulled a lot of our products from our website and uploaded them all into Photoshop and taught myself how to apply all of these patterns onto our product range. By doing that, I could test out lots of different colours and loads of different patterns and fabrics from Morris & Co. So we selected quite a few initially and funnelled it down to a really tight collection. Then we decided what showed off the Morris & Co. prints best whilst still keeping the Swyft look and went with that.

Was there a particular Morris & Co. print that sparked your initial ideas for the collection?

Yeah, so I really liked the Pure Willow Boughs. It works really well with all the Swyft products. Everything that we placed it on was just working beautifully. We had a little tinker around with the colour palette, so we tried it in some dark greens and tried it in some blues and reds. But we eventually settled on the sage green and it really suits the Swyft collection.

How did you balance Morris & Co.'s iconic patterns with Swyft's modern, clean-line furniture silhouette?

So it was quite tricky. We tried out some different patterns, one of them being Artichoke. Once we'd photoshopped onto the collection, we tried dragging the pattern around a little bit until we found a nice place where it settles, mainly on the back cushion, because that's the more focal point when you look at a sofa. In the end, we decided that that one didn't really work for us because the pattern was way too large and a little bit too busy. 

We ended up going for much softer prints. You'll notice that three of the prints have only got two colours in it. The only one that's got more colour is Blackthorn, and that one was definitely the most tricky one. We ended up centering the red flowers on our back cushions and after that it was finding that balance of where it sat because you could quite easily mess up where that print sat. So there was a lot of trial and error with that, but I think that we found a really nice balance in the end.

Were there any unexpected challenges or surprises during the development of the pieces?

I was brought onto the project after some of the fabrics had already been selected, and Blackthorn was one of them. One of my main concerns from the start was the pattern matching, especially since everything would be cut by hand. With Blackthorn, each layer has to be cut individually, unlike most of our other products where we stack multiple layers of fabric and cut them all at once. Cutting just one layer at a time turned out to be very time-consuming.

How did you choose which Morris & Co. prints to use across the different product types?

Our original fabric selection didn’t quite hold up, so we had to go back, make changes, and revisit the prints a couple of times. We had initially chosen the Blackthorn print in a much darker version. Traditionally, it appears in a dark green, and we wanted that on a velvet. However, there was a misunderstanding with the factory about how we wanted the velvet to be printed. In the end, we had to drop that fabric because they weren’t able to print it in the orientation we needed. That’s how we ended up coming across the Fruit print. It was introduced much later than everything else, but it turned out to be a bit of a happy ending, it really does look beautiful.

How do you see these pieces fitting into different types of spaces?

Originally, we’d only used these designs on sofas, but one day I decided to try them on a bed. I quickly photoshopped one of the prints onto a bed, and it just really, really worked—it suited the shape and feel of the bed so well. It immediately felt like something that belonged in a bedroom. I'm really glad we made that move, because I think it turned out to be a great idea.

As for the prints themselves, we have Standen, which is the blue one with the small, packed leaves, and Pure Willow Boughs, those are the two main ones. They’re versatile and can work in a wide range of homes, from country-style interiors to more modern spaces. If someone has a more pared-back or minimal interior, these fabrics can bring in a subtle layer of character and warmth.

Then we have the more vibrant, exciting prints like Fruit and Blackthorn. These offer a real pop that’s perfect for adding drama or a focal point to a room. They work beautifully in both traditional and modern settings, depending on how they’re styled.

And finally, what do you hope customers feel when they bring a piece from this collection into their space?

I hope it brings a calming, grounded energy into their home. With this collection, we really tried to bring the outside in and to connect people with nature through pattern and texture. Personally, working with Morris & Co. has given me a deep appreciation for William Morris’s traditional English designs and artworks, and I hope customers feel that same sense of beauty and connection when they live with these pieces.

Take a look at the Swyft x Morris & Co. collection here.