Spectacular Smith

Jekyll Rising | 2023 Custom Furniture Collection

As we begin design work on our 2023 Custom Furniture Collection, here’s a little background on our inspiration.

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Spectacular Smith Custom Furniture Collection
Gertrude Jekyll’s home. (c) Garden Moxie. Used by permission.

Jekyll Rising | Custom Furniture Collection

If you’re thinking of Jekyll and Hide, there is a literary connection but none related to our furniture design collection. Our inspiration is the world-renowned English garden designer Gertrude Jekyll.

Aside | The literary connection is that Gertrude’s brother, Walter, was a friend of writer Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson eventually borrowed the Jekyll family name for his 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

But there’s much more to Gertrude Jekyll besides her amazing gardens. She was a renascence woman who ran her own successful business, excelled at photography, and was a prolific writer, to name just a few of her additional accomplishments.

Inspiration

Jekyll had that rare combination of combining artistry, in the form of world-class gardens, with the pragmatism of having to get things done as a businesswoman. Due to that, she chose simple, clean lines for the design of her house by her friend Edwin Lutyens. From our experience, clean, straightforward design is deceptively difficult to achieve because there’s no extravagant trim or ornate detailing to hide behind.

We’re not against other types of furniture design from different eras.

But for our 2023 custom furniture collection, we’ve chosen to be inspired by Jekyll and others artisans who find joy in accuracy in their craftsmanship.  

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