During more than 15 years designing homes and hotels for private clients, my team and I struggled to find key pieces to complete our projects; a side table of a particular scale, the perfect floor lamp or kitchen pendants that work just so. NiX was created to bring these beautifully useful, hard-to-find pieces to life.
NiX encompasses accessibly priced furniture, lighting and objects that meet my exacting requirements of purpose, price and provenance. All of the pieces are designed by me and my team and made here in Europe by skilled makers that we’ve established relationships with over many years. These pieces are designed to be well-used and well-loved across several lifetimes.
Like our interior design projects, the NiX brand is very much focused on character and integrity rather than trends and genres. Sources of inspiration for the collection range from the work of English designer, craftsman and educationist Gordon Russell to my own collection of treasured antiques.
We are launching the brand with a lighting collection that I hope serves as a taster of what’s to come. The inaugural collection comprises 17 table, floor, wall and pendant lights that can combine with 26 different shades to provide practical and beautiful illumination.
I think of lighting as the unsung hero of homemaking. It’s the most effective and also easiest way to subtly alter the feel of a place. It doesn’t need to be invasive or expensive and is just as doable in a rental as it is in a home that you own.
Each of the new lamps is designed by me and my in-house team of designers to fulfil a specific role within a home or hospitality setting. Among my favourite pieces from the collection is a floor lamp called To The Point, which was inspired by a lamp I inherited from my grandfather. Having struggled to find anything with better proportions, I’ve created To The Point as a modern interpretation of this classic, adjustable design.
It’s the perfect height to nestle reassuringly close to a chair or a sofa. Its height can be adjusted, as can the angle of the shade, so that you can throw light exactly where you need it – to read or to admire your G&T.
As with many of the lamps in the collection, To the Point is available with a metal shade or a choice of fabric diffusers – including playful polka dots and elegant parchment – which each offer a distinct mood and effect.
For me, a light is a brilliant opportunity to inject some colour, some pattern and some personality into a room. Lights have the ability to anchor a collection of furniture or fill a corner of a room and so for this collection, I worked with ceramics experts to develop a series of glazed lamp bases that provide colourful punctuation points within an interior scheme.
Another key piece from the collection is the Focused desk lamp – a practical and elegant design featuring an articulated arm that makes it easy to adjust the direction of the light. This lamp has a waxed-brass base that can combine with a variety of shade options, enhancing the versatility of this timeless design.
It goes without saying that the Focused desk lamp works well on a desk or dressing table, but it also looks great on a side table or angled over a sofa or seat to create useful task light.
The varying sizes of the lamps allow customers to play with scale and placement within a room. The Ditsy table lamp, for example, is a compact design that will fit into the tiniest corner, while Humbug makes a bold statement with its handsome proportions and striped pattern.
I believe that this lighting collection really encapsulates NiX’s focus on creating products that are driven by character and integrity rather than trends and genres. I’m so proud to be able to make everything in the UK and Portugal using an established network of skilled craftspeople with whom I have developed long-standing relationships over many years. Each piece is crafted using responsibly sourced materials and is made to be well-used and well-loved across several lifetimes.
Over the coming months, NiX will release a range of further products including furniture, tableware, wallpapers and soft furnishings. Everything we create will embody the same ethos and values as Nicola Harding & Co, reflecting my style and unique design approach. Our aim with NiX is to help you source beautifully useful and accessibly priced pieces that will remain in your home for years to come. I hope you enjoy living with them as much as I have enjoyed designing them.
Take care,
Nix
