Callow Hall:
A Landscape for Wildhive

Isabella Worsley designed the complete refurbishment of Callow Hall for the new boutique hotel group Wildhive, working with British workshops and artists throughout to create interiors that, in her words, give an unexpected sense of quirk and charm. With that look and feel in mind, she came to me to develop a repeating scenic wallpaper for the hotel's private dining room.

The Dovedale Room seats up to 32 guests. It needed a wallpaper that could anchor a room of that scale without overwhelming it, that rewarded attention without demanding it, and that made guests feel they were dining inside the landscape they had come to the Peak District to find.

The Design

The brief was to create an imaginary view of the rolling hills surrounding Callow Hall, and to weave into it the specific details that make this place itself rather than any other Peak District estate. A distant view of the hall, its nearby lake, and the stepping stones. One of the hotel's luxury woodland treehouses, which are a signature feature of the Wildhive offer. A scattering of beehives in the foreground as a nod to the brand: the Wildhive apiary pollinates a two-mile radius and is central to the hotel's relationship with its landscape.

The wildflower meadows that surround the hotel fill the fore and middle ground. In the distance, peaks merge into soft light, loosening the density of the design and giving the eye somewhere to rest. The palette is autumnal: gentle and romantic rather than strong, soft yellows and cognac oranges and sage greens. A whimsical scene, but one rooted in a specific place.

Isabella described wanting interiors that worked with the original features rather than against them. I think that applies to the wallpaper too. The design does not impose on the room. It extends it.

The Process

The composition was hand-painted in my Hastings studio before being scanned and digitally refined into a seamless repeat: three drops at 145cm each, with a repeat height of 325cm and a total width of 435cm. Printed on matte, non-woven paper that preserves the hand-painted quality of the original surface through to the finished installation.

This is a paint to pixel to print commission at full scale. The painted original is the source. The digital process carries its qualities into a room that could not have been painted on site.

A Continuing Relationship

Callow Hall was the first property in the Wildhive Collection. I am currently working on a second bespoke wallpaper for their next hotel, Eshott Hall in Northumberland, which opens in the summer of 2026. The two commissions form a thread: different landscapes, different characters, the same approach to making a place feel like itself.

If you are developing a hotel, a restaurant, or a private dining space and want the landscape it sits in to become part of the room, this is the kind of commission I find most satisfying. The brief is always the same in essence: make the building feel like it belongs where it is.