This Cole & Son Collection Has Us Rethinking Florals for Spring | Architectural Digest

A mother leopard helps her cub climb into a tree. Elephants parade to a watering hole. Giraffes outstretch their svelte necks to nibble leaves at the tip-top of a tree, while zebras frolic nearby. These enchanting scenes of everyday life in the bush grace Jabula, the latest collection of Ardmore wallpapers produced in collaboration with Cole & Son.

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Chock-full of fauna, Jabula is the latest evidence that the interior design industry is apparently wild for, well, the wild. Elsewhere, golden tigers, queen cobras, and other now extinct creatures inspired Arte’s latest collaboration with Moooi; a pair of giraffes shuffles through exotic plants in Yves Delorme’s new Mesdemoiselles decorative pillows; and in the recently unveiled Kips Bay Decorator Show House Palm Beach, designer Beth Diana Smith filled the trays of the dining room’s coffered ceiling with a vibrant animal print (Fabricut’s Mighty Jungle).

According to Ardmore founder Fée Halsted, there’s an explanation for the surge of jungle spirit. But first, some background: Ardmore, for the uninitiated, debuted over 30 years ago as a ceramics company. The business was named for Halsted’s farm, located in a remote corner of the Kwazulu-Natal province of South Africa. Flash forward several decades and the studio, which today boasts more than 70 African artists, has expanded beyond its vibrant, highly collectible ceramics (all sculpted and painted by hand), with a range that includes fabrics, furniture, candles, jewelry, and even Hermès scarves.