About us

We see beauty as fundamental to a good life. Well, where would our species be without Monet’s light-drenched canvases, or the sight of a majestic oak on a rolling hill?

In the doldrums, that’s where!

Beauty is essential for both health and happiness, and we want to help you fling your arms wide and welcome it generously into your every day.

We’re Tim Butcher and Lizzie Deshayes, two designer-makers supported by an extraordinary team of fellow designers, artists and craftspeople. We founded Fromental (pronounced From-on-tal) in 2005 and are lucky to spend our days creating beautiful things at our studios in London, Wuxi and Calcutta.

Tim began his career in fashion, creating the technology to hand paint fabrics for Parisian couture houses. But it was while spending time in Asia in his twenties that he fell in love with the timeless beauty of traditional Chinese wallcoverings.

Lizzie’s conversion happened sooner. At the age of three, she longed to design fabrics (like her godfather, textile designer John Allen). But as a teen, she found herself captivated by wallpapering sessions with her father – and a lasting fascination was born.

Both of us adore historical decorative art, but we’re far too restless to be contained by it. All traditions start as innovations, and we’d much rather have a go at inventing the future than rehashing the past. Now that’s exciting.

“Craftsmanship to us means good use of tools and technology. You must remember, painting onto silk was high tech at one time.”

– Lizzie Deshayes, Director

Hand-painted, hand-embroidered silk wallcoverings established Fromental’s reputation, but cutting-edge tech, when used with the correct intent, can be just as remarkable. We dive headfirst into other mediums of decoration too, exploring everything from artworks to textiles. We like to have our finger on the pulse but strongly believe that beauty should transcend passing fashions.

We’ve always had a visceral reaction to our surroundings – the driving force behind our desire to create beautiful objects. Rather than ask “how do I want this room to look”, we should ask ourselves “how do I want to feel in this space?”

That “wow” moment when a Fromental piece is introduced to its new habitat... it’s a joy. But the main prize is even bigger: we want to enrich your experience every day, now and for decades to come. It’s our occupation, our preoccupation. That’s what gets us out of bed every morning.