Watts 1874 participation in Chelsea Flower Show

Photos courtesy of  Milo Brown, Country Life Magazine

As a heritage British House founded in 1874 by three practicing architects, Watts1874 is honoured to take part in the RHS Chelsea Flower Show through Country Life’s stand, A Garden Lover’s Library, an immersive setting celebrating English decoration, architecture, craftsmanship and a profound connection to nature. 

A botanical journey through Art and Nature

Presented at one of Britain’s most iconic cultural and horticultural gatherings, the installation reflects the relationship between gardens and interiors that has shaped English style for centuries. Throughout its history, Watts1874 has continually drawn inspiration from the natural world, from flourishing botanical motifs and climbing foliage to romantic floral trails and verdant decorative landscapes. This sensitivity to nature remains deeply embedded within the House’s creative identity, where walls and textiles become living compositions infused with poetry, colour and atmosphere.

Designed by architect George Saumarez Smith of ADAM Architecture, A Garden Lover’s Library evokes the charm of an English country house interior assembled over time through vintage gardening books, drawings, collected objects and personal memories. Rich in nuance and layered detail, the room captures a distinctly British approach to decoration: cultivated yet relaxed, intellectual yet deeply emotional. The installation brings together gardening, architecture and literary culture within a library setting containing more than 300 pre-1986 gardening and natural history books. 

Photos courtesy of  Milo Brown, Country Life Magazine

Watts 1874’s in-house studio creative vision

At the heart of the space unfolds a bespoke panoramic wallcovering conceived by Watts1874’s in-house studio, under the creative direction of Prince Jean de Caraman Chimay, alongside Marie-Séverine de Caraman Chimay, fifth generation of the family House. Guided by a shared vision and cultural heritage around architecture and design, the studio continually draws inspiration from Watts1874’s extraordinary archive, a living repository of more than 150 years of creative independence, craftsmanship and decorative artistry. Each project honours the founders’ original architectural sensibility while intuitively responding to the evolving language of contemporary interiors, navigating creatively between past and present. At Watts1874, tradition is highly celebrated : historic motifs, colours and textures are thoughtfully reinterpreted for modern living, allowing heritage to evolve with elegance and relevance.

For Chelsea Flower Show and through Country Life’s stand, developed from architect George Saumarez Smith’s original pencil drawings, the wallcovering translates the delicacy and spontaneity of the hand-drawn line into an immersive decorative landscape printed onto paperback linen. Every subtle movement and irregularity of the sketch has been meticulously preserved, celebrating the authenticity of the artist’s hand while elevating it through exceptional craftsmanship. Rendered in a refined china-blue palette inspired by traditional Delftware, the composition introduces rhythm, architectural depth and quiet poetry throughout the room. Trompe-l’oeil elevations, framed artworks and imagined garden views unfold across a softly floral backdrop, blurring the boundaries between interior architecture and the surrounding landscape. More than decoration, the wallcovering becomes a narrative journey, guiding the eye through the A Garden Lover’s Library while creating an atmosphere of intimacy, serenity and cultivated English romantic beauty.

A tribute to architecture

The project also pays tribute to the architectural origins of Watts1874. Founded by George Frederick Bodley, Thomas Garner and George Gilbert Scott Jr., the House has long understood decorative arts as an extension of architecture itself: a way of shaping atmosphere, emotion and experience through colour, texture and ornamentation. This vision continues today through the work of the in-house studio, whose multidisciplinary approach spans archival research, drawing, interior design and bespoke decorative development.

The world’s greatest flower show

Chelsea Flower Show is a major highlight in the UK's gardening calendar, renowned for its impressive gardens, floral displays, and innovative landscaping ideas, visited by The King and Queen and other members of the Royal Family, internationally celebrated for its extraordinary gardens, floral artistry and creative vision. Within this  A Garden Lover’s Library offers a quieter, more intimate reflection on the relationship between nature and domestic life. It is an invitation to rediscover the excellence of craftsmanship, the romance of English interiors and to celebrate the timeless elegance of the natural world applied to architecture and intetior design.

Through this first participation at Chelsea Flower Show, Watts1874 reaffirms its commitment to heritage, creativity and the living traditions of British decorative arts, placing craftsmanship and storytelling at the centre of contemporary interiors.

Written by Laure de Dampierre