From Charleston Farmhouse in Sussex to Studland Beach in Dorset to their spiritual home in London, the Bloomsbury artists are synonymous with a painterly, avant-garde style and cocking a snook at the conventions of society.

In February 1910 they chose Weymouth for one of their first attention-grabbing hoaxes, dressing up as African potentates, blackening their faces, wearing lavish robes and blagging their way onto HMS Dreadnought as foreign dignitaries, dispensing fake military honours and releasing embarrassing photos of the escapade to the national papers.

In 1912 Bloomsbury artist Vanessa Bell holidayed at the Knoll House Hotel and following time spent on Studland Beach produced a painting of the same name, regarded as one of Britain’s first modernist works. A further painting of the area, by fellow artist Roger Fry, portrayed the view from the Knoll House Hotel in such violet colour that for years it was thought to be a depiction of the Black Sea coast.

It was the writer Dorothy Parker who observed that: ‘Bloomsbury painted in circles, lived in squares and loved in triangles’.

Shocking it may have been and their lifestyle, with its homosexuality and children born out of wedlock, was designed to be, but the look they created has become an interior style of its own.

Twenty-five years ago Laura Ashley produced its first collection of fabrics based on Bloomsbury’s free-hand patterns in shades of jade, plum, primrose and steel grey. They were designed after the company had helped reproduce the fabrics originally designed by the Bloomsbury Set for Charleston.

Now, as part of Laura Ashley’s own 60th anniversary celebrations, they are reviving Bloomsbury for another generation.

Jo Bennett, Senior Design Manager at Laura Ashley Home says: “Bloomsbury invokes a creative nostalgia derived from freedom of expression. From painting on walls to decorating every possible surface – capturing that essence is vital to this archive collection.”

The collection allows those who want to dip a toe into Bloomsbury style without plastering every wall, door-panel and item of furniture with exuberant paintings, as happened at Charleston. It also takes decor away from the icecream pastels and taupey neutrals of recent years, re-introducing colours we’d almost forgotten.

Jo Bennett believes the fabrics are ‘perfect if you don’t want to redecorate a whole room’ and they are also available on crockery, ready-made cushions and wallpaper.

  • Laura Ashley, Poole Retail Park, BH12 1DN