Here at the Kit Kemp Design Studio, it is no secret that we are big admirers of Melissa White and her work. She is a close friend and we are continually inspired by her bespoke pieces for domestic, commercial and heritage interiors.

Melissa’s signature style is imbued with a historic, artisanal and painterly feel. Her paintwork is often finished with ageing and distressing to distance it from the new and the mass produced.

More recently, we commissioned Melissa to paint a design of her choice onto four of our ‘disc lamp’ designs which we are selling on Shop Kit Kemp as part of our Artist Lamps collection.

This week Melissa tells us first hand about her hand painted lamps and talks us through how she creates such an interesting and magical aged effect…

“In the background you can see the Mythical Land wallpaper which inspired the designs. I picked out elements by eye and sort of free-styled how they were laid out on the disc lamps.”

“The existing white surface of the lamps was a joy to paint on. I used, as you can see, old, thickened pink Colourman Paint to build up texture.”

“Once I’d painted the designs, I distressed the paintwork with a fine finishing paper to bring out all those textures and give the appearance of age. Finally, a coat of clear wax.”

We could stare at these lamps all day long, the detail is exquisite and each piece really is one of a kind.

Melissa is hard at work on some more hand painted lamps for us after the first four were snapped up, but we will have some more limited edition lamps available soon on Shop Kit Kemp.

If you want to learn more about Melissa’s painting technique and even give it a go, we are holding a two day workshop with Melissa White and Natasha Hulse on the 30th and 31st of October at Ham Yard Hotel.

Natasha and Melissa will guide you through an intimate masterclass over the course of two days to create your own artwork in a hand painted frame to take home. Stay tuned for more information!