Beauvamp actually started out as a decorative furniture brand, sourcing good quality vintage furniture from onsite auctions and upcycling them with paints and decoupage or a bit of free hand decorative painting. I would work on a whole host of pieces from drawers and chairs to tables and cocktail cabinets. Eventually I gravitated to projects that involved lampstands and lampshades and my new venture in lighting was born from there.

After spending a long time researching and perfecting traditional sewing techniques, I immersed myself into the world of lighting and interiors from bygone eras, taking huge inspiration from my findings. I fell in love with the Arts and Crafts, Art Deco and Art Nouveau periods in particular and wanted to build on frame shapes from these eras and bring them into the present with a contemporary twist of my own.

My first collection of shades took inspiration from the old Tiffany glass lampshades originally designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany in the late 1890's. I loved their angular shapes and coupled with a fascination for silk ruching, I had to go with the name ’Tiffany’ for my first collection. Further lampshade designs snowballed from there really and we became known for our signature pleats and fringing. Since then, we have mastered the art of the ruffle and have recently launched the Tiffany Ruffle Collection.

It all depends on what you would like the light to do, for example if you are wanting ambience we would recommend lamps, either our traditionalist floor lamp or a range of table lamps to create a warm and inviting atmosphere. If the requirement is task lighting then our Cresent lamp has been designed with flexibility in mind and works well as either a decorative piece or a working piece for casting light on a desk. We find that a lot of our customers look to Beauvamp for statement lighting which can be achieved by adding an unusual pop of colour or a bold braid and find our fringed and ruffled shades are a popular choice for injecting personality into an interior. Our up and coming painted Uplighters have been designed for lighting corners which we are excited to get photographed in their setting shortly and we have also been asked if we can go larger, so we have increased our standard frame size to 24” to give out even more light!

I love working on new lampshade designs to add to the collection and I’m very excited about our new uplighter range of lamps currently in progress along with a new matching bolster cushion collection.

All our shades are made using traditional sewing techniques and put handmade design centre stage, keeping old traditions alive and creating sustainable heirlooms for generations to come. We tend to focus on quality of locally sourced materials in small batches choosing eco-friendly fabrics and trim where possible. Each frame shape is sketched out to scale on paper, making each style and size unique to ourselves. We also designed an exclusive fringing and braid collection especially suited to our frame shapes that are spun on local looms here in Derbyshire.

We are so lucky to be based in an UNESCO World Heritage site down at Cromford Mill in Derbyshire. Once home to the inventor Sir Richard Arkwright at the start of the industrial revolution, there is plenty of history and architecture to come and enjoy. The mill is situated right next to the River Derwent and Cromford Canal, so there are plenty of nice walks and countryside to explore on the doorstep. We make all our lampshades from scratch in the studio and hope to be open by appointment for people to come and visit by this Summer.

Well coupled with our new cushions and lamps, I would love to find the time for a bit of surface pattern design for developing our own range of fabrics and wallpapers in the future.