Our CEO and creative force behind the brand Chris Grafham has bought his expert eye to William Yeoward for 5 years. So we thought we'd pin him down and learn what it is that makes William Yeoward different, inspiration behind some key pieces and which WY products he has welcomed into his own home.

WY: We think you’ve got a very exciting job (if we do say so ourselves), did you always see yourself in the design world?

CG: I really do and I am very lucky! I have always loved the world of design. In my youth I was always pretty creative I guess but finding a career path that gives you that outlet is not always as straight forward as you would imagine. I started my career as a credit controller in finance at a company called Designers Guild. So I definitely wasn’t doing anything creative!! However I was surrounded by creativity and working for a really ground breaking brand. I basically lived vicariously through all those that were working in the creative and marketing departments. I worked my way up through the company, who gave me the opportunity to work in sales and eventually joined the Board as Marketing Director. So I have really been very lucky. For 24 years I was able to watch and work with Tricia Guild and the teams at Designers Guild as the brand developed. These exciting years taught me a huge amount, definitely shaped me and gave me the confidence to form my own point of view. It allowed me to move to William Yeoward and step in to William’s very big shoes! 

WY: As the creative force behind the Yeoward brand for the past 5 years and being aware of it’s history, how do you see the brand progressing in this new era?

CG: Before William passed, he and I had many long conversations about what his brand meant, how he had developed it and where we both wanted it to go. Luckily we were on the same page! William was fantastically creative in a very organic way, he was instinctive and individual. Frankly he was unique! Next year we will be celebrating 40 years of William Yeoward. In the last 3 years we have doubled in size and I think William would have been pleased with all we have done as a team. Every season we move the brand on. I am very focussed on always retaining the essence of the Yeoward brand but at the same time ensuring that we are current and relevant. There has to be fluidity and I am equally conscious that a balance has to be met between creativity and the needs of our customers. In the creative world people sometimes shy away from the word ‘commercial’ but getting that balance is essential. Over the last few years our team has grown and we have been busy expanding the ranges that we design, develop and launch. We have so many plans! If anything the hardest part is editing and ensuring that we do not over extend ourselves or indeed take a path that our customers around the world cannot join us on. Yes I want to surprise but in a measured way. It is more important to me that our customers feel that they are on a journey with us.

WY: What are you most excited about for SS23?

CG: You are asking the wrong person! I am excited about everything!! We had our SS23 photoshoot in October of this year…..and honestly I just love all our new pieces. I am excited to see what our customers think. We are also working on some fantastic things for AW23 and believe it or not we have already started work on SS24. Then of course I am excited that we will be celebrating 40 years of William Yeoward – what a milestone!

WY: In your words, what is it that makes Yeoward stand out to you as a brand?

CG: First and foremost it is people. We have a fantastic team here at Yeoward that I am incredibly proud of. We are a family, everyone has a voice and every member of the team is vital to our success. Secondly it is our relationship with our customers. It sounds obvious but so often this is not the case. We see our customers as an extension of our family. Thirdly it is quality. Quality of design, quality of product and quality of service. These are our guiding principles. We may not get everything right and we cannot be everything to everyone. We can however strive to do our very best at all times.

WY: If you could give your younger self one piece of advice – what would it be?

CG: Well that opens a can of worms – lol! I could give you a list but you have asked for one. I am going to give you two though as I think they are connected. Firstly ‘listen more’. Secondly ‘ don’t think you know everything’. I am still learning new things every day…..but my younger self was definitely very sure of everything. I definitely thought I knew best. On the one hand it made me confident, which is positive, on the other hand it made me a bulldozer, which is less positive. With time, age and listening comes balance.

WY: What inspires you the most in your work?

CG: Gosh – a difficult one. Inspiration can literally come from anything and anywhere. In terms of design it can be a country, a culture, shapes and patterns noticed on buildings, colours and forms you see in nature and the world around you. You honestly just have to have your eyes open and look. For instance I once spotted a lady wearing this amazing coat. She was paying to park her car just off the Kings road and I asked if I could use my phone to snap her coat…..she said yes! That was the start of a weave design we used on a cushion. In terms of what inspires me to do my best every day I go to work it is definitely my team and our customers. Making beautiful things is wonderful but more important even than that is the responsibility I feel towards everyone that relies on William Yeoward, my team and our customers. That inspires me to make sure Yeoward stays strong, focussed and relevant.

WY: Could you tell us a bit about your personal design influences, what are the favourite pieces in your home and why?

CG: I do love colour. I like things to feel modern but timeless. I want to be able to keep adding to a room as opposed to it needing a complete makeover. That is what makes a home feel lived in. We still have things that we bought when we first married and these memories sit perfectly alongside pieces added more recently.

I love that comfortable feeling of ‘ home’ when you walk through the front door.  I like the juxtaposition of textures, colours and patterns. So for instance a stone floor needs a beautiful soft wool rug as a contrast. I love the slightly raw textural nature of our greyed oak Hawford table but have surrounded this with Sherston dining chairs upholstered in soft comfortable Perzina chenille and plain linen.

We decided to have a Heronsford modular piece and two Heronsford chairs to create a really big but comfortable and cozy seating area. Amazingly it is just as cozy when it is just Carrie and I with our two kids, Sam and Lily, but spacious enough to seat 10 of us when family come at Christmas for instance.

In another corner we have used two Langton Chairs in Almacan striped fabric to create a separate little seating area. I love this corner as you can sit there with a coffee chatting while looking out over the fields behind the house.  Some of our furniture is covered in pattern and others in plain texture – I think it is important to have both. I will admit that Carrie and I are cushion hoarders – you can never have too many and you can change the look of a room just by changing these regularly. So we do have a lot of cushions!

The other ‘must have’ piece that I would encourage absolutely everyone to think about having is an Alfie lamp. We have two in jade and they transform the room in the evening.

Two of the most useful pieces are the Midmoor Chest that we have used in the entrance Hall. It is full of everything that doesn’t have an easy and obvious home from gloves, to cards, to candles and the list goes on. The other ‘essential’ piece is the Bywater Buffet that we have used in our kitchen. It is a really big piece for a reason. It houses all our china, placemats, napkins…..and I love the carved washed acacia wood finish. Not just useful but extremely stylish.

WY: Why Yeoward?

CG: This one is easy. Quality, comfort……..and timeless.

WY: Some might call you an ‘interior design guru’ - after brushing aside such a claim, would you be able to share your top three design tips for any inspiring designer or enthusiast?

CG: Very flattering BUT I definitely have not earned that! Still too much to learn……maybe one day. I can give you my personal top 3 tips though. Firstly – be brave and use colour on a wall. It transforms a room. I have used three different shades of William Yeoward paint on three separate walls, leaving the rest of the room neutral. It provides some drama without being in any way overwhelming. It also helps define the different parts of the room, which was important as it is a 16^th century barn and a huge space. Secondly invest in one or two bigger statement pieces as these will help anchor the room as you start to layer it. Thirdly throw everything you love into a scheme but then have the discipline to edit…….and remove three things. I would actually add a fourth tip, which is to really get your lighting right. This is where lamps and mirrors play there part as they will create the atmosphere. 

WY: What is your biggest design faux pas or what is your biggest interior advise for someone looking to decorate their home themselves?

CG: Hmmm – this will sound controversial so I emphasize that this is just my opinion. For me the biggest design faux pas’ are exaggerated versions of minimalism and maximalism. The first can feel austere and lack comfort or warmth, the second can feel like you have just used too much colour and pattern and layering in one room! My advice for someone planning to decorate their home would be as follows; firstly decide what you want to keep in a room. Secondly find inspiration in magazines, online or in stores and start to gather all the things you love best, be it a shape of furniture, colours, patterns or accessories. Don’t rush this – take your time. What you love one day can be quite different a week or two later. Make a mood board and edit down as you cannot fit everything in to a room. Think about all areas of your home. The hallway is as important as the living room so don’t ignore it. It may just need a great paint colour and a really cool mirror and console table. Don’t ask advice from others – you will get 5 different versions of what to do! Trust yourself…..and obviously ensure your partner is happy! Once you are happy with your plans think about the finishing touches – lamps, mirrors and candles!!

WY: And because we know our reader will love it, can you tell us the story about how the William Yeoward Paint Gallery came about?

CG: William and I were sitting outside Hall 6 at Maison & Objet about 5 years ago having a sandwich and out of the blue he asked me why we didn’t have a Yeoward paint range. There was a moments silence and then I reminded him that I had been at Yeoward for a grand total of 7 weeks……while he had been at it for 35 years! We laughed…..but it stuck with me. Fortuitously a year and a half later I bumped into someone that I had known for a long time but not seen in years and I was asked if we would be interested in developing a paint range. I didn’t just want to be ‘another colour palette’. There had to be other USPs for it to make sense….and indeed there were. Greater wall coverage was important but the winning factor for me was that the paint quality we went with required no priming and was recoatable in under an hour. So we started to create the palette by looking at literally everything we did from our crystal colours to fabrics, wallpapers, wood tones etc. The end result is a very different and really strong colour palette.

I then involved every member of the WY team in coming up with names that related to William himself, the Cotswolds where William lived, London and in particular our Chelsea heartland. Every shade has a story! Et voila….

WY: Which is your absolute favourite place to be in your home - the space that most reliably makes you smile?

CG: There are many! I love sitting around the dining table eating, drinking and laughing with family and friends. I love it when Carrie, the kids and I are sprawled all over our Heronsford modular watching a film together. However if I can only choose one then  I am going to pick sitting in the barn on my Langton Chair with a coffee looking out across the garden. I can sit here completely alone and will definitely smile.

WY: And because it’s Christmas we couldn’t not be incredibly nosy and ask about your Grafham family traditions?

CG: Every year the four of us choose a new decoration for the tree. Mine this year is a ‘New York’ decoration with the statue of liberty, the empire state building and other landmarks all coming out of the top of an apple! I bought it in November when I was in NYC. We are NOT allowed to edit each other’s choices. 

WY: Finally, and we know this might be tough, but can you pick out your favourite current Yeoward Piece?

CG: Sort of easy….but again I am going to break the rules and choose two! The Hartland Drinks cabinet. This is one of the first pieces that I designed. I love the contrast of the ocean washed oak finish and the unbelievably intricate work that goes in to the eggshell inlay on the doors. I watched this being done when I was in Vietnam and couldn’t believe the skills being used. They really are true artisans. It is such a great piece, practical but stylish and it fits all our glasses! I love it. The other is the Matthew Mirror – this oversized mirror is such a cool shape and feels like art to me. Every home needs one!