Fruit has been a favourite subject for pattern makers for centuries, and food-shaped furniture has become one of the most playful corners of modern design. Put the two together and you get rooms that feel generous, witty and warm. Here's how to bring fruit and food into your home, from the walls to the sofa, without it tipping into a theme park.
Fruit on the walls
Wallpaper is the easiest way in, and fruit patterns suit dining rooms and kitchens particularly well, though there's no reason they can't go in a hallway or bedroom too.
For a classic route, the Morris & Co Fruit Wallpaper is one of William Morris's earliest designs, produced in 1864. Ripe fruit hangs from the branches of an overflowing tree, set among abundant leaves and flowers, with fine branches printed in the background for depth. With 15 colourways, from light Beige/Gold/Coral and Limestone/Artichoke to rich Chocolate, Twilight and Tangled Green, it can be as gentle or as dramatic as you like.
For something with more mischief, Frutto Proibito Wallpaper from Cole & Son combines archival Fornasetti motifs from the 1940s and 1950s. Monkeys, originally conceived as wooden panels for the Milanese patisserie Dulciora, sit among sprawling pomegranate branches. Choose from Print Room Blue & Magenta on Metallic Gold, Blue & Orange, Sage & Ink and Blue & Lemon. The gold colourway is wonderful in a dining room by candlelight.
Furniture you could almost eat
Food-shaped furniture is best used sparingly: one hero piece in a room is plenty. The Seletti x Studio Job Hot Dog Sofa from BLOW, the joint brand of Seletti and Studio Job, turns an American pop culture icon into fast food furniture, with an upholstered bun and sausage on gold-finish resin feet. You can choose the sofa only, or the complete set with tomato and cucumber cushions.
It's a showstopping centrepiece for a living room, games room or studio. Give it space, keep the surrounding furniture simple, and let the walls do the supporting work. A plain wall in a colour picked from the bun works, or go bolder with a fruit wallpaper in a warm colourway.
Playful lamps to finish
Once the walls and the big piece are in place, lighting adds the final layer of fun. The Seletti Sparrow Table Lamp by Marcantonio is a strikingly realistic white resin sparrow holding a slender stem with a tiny bulb. The 1m stem looks like a flexible cable but is actually a bendable steel rod, so you can twist it into swirling shapes. Set on a desk, shelf or bedside in front of an orchard wallpaper, it looks as though a bird has stopped by to raid the fruit.
The Seletti Circus Abatjour Lamp brings a different kind of humour: its circus characters mistake the lampshade for their tent and lift a flap of the shade to make their entrance. It suits a room that already has a sense of play, like a games room with the hot dog sofa.
Balance the fun with richness
Playful rooms feel more grown-up when there's some depth alongside the humour. Velvet, dark backgrounds and layered pattern all help. The Baroda Black and Amber Printed Velvet Tab Top Curtain has an abundance of flowers and pops of amber on an inky black background, with mossy green scrolling vines. Hung beside a darker Fruit colourway such as Chocolate, it creates a rich, enveloping dining room. It also comes in Scarlet and Sage.
Another tip: repeat a single fruit colour around the room. Pick the pomegranate pink or a lemon yellow from your wallpaper and echo it in a cushion, a vase or a lampshade, and the whole scheme will feel planned rather than random.
See what's new in at Courthouse Interiors for more playful pieces, or visit us in Somerset. The team is always happy to help you put a scheme together.
