Forest Flower is a printed cotton and linen from Kit Kemp's second collection for GP & J Baker, hand-drawn and folk-inspired, printed onto a cloth with enough linen in it to keep the surface slightly irregular. Stylised blooms and leaves climb across the width in loose, uneven rows, so the design reads as drawn rather than engineered. At arm's length it is busy; from across a room it settles into texture and colour.
The cloth is 90 per cent cotton with 10 per cent linen and runs 137 centimetres wide. The repeat is 35 centimetres vertically and 68.5 centimetres horizontally, a half-width step that matters when you are planning curtain drops. GP & J Baker list it for curtains, loose and fixed upholstery and bedspreads, so it is a general furnishing print rather than a light-use one. Five colourways: Plaster, Blue/Green, Teal/Spice, Spice/Ochre and Earth. Plaster is the quiet one for a scheme that wants pattern without colour, while Teal/Spice and Spice/Ochre will carry a room on their own.
We use it for full-length curtains in a bedroom, where the vertical repeat gives the drops rhythm, and for a headboard or a slipper chair when the pattern needs containing. It also works on a blind above a run of plain painted joinery. Pair it with a plain linen and a woven stripe from the same book rather than a second print. Sold by the half metre; order a sample to see it in your own light.
With a 68.5 centimetre horizontal repeat you will lose cloth at every join, so measure the finished curtain width before ordering and allow one extra repeat per drop. Ask your maker to centre the design on each panel and match it across the seams; on a headboard, centre it on the vertical as well. Interline for the best hang.
Composition: 90% Cotton 10% Linen
Width: 137 cm (53.82 in)
Pattern repeat: 35 cm vertical, 68.5 cm horizontal
Care: Dry clean only
Collection: Kit Kemp Prints & Embroideries II, GP & J Baker
