Artist Rebecca Atwood’s eponymous line of textiles and wallpapers evoke organic ambience
Enveloped by the airy hush of her sunlit studio inside The Refinery, Rebecca Atwood gazes toward an imagined landscape before turning to her sketchbook. The deliberate reverie might yield looping curves, dancing speckles, or a botanical ditsy. While such mark-making feels organic, the process reinforces Atwood’s intention to make a mark on the textile industry. “So much happens by taking time to sketch, draw, and paint without an agenda,” says the artist, who begins each week with this practice.
Atwood works in watercolor, gouache, and ink using methods she studied as an undergrad at Rhode Island School of Design, where she earned her degree in 2007. When curating her brand, the creative director visualizes her archive of art playing out through texture, scale, and color across fabric and wallpaper. “I have a strong perspective on color and pattern and what works well together.” Potato stamps form graphic elements in the understated “Hills” and whimsical “Stamped Garland.” The Japanese floating ink technique suminagashi led to the swirled “Marble Geode.” And the gentle waves of “Cat Cow” emerged from a paper collage.
While the designer herself is fairly quiet, her mind constantly turns over what already exists and what’s in the pipeline to ensure her fabrics and wallpapers have a newness to them but also layer easily with previous patterns. Interior designers delight in her ethereal collections, which are released four to five times a year, for their ability to bring softness and depth to throw pillows, window treatments, upholstery, and wallpaper. As the layered design aesthetic continues its return to home fashion popularity, Atwood has collaborated with notable brands such as Pottery Barn and says a partnership with Method for Target in 2016, alongside her first book release, really jump-started the company’s success.
The Rebecca Atwood brand stretches back to 2013, when the Cape Cod native began hand-dying and -painting pillows in her petite Brooklyn apartment. Prior to that, she’d worked on the home goods team at Anthropologie and as a consultant for big retailers like Bloomingdale’s and Bed Bath & Beyond. Such experience has given her the business savvy to promote her artwork in clever ways.
Rather than simply print yardage on demand, for example, the company invests in inventory, allowing the designer to flex ideas beyond the confines of simple weaves. Atwood pushes for production innovations like the hand-dyed yarn striations seen in “Gridded Ikat” and the combining of print and embroidery methods into a single textile. She’s particularly excited about the company’s performance fabrics, which appear delicately stitched but hold up outdoors.
Two years ago, Atwood rolled up her Manhattan showroom to move with her husband and young daughter closer to her Lowcountry-based family. While the designer admittedly still feels like the new kid on the block, she’s enthusiastic about the creative community here. Like her fabrics and wallpapers, which she views as “in process” until put to use by interior designers, Atwood sees a brilliant future in weaving her company into the Charleston fabric.
New This Year: Mural wallpaper
Favorite Print: “Petals,” one of the earliest Rebecca Atwood patterns. “I’m also always excited about whatever’s coming out next,” she says.
In the Books: Living with Pattern: Color, Texture, and Print at Home (Clarkson Potter, 2016) and Living with Color: Inspiration and How-Tos to Brighten Up Your Home (Clarkson Potter, 2019)
More: rebeccaatwood.com
Photographs by Genevieve Garruppo & Courtesy of (Swatch) Rebecca Atwood designs; (‘Blooms’ wallpaper) Vanessa Christina & (Chair) Tory Williams & Courtesy of Rebecca Atwood designs
