The Talented Tori Murphy

One of the best things about the Humphrey Munson blog is that it gives us a chance to share all the wonderful things that inspire us. A little while ago we were talking in the office about Tori Murphy’s textile designs – first spotted thanks to Instagram via an image of their lovely monochrome large matches. The box design really caught my attention so I looked her up and discovered Tori is a textile designer. We got in touch and decided to collaborate together on a project – more about that later – first I’ll tell you a little bit about the talented Tori Murphy.

After completing her degree at the Royal College of Art, Tori worked in Milan designing textiles for a range of clients including DKNY, Fendi, and Christian Dior and it’s here that she gained invaluable experience in the world of textile production. Earlier this year, the editor of American VOGUE, Anna Wintour, spoke at the Oxford Union about business, fashion and life experience and one of the key pieces of advice she gives to new designers is to not discount experience and training – “work with the best, learn from the best, have the freedom to try various things, make mistakes…”. It’s an inspiring address and well worth a watch.

After working with this incredible designers, Tori returned home and began forming a collection inspired by the beautiful fabrics she had been surrounded by in Italy. Tori had a firm belief in English textile production and through perseverance she succeeded in finding weavers in Lancashire, finishers in Yorkshire and machinists in Nottingham willing to support her. From her first fabric run of 8 metres, Tori made a capsule collection of throws and cushions which she exhibited in London in June 2012 and it was here she took her first order from a boutique on London’s New King’s Road, signalling the launch of Tori Murphy Ltd.

Today, Tori Murphy has stockists in 8 countries, including Harrods, Selfridges, Heal’s, Daylesford Organic, Actus and Lane Crawford. Tori and her team have a studio in Nottingham and continue to work hard to grow a creative and determined English homeware brand.

At the time we spoke to Tori, we had recently finished installing a stunning bespoke kitchen in Essex that we wanted to photograph. The kitchen was located in a large Victorian detached home and the homeowners had recently completely a modern extension to the rear with black bi-folding doors and huge skylights. The Nicklebly kitchen we designed and made at our workshop in Felsted perfectly captures the old and new aspects of the space so we were really looking forward to seeing this one professionally photographed. Tori kindly lent us a selection of her lovely accessories to use in the shoot – scroll down to take a look.

Hanging up beside the AGA are a pair of Chevy Oven Gloves (black on linen) which are woven and made in England. These are actually on sale right now – snap up a pair here before they sell out.  On the island under the plates are a couple of the lovely Elca tea towels (linen on black).

We love this shot of the 2 oven cream AGA with the painted cabinetry to the side (Little Greene No. 163 French Grey Dark) and the Elca tea towel (black on linen) hanging over the rail.

We always love to get shots of the dovetail joints on our drawers – the strongest and most beautiful way of joining two pieces of wood together. (If you want to see one of our talented cabinetmakers finishing a drawer box – take a look here). The painted grey kitchen cabinetry and solid oak drawer looks so good next to the Elca tea towel in black on linen.

These Broadway Napkins looked fantastic on the black anticato worktop – super fresh and clean.

We were so thrilled with how these images came out – we hope you like them too! To see more of Tori’s work including living accessories like cushions, throws and poufs and the rest of the kitchen accessories – take a look at her website here.

Image credits: Charlotte Murphy Photography