Tall trees: the Kit Kemp Collection for GP & J Baker
GP&J Baker in collaboration with Kit Kemp (Firmdale Hotels)
Client
Charlotte Street Hotel, London
Location
Date
2024
Tall Trees was the second large-scale wallpaper I made with Kit Kemp, following our work on Mythical Land at the Whitby Hotel. The brief was for a four-metre design for the double-height Loft Suite at Charlotte Street Hotel: floor to ceiling, trees reaching all the way up, with guests sleeping in the treetops of the mezzanine bedroom while rolling hills faded into the distance below.
Where Mythical Land was animated and folkloric, Tall Trees is serene. The scale is large but the colours are desaturated and chalky, so the scene envelops rather than overwhelms. I think of this as visual aerodynamics: the receding horizon, the clear sky above the canopy, the compositional breathing room that stops a floor-to-ceiling forest from closing in.
Some of Kit's Mythical Creatures reappear here, re-imagined in this quieter, more contemplative setting. It is a forest you could live inside.
I am glad to see it available more widely now. The design translates well to both wallpaper and fabric, and I think the chalky palette works particularly well as a panel: large enough to feel immersive, soft enough to work alongside almost anything.
Tall Trees is available as a wallpaper and printed panel fabric through GP & J Baker and their global stockists.
“Where other designs are folkloric, Tall Trees is serene. I think of it as visual aerodynamics ~ the receding horizon and clear sky stop a floor-to-ceiling forest from closing in, allowing guests to feel they are sleeping peacefully in the treetops.”