The Joules Journal / A Day Out at DFS

Behind the Scenes

A Day Out at DFS

28th November 2017

It’s a little known fact that sofa giants DFS produce much of their furniture at their workshops in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, including our new range of sofas, armchairs and footstools that feature our much-loved prints. To celebrate this collaboration we took six of our favourite bloggers to the DFS Design Studio at Bridge Mills in Derbyshire to learn more about our print making process and how our range was created.

It’s a little known fact that sofa giants DFS produce much of their furniture at their workshops in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, including our new range of sofas, armchairs and footstools that feature our much-loved prints
Pic: Cara from Within These Walls

Our day began with a tour of the studio with DFS’s Director of Design Philip Watkins and Furniture Designer Kate Oldfield, covering everything from their fabric corner; a cornucopia of materials, to the wood mill where the furniture’s frames are built.
Pic: Rachel from The Ordinary Lovely

To help our bloggers understand how we create our prints we sat down with some of the talented Joules print designers to talk through the process of concept through to final prints. Our team often find themselves in places such as Petersham Nurseries painting seasonal flowers and foliage. Many of these paintings end up as our unique prints, particularly our famous florals.

With some insider knowledge on paint techniques we set our bloggers the task of creating their own floral paintings to be printed onto fabric and made into a unique cushion.

To help our bloggers understand how we create our prints we sat down with some of the talented Joules print designers to talk through the process of concept through to final prints.

After all our creative endeavors the range was finally revealed. In natural light and in a setting of an original lace mill it’s fair to say our bloggers were suitably impressed with the textures, colours and prints displayed in our four styles.

The collection reflects our design heritage with twists on classics, such as the Windsor – the iconic Chesterfield sofa brought up to date in bold colours and rich velvets. The Ilkley mixes contemporary shapes with heritage tweed and country motifs. Our seaside tradition is captured in the Burnham; a mix of fresh nautical stripes and delicate florals. We’ve showcased our best-loved, iconic floral print too in the Cambridge range. All feature the little details and twists that you’ve come to know and love from Joules, such as our hare motif, hidden prints and the option of colour pop legs.

Back to the hands-on work and we challenged our bloggers to turn their hands at upholstering their own armchairs. With a little help from the DFS experts, of course. It’s not as easy as it looks and it was a great insight into the craftsmanship that goes into making a handcrafted piece of furniture.
Pic: Cara from Within These Walls

The Joules range will be in 11 DFS stores and online from 28th November.

With thanks to Andrea from Launeden, Amanda of Rhyme and Ribbons, Claire from This Little House, Cara from Within These Walls, Ruthie from Design Soda and Rachel from The Ordinary Lovely.

View the range here >

3 Comments

  • Rachel @ The Ordinary Lovely

    27.11.2017 at 15:33 Reply

    Thank you for such a brilliant day. I loved it. And the new collection, too!!

  • Tara Dunne

    12.10.2018 at 01:05 Reply

    I am ordering the windsor in yellow velvet (how can I resist??)
    But I also really want the lever-arm lamp that is shown in the photoshoot.
    I cannot find it anywhere. Can you tell me where I can source it from?

    Thanks so much!

    Tara

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