Q&A with Josephine Munsey
Josephine Munsey is a British wallpaper brand founded by husband-and-wife team Josephine and Greg in 2020. Drawing on her experience working with several design houses such as Cole & Son and Designers Guild, she built a deep knowledge of fabric and wallpaper printing techniques before deciding to launch a brand under her own name, with her husband Greg now part of the team too.
We spoke with Josephine to discover more about the brand, her creative process, and the inspirations behind her designs.
The Josephine Munsey Studio in the Cotswolds
How would you describe Josephine Munsey to someone new to the brand?
We are a British textile and wallpaper studio based in the Cotswolds in England. Our focus is on hand-painted designs guided by instinct rather than by trends.
At the heart of the studio is a commitment to making. To the discipline of repeat, to the irregularities of hand-work, and to the character that comes from doing things carefully rather than quickly. While digital processes support production, our foundation remains firmly rooted in hand-drawn design.
Where do you seek inspiration from for your designs?
I have to admit that I do not get around the museums and galleries as much as I would like to, but they are always great sources of inspiration! I generally trawl through the V&A archives, and there are a few museums in the US that have folk archives that I find very interesting.
We’re lucky to live beside a woodland filled with beautiful wildlife, including ferns and bluebells, which provides constant inspiration.
Your designs are all hand-drawn which is wonderful. How long does the creative process take, from the initial concept phase to having the final product infront of you?
It is hard to quantify how long a design takes. Sometimes it starts as a sketch and then I pick it up again in a few years to develop it. Sometimes I go straight to a big blank piece of paper. I try to vary the process slightly each time so that the designs do not look too similar.
Once I have the final repeat I experiment with colorways. This can take anything from a day to a couple of weeks, tweaking gradually. Then, once I have whittled it down, I send around 10-20 colorways of each design off to be printed to see how they look in real life. I typically do another round of adjustments before finalising the colorways.
Do you have any decorating tips you live by?
Generally, I would say always start with the color wheel and see which colours and tones you're drawn to. It’s also really helpful to find complementary colors if you’re stuck, or if you need to find that unexpected pop of color it can be a really handy tool.
The other tip is pattern play, experiment by choosing different scales in wallpapers and fabrics to really ground a room. Start by ordering samples and creating your own moodboards until you are happy with the pattern combination.
Your fabrics and wallpapers are designed and manufactured in the UK. How important is that to you & your business?
Printing in the UK is such a skilled industry. The printers we use have knowledge in both the conventional printing processes and the digital, they’re the best in the business due to their exceptional quality. It also gives us the flexibility to go and actually experience the process and make tweaks, which is really important to us.
As mentioned, Josephine Munsey is a husband-and-wife team. What’s it like sharing both a life and a business together?
Being completely honest, at first I really didn’t think we would last very long working together! We argued over the little details and we overlapped a lot in the roles we took on, it was very intense.
Thankfully, we quickly realised we needed more structure and clearer boundaries in the business. We naturally settled into the areas we each work best in - Greg is incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to software and websites, and he’s introduced systems that have made our processes far more efficient and easy to manage, whereas I take on the creative side of things.
We also made a conscious effort to organise our personal life better alongside the business, even creating a timetable to help us balance everything. Now we each have clearly defined roles, and it works so well for us. One of the biggest positives is that we’re able to be present for our children while also getting to travel and experience work opportunities together. I’m very proud of Greg for sticking with it and helping us build something that works so well both professionally and personally.
What’s next for Josephine Munsey?
At the moment, we feel like we’ve found a really good rhythm with the business, which is exciting. In the studio, I’m looking forward to focusing on creating a few highly intricate pieces, alongside some exciting mural projects that are in the pipeline.
As a business, we’ve never been interested in making huge or sudden moves. Our focus has always been on building something consistent, sustainable, and long-lasting, with real longevity behind it.
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