'The Front Room' was established in 1992 as a retail outlet in Ponsonby Road, Auckland. Finn Morgan was the design collaboration between Kim Farr and Nicola Guinness. Nicola now continues this label from her base in Leigh, north of Auckland.

The four pieces featured here from the Auckland Museum Applied Arts collection were purchased with funds from the Disney Art Trust in 1995.

click on each image to view image galleries

Nicola's fabric design career began out of frustration with what was available in the marketplace. She decided to design and print her own fabric when she couldn't find new table linen for a restaurant she was running with her sister.

She had aquired a taste for printmaking through a lithography and etching workshop run by Carole Shepheard at Auckland Society of Arts and then taught herself screenprinting.

To help pay for the cost of aluminium screens she decided to sell some of her prints and she began retailing through the design store 'Design Design' in Ponsonby in the 1980's. In 1992 she set up 'The Front Room', her own retail space in Ponsonby Road, specialising in bed linen, drapes and table linen.

The imagery Nicola uses with fabric is distinctive. She adds hand drawn elements to images and text from a range of sources including surrealists (Duchamp), European writers (Cocteau) and old masters. The various elements are manipulated to create her final design; often printed on sheer fabrics like damask, voile and silk organza.

Nicola Guinness "I like to mix imagery and I'm inspired by art, poetry and music through the ages."

Today Nicola works with jeweller Helen Holmes who helps with printing and design. They work out of a studio space in the old milling sheds at the Leigh Sawmill Café.

You can buy Nicola's fabrics from the studio at:
142 Pakiri Road, Leigh, North Auckland.

Samples can be viewed on her website at http://www.thefrontroom.co.nz

From conversations between Nicola Guinness and Jean Clarkson in July 2002.