Design Industry Collaborations

If you’ve read our posts for a while, you have likely noticed we often credit Thibaut for the wallpapers behind many of our vignettes. The range of patterns we’ve sourced from them illustrate how broad their aesthetic is, which is one of the reasons we enjoy choosing from their lineup. In exchange for having access to their wonderful papers, we provide products the company displays in their showrooms—accessories, lamps, and accent tables have been tapped by them in the past. This is one of our favorite design industry collaborations so we thought we’d highlight the relationship on the blog today.

Design Industry Collaborations

Our Charny White Table Lamp in one of Thibaut’s beautiful showrooms, having our products photographed so beautifully making this one of our favorite design industry collaborations.

We had a terrific conversation with Bill Sorrell, Thibaut’s Style Director, about how this dynamic exchange began and we’re featuring gorgeous images of their Dallas showroom and a shot of the Charny White Table Lamp above from another showroom to illustrate the post. We’ve linked several of the photos below that include our accessories so you can find the product details for each one. Be sure to read on after we share Bill’s thoughts to learn more about the history of this vibrant company. Bill told us that the lively exchanges between our two companies sprang up in an organic way. “It all happened by chance,” he explains. “I do all of our photo styling and before we were actively exchanging products, I rented what I needed for the shoots. I hadn’t realized that I was often tapping Currey & Company products, particularly lamps, until I had a conversation with Cecil and Bethanne, who said they had noticed I used a fair number of your company’s products.”

Our Cade Blue Box set sits prettily on the accent table between the two chairs in the Thibaut showroom.

Our Vice President/Creative Director Cecil Adams was eager to be able to access high-quality wallpaper to use as backdrops for the vignettes we style as beauty shots so he brought up the idea of an exchange. “From the start there has been good synergy with Thibaut,” Cecil notes. “We share a customer base who appreciates a decorative point of view. I’m always able to find a design to help put the punctuation on a story we’re telling either in our showroom or in our photography for Currey. Relationships are so important in life and work and it has always been fun to work with everyone at Thibaut. I’m looking forward to what we will conjure up next.” This partnership has led to our products being featured—not only in Dallas, but in New York and Chicago, as well. “Currey is one of my favorite companies for lighting and accessories,” Bill adds. “When I know I’m going to need lighting, I go to the Currey & Company website first.” Bill says the designers who visit their showrooms often ask where they can purchase the lamps and accessories they feature, and the showroom staff sends them our way, which makes this such a win-win for both companies.

Our Emerald Box Set is lovely in the vignette Bill styled on the ottoman that serves as a cocktail table, his talent making this one of our favorite design industry collaborations.

It’s obvious from the beautiful images of the Dallas showroom that Bill is passionate about photo styling so we asked him about how he became involved in the profession. “I earned a degree in graphic design, which seems like it was a lifetime ago, and found that, over time, I was drawn to photo-styling—my first clients were large fabric houses in Manhattan,” he explains. “I’ve been with Thibaut as an employee for ten years but I was working with the company as an independent photo stylist for a number of years before joining the team fulltime. When I first started working with Thibaut, I was designing their furniture line; then I became involved in helping them with the showrooms. The initial project involved taking the High Point showroom and making it a destination. I wanted to present the company as a lifestyle brand.” It’s no wonder management saw the level of talent they had in this enterprising individual and lured him onto their roster of employees!

Worthy of an Encore, Indeed!

Our Tia Box Set is perfectly in sync with the color palette in this vignette in the Thibaut Dallas showroom.

If you visit the Thibaut website, you’ll see a declaration on the home page that is so apropos: Worthy of an Encore. There have been many curtain calls throughout the company’s storied history, which extends back to 1886. This makes the manufacturer the nation’s oldest continuously operating wallpaper firm. Over the years Thibaut’s product offering has broadened to include a variety of wallcoverings, coordinating print fabrics, embroideries, and woven upholstery fabrics. The launch of an upholstered furniture line has established the New Jersey-based manufacturer as a highly desirable resource for designers and up-scale consumers. With an insightful knowledge of shifting market trends, Thibaut prides itself on creating unique products.

A number of our accessories grace this cabinet in the Thibaut showroom, the sophistication Bill achieved making this one of our favorite design industry collaborations.

Their exclusive designs and the tools to make them are owned and copyrighted by Thibaut. Inventory is kept in their warehouses in Charlotte, North Carolina, and London, England, and reaches the market through an extensive distribution network. Thibaut products are sold through interior designers, trade-only showrooms, and select retail stores—each offering synonymous with beautiful traditional and transitional designs in signature color palettes. The company offers unsurpassed quality and refined design styles ranging from historic reproductions and traditional, to classic patterns, tropical prints, and novelty patterns. Their offerings were expanded when the company acquired the UK-based company Anna French, a luxury brand of wallcoverings, fabrics, embroideries, and Scottish lace. We feel fortunate to have such high-quality products that are produced by this company available to us for our photo shoots and we look forward to many more collaborations to come!