Beautifully British: Zoe Murphy

I quite like numbers, and spreadsheets, and calculators with big buttons. So when I saw this table, I knew I just had to feature it here.It has been designed by British artist Zoe Murphy, who 'upcycles' pieces of mid-20th Century furniture, using bright colours inspired by her seaside home of Margate, Kent. Even her textiles are recycled; wedding dress silks which have been unpicked, dyed and printed.

Zoe kindly answered a few questions for me.

What inspires you?

I am mostly inspired by the 'everyday' and have always been influenced by designers and artists who turn a concept on its head or make people view things in different ways. Most of my work is focused on trying to draw attention to furniture and textile pieces that are otherwise left unloved and disregarded. As a result I use a lot of recycling in my designs and utilise processes such as veneering and patchworking constantly.

How would you describe your perfect day?

My perfect day - which I get to induldge in almost every Sunday of the summer - is waking up at 6am to get to a bootfair with my mum and rummaging around for an hour or three before retiring to a local cafe for a huge mug of tea and a bacon sandwich. The rest of the day is usually spent cleaning up all of the things I have bought and drawing up ambitious plans to regenerate each of them.

How can someone buy your work?

I mostly create bespoke pieces for individual clients. However, pieces are going into galleries in the UK and Scotland and I am in discussion with a London dept. store who will be taking on some of the work in the new year. Most of the work is made to order but some pieces, such as the Formica and some of the furniture, I will be making and then posting on the site for sale. With so much furniture and textiles gathered over the summer there are a lot of interesting things to come!

Thanks Zoe! Zoe does ship internationally, so if you are interested in seeing more, check out her website.