Combining a decidedly maximalist approach with thoughtful and sustainable practices, Palefire brings an exuberant artistic sensibility to home design.
Their emphasis on the play of colour and painterly surfaces is inspired by historic design movements such as Arts & Crafts and the Omega workshops.
Palefire - named after the Nabokov novel - was founded by Rowena Morgan-Cox. Born and raised in South London, Morgan-Cox spent nearly a decade honing her eye as a dealer specialised in European sculpture, painting and decorative art. In 2018 she helped interior designer Tobias Vernon create the popular art and design shop 8 Holland Street, and more recently she was managing director of The Fine Art Society in London, relaunching the gallery in a new space for which she designed the interiors. Rowena holds an MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art, where she studied 19th century European painting and sculpture.
U/V, is Palefire's first collection of hand-painted, made-to-order lighting fixtures, which launched in October 2021. Central to the Palefire ethos is the recycling and reduction of waste throughout the production process. Each light is made from recycled moulded paper pulp in small batches at a family-run workshop outside Barcelona and is hand-painted in the Palefire studio in London.
