Bespoke Wallcoverings: Embroidery Guide
Embroidery has been part of Fromental from the very beginning. Working with specialist artisans in Suzhou, we bring hand-painting, silk and stitch together to create wallcoverings with remarkable depth and tactility. As the light changes, so too does the embroidery — sometimes immediately apparent, sometimes only revealing itself on closer inspection.
Explore embroidery
Our Embroidery Guide offers an overview of the different stitching techniques and applications available across our collections, with examples to help you understand the possibilities.
Adding embroidery to a Fromental design
Some Fromental designs feature embroidery as an integral part of their composition. Across many of our bespoke collections, embroidery can also be added in varying degrees as part of the design process.
This is particularly effective across our Chinoiserie designs, where stitch can be used to draw attention to individual flowers, foliage or birds, or applied more extensively across the composition. It might be richly worked and immediately apparent, or something much quieter that reveals itself as the light changes.
Our embroidery options combine two elements: Type and Style. Type determines the density of stitch within an embroidered motif, from fully worked silk embroidery to the lightest, most open application. Style determines where that embroidery appears across the design — whether throughout the composition or concentrated on selected elements.
Together, these choices allow the embroidery to move from richly decorative to remarkably restrained, while remaining sympathetic to the original design. The amount and application of embroidery will also influence the cost and production time involved.
Your Fromental sales representative will talk you through the different possibilities and, where appropriate, our studio will create samples so you can see how your chosen embroidery works with the design before making a decision.
Threaded through time
Fromental was the first company to hand-embroider silk wallcoverings at scale, bringing a centuries-old craft tradition into contemporary interiors in an entirely new way.
Our embroidery is carried out in Suzhou, where silk craftsmanship has been refined over generations. Working entirely by hand, artisans build each design stitch by stitch, moving between dense silk embroidery and open stitching so fine it can appear almost sketched onto the surface.
The result can be layered and dramatic or extraordinarily restrained. In a chinoiserie landscape, embroidery might concentrate around birds and blossoms, drawing the eye through the composition. Elsewhere, a few carefully placed threads can bring definition to foliage or catch the light almost unexpectedly.
The materiality of silk
Silk thread absorbs and reflects light differently throughout the day, giving embroidery a changing presence within a room. Dense stitching creates depth and shadow; fine open stitching can appear almost transparent against the silk ground.
From a distance, the composition remains painterly and atmospheric. Move closer and the stitch begins to reveal itself, bringing another layer of texture and detail to the surface.
And because every panel is worked by hand, subtle variations in stitching, tension and thread direction are part of its character. No two are ever quite the same.
You can also explore designs that feature embroidery across our collections.
Explore Embroidered Wallcoverings
