At nineteen, she went to work for John Fowler at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, learning her trade at the elbow of one of the great decorators of the twentieth century. Her first commission on going independent was a castle in Scotland. Her rich, confident colour sense caught the eye of the club owner Mark Birley, who asked her to redecorate Annabel's, and the two of them liked working together so much that in 1970 they opened a Chelsea shop of their own, built on what they called, without apology, unashamed luxury. It was there that she launched a heart shaped motif that still appears on her china today, and that has more or less become her signature. Her name was Nina Campbell.
A garden imported from Normandy
The Nina Campbell Honfleur collection takes its cue from the Normandy coast, all soft foliage and half remembered gardens rather than anything too formal. La Quintinie, in Indigo, is a modern toile of a garden scene, a tiled roof hut, potted topiary, a table and parasol left out as if someone has just stepped away from it. Hollingbourne Trellis, in Green, is a quieter companion, delicate trailing leaves forming a mid scale trellis, adapted from one of her own fabric designs in the Dallimore collection.
La Quintinie, Indigo, Honfleur by Nina Campbell
Hollingbourne Trellis, Green, Honfleur by Nina Campbell
Willows, stripes and a fabric turned wallpaper
Les Saules, in Green, is the most romantic design in the collection, weeping willow trees and an arched bridge over a stream with ducks, swans and reeds, all printed in a painterly silhouette. Anduze, in Red and Teal, is the plainest speaking design in the whole Honfleur range, a stripe carrying botanical sprigs, repeated in alternating colours to resemble hand block printing.
Les Saules, Green, Honfleur by Nina Campbell
Anduze, Red/Teal, Honfleur by Nina Campbell
Fener Grove, in Coral and Teal, does something none of the others in the collection attempt: it takes one of her fabric designs and reprints it directly onto natural sisal grasscloth, so the pattern gets the texture of a woven material rather than a flat paper ground underneath it.
Fener Grove, Coral/Teal, Honfleur by Nina Campbell, on natural sisal grasscloth
Eight prints, one signature
The Signature collection is the widest cross section of her work on the site, and the closest thing to a single house style. Foret is a woodland scene of trees, plants, animals and birds with a tranquil, oriental feel. Poiteau is quieter still, bamboo stems and grasses reduced to silhouette on a matt ground, a traditional print with nothing fussy about it.
Foret, Signature by Nina Campbell
Poiteau, Signature by Nina Campbell
Two more lean into trellis and trail. Arber is a stylish ogee trellis built from trailing vines, block printed in feel, presented here in a chalky matt finish. Almora takes a looser approach, bell flowers and fuchsias trailing on stems as if genuinely hand printed, in the same tranquil, chalky register as Arber.
Arber, Signature by Nina Campbell
Almora, Signature by Nina Campbell
Toile Chinoise takes the traditional toile and brings it into the twenty first century with watercolour brushwork and a more contemporary palette, still built from the same garden scenes the format has always used. Petit Dapuri looks further east again, a floral print of delicate sprigs inside a decorative border, taking its inspiration from Indian miniature painting.
Toile Chinoise, Signature by Nina Campbell
Petit Dapuri, Signature by Nina Campbell
The last two in the collection show how differently a single idea can be handled. Plumier is decorative feathers held inside a stem border, printed on a soft matt substrate. Sackville Stripe is one of her classic prints reimagined in new colourways, a stripe softened with delicate dot work and line detail, versatile enough to sit behind almost anything.
Plumier, Signature by Nina Campbell
Sackville Stripe, Signature by Nina Campbell
One more, from Les Rêves
Away from Honfleur and Signature sits Marguerita, in Green and Ivory, from her Les Rêves collection, said to be named after the designer's own daughter. It is a charming floral cartouche trellis, built on a simple symmetry with a slightly distressed finish, closer to something found in an old French bedroom than a contemporary print.
Ready to bring Nina Campbell into your home?
Explore the full Nina Campbell wallpaper collection for more from Honfleur, Signature and beyond. Every design mentioned here can be ordered as a sample first from its own product page, worth doing given how much these prints can shift under different light. Visit our sample service page to get started.
