Colourful, accessible and oh-so covetable with a sense of pattern play that will inject grey and boring basic homes with super saturated shades and prints the designer Yinka Ilori’s new collection for Dunelm is selling out fast.
British-Nigerian multidisciplinary artist and designer Yinka Ilori uses bold, vibrant colors and his Nigerian heritage to transform everyday urban spaces, architecture, and vintage furniture.
A man who exudes delight in his surroundings, the multi-disciplinary designer weaves his love of pattern, texture, and colour into everything he does.
This has earned him the “architect of joy” moniker, and it is evident in his new 40-piece collaboration with Dunelm.
It was also on view in his recent London exhibition, Joy Through Resistance: He Who Laughs, Last Laughs Best at the Christea Roberts Gallery. It offered a colour injection that even the most monochrome of individuals could not resist.
Earlier this year, he collaborated with French champagne house Veuve Clicquot at Milan Design Week, fusing his patterns into the brand’s arrow-shaped tin cases and a calabash-shaped sun totem holder, available through UK-based Selfridges.
Previously, he worked with LG Electronics, 1882 Ltd. Ceramics, Sonos, Momentum Textiles, and Domus Tiles.
His signature use of geometric patterns and sun-soaked colours runs through the Dunelm range. It spans furniture, bedding, lighting, rugs and soft furnishings, with prices ranging from an accessible cotton jacquard hand towel, about €11, to a king-size boucle ottoman bed, about €937.
The vibrant patterns also evoke the textile past of the UK city of Leicester, where Dunelm began as a market stall.
Ilori draws on the diverse communities that shaped the city's textile industry. Floral patterns reference national flowers from countries including India and Pakistan, in a nod to the city's Asian, African, and Caribbean cultures.
Notables include the Bell LED lamp, about €77, which the designer says feels very playful and nostalgic, in an interview with Wallpaper magazine. “It's a classic and timeless piece that would feel at home in the 70s or 80s."
The Net Floral duvet cover set, from about €19 for a single, riffs on the classic net curtain, beloved by nosey neighbours. This reinterpretation will draw attention while the Gerbera cushion, about €31, combines crewel wool embroidery with a geometric floral pattern.
The Kaleidoscope floral round rug, \bout €159, is a handmade, 100 per cent wool piece with a textured, bobbled finish that will look as good on a wall as it does underfoot.
Launched yesterday, the designer’s popularity is such that already much of the funkier furniture has sold out.
Available online and in select UK stores only, Irish interioristas cannot buy the range in the Republic.
Fans can order the smaller items through Dunelm's Belfast store, but will have to have access to an address in the north, one with a BT postcode.
With Zara Home announcing the opening of its first shop in the Republic in Dundrum Town Centre, could Dunelm similarly facilitate Irish customers with a store where they can buy all of its really covetable collections by designers that already include Sophie Robinson and Orla Kiely, not just the bedding, curtain, and cushion ranges, as is currently the case?
