Romo

Romo takes its name from Robert Mould, who started a small furniture manufacturing business in Nottingham in 1902. By the 1930s the company had become a wholesaler to the upholstery industry, supplying fabrics and components to furniture makers, and in the 1980s it opened its own design studio, which is what turned it into the design-led house it is now.

It is still family run, in its fifth generation, managed by the founder's great grandson Jonathan Mould with his children Felicity, Emily and Jordan. The Romo Group has over 370 employees, sells in more than seventy countries and exports around seventy per cent of what it makes. Kirkby Design, Villa Nova and Zinc Textile, all on our roster in their own right, are among its six brands.

All original artwork is hand painted and coloured in the in-house studio before it goes out to the weavers and printers who make the finished cloth. The UK head office is on Oddicroft Lane in Sutton-in-Ashfield.

Romo is the book we open most often when someone wants something quietly good rather than showy. The plains and semi-plains are dependable, they come in enough shades to match almost anything, and they behave predictably on the bench.