The phrase ‘quiet luxury’ has become so commonplace in the world of design that it is now almost a cliché. That being said, clichés are clichés for a reason. ‘Quiet luxury’ captures something distinctly human and personal, suggesting that luxury isn’t necessarily about excess, it’s about simplicity, refinement and something timeless - which in this hyper-digital era is precisely what we’re craving.
For Petr Houf, director and co-owner of premium home and lifestyle brand Bemboka, luxury is also about honesty, a lack of pretence and creating pieces that last and will be cherished for years, if not decades. This ethos has been part of Bemboka’s DNA since the company's inception in 1997, and it’s precisely why the business has grown from working out of a room in Houf’s business partner’s basement to an Australian home textile design success story.
The Grey rib cotton bath towels, at 8 Paddocks, Margaret river, brings the rural charm of the valley into the room.
At the Southern Ocean Lodge, the Sand angora & merino wool wide rib blanket is the perfect cozy touch.
“When I first started at Bemboka in 2003, there were just two colours and we only made blankets and throws," recalls Houf. “One of the first things I did was say, what about colour?” Originally from the Czech Republic, Houf’s innate sense of style and colour was quite different from what he encountered on arriving in Sydney. But, owing to his master's degree in computer engineering, he knew he could figure it out - and he also knew that if Bemboka was going to do colour, it needed to be well thought through.
“I got this big yarn book which had hundreds of colours, and I embarked on trips to meet the designers in Sydney,” says Houf. “I was asking them what are the colours you’re specifying? I realised from that process that the colours designers were looking for were wheat, mocha and chocolate.”
The secret to Bemboka's blankets and throws that last for generations is the innovative Japanese knitting method.
While it may seem like the job was done now that he’d done his market research, the real challenge had only just begun. As Houf points out, colours can change their tones completely depending on whether they’re being looked at in natural daylight, or under incandescent or fluorescent light. The challenge the team faced was how to create a textile colour that would look just right under all lighting conditions.
The answer lay in mélange, a fibre blend created from four different shades, with pronounced colour variation from strand to strand. This gives the resulting yarn remarkable depth and allows it to interact with light more evenly, so the overall colour reads consistently in any light.
Months of research and testing different strand colour combinations to get to the perfect final yarn resulted in the core colours that have become the foundation of every collection and remain Bemboka’s most in-demand colours to this day. “There was a time when design was focused almost solely on very cool grey tones,” muses Houf. “But, when you walk into a home you want to feel a sense of warmth and welcome, which I think is why we have been seeing a growing desire for mochas and wheats and chocolates. Bemboka has always been about balancing cool and warm neutrals as an intentional backdrop for living.”
Bemboka co-owner and director, Petr Houf.
The cotton reversible rib blanket in Mocha/Wheat adds elegant warmth to this sophisticated bedroom.
That commitment to warmth doesn't mean Bemboka's palette has remained unchanged. More recently, Houf has introduced two richer colours to the collection: a deep forest green and a burnt orange. The green emerged from time spent exploring fashion and design in London, while the orange was inspired by the landscape surrounding Uluru.
Despite being a bold departure from Bemboka's core neutral range, these two new colours offer another way to introduce depth, character and warmth into almost any room setting. This includes luxury hospitality design, where interior designers have, for some time, favoured neutral palettes when it came to their choice of colours for blankets, throws and towels. “We're working on about ten hotel projects with these two colours [forest green and burnt orange],” says Houf. “Hotels now really want to embrace these kinds of rich, earthy tones. And I think we’re going to see this translating into the look of homes too, because clients and designers are leaning away from cool greys towards richer base palettes that balance cool tones with warmth.”
Seen here in Olive, Bemboka's soft luxurious blanket gives this room personality and style.
Despite being inspired by the landscape of Australia, the range is equally at home in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Colour, of course, is only part of the equation. Bemboka's approach extends through every element of a product, from selecting the fibre and specifying the yarn to developing the colour, construction and finish. Equally important is Bemboka's commitment to sourcing exceptional natural fibres and yarns, from angora and fine merino wool to Italian cashmere, cotton and linen, and working with leading manufacturers to create products that last. “We have clients come back to us ten, sometimes fifteen years later wanting to get another blanket because they’ve loved it so much,” shares Houf. “Sometimes I almost wish they didn’t last quite so long, because people hardly ever need to replace them!”
Jokes aside, Bemboka’s growth into new markets including the United States and the United Kingdom has been fuelled by its obsession with quality and the details that often go overlooked. That same approach applies even to the most seemingly simple products. Take its towels, for instance. Much like the development of its bedding range, Bemboka towels may be simple when it comes to colour and pattern, but they are anything but from a technical perspective.
At this coastal property, the Deep Blue towels reference the ocean beyond.
Meanwhile, in Kangaroo Valley, a Burnt Orange throw references place and adds richness to the neutral space.
“We embarked on another big research trip, this time to a global trade fair in Germany,” says Houf. “We spent days looking at every towel, figuring out what construction, weight, size, texture and finish we wanted ours to be.”
Produced without silicone, a treatment applied to the cotton by some manufacturers to lend softness to lower-grade cotton, Bemboka’s organic cotton towel range stays genuinely soft and absorbent for years. They also hold their shape at the edges wash after wash, owing to the use of mercerised cotton and double-stitched borders.
At Spicers, Potts Point, classic White towels offer elegant luxury.
These Turkish jacquard towels in Forest Green bring the natural environment in.
For anyone who values the finer details and can spot when something is not quite right - and let’s face it, if you’re reading this on ArchiPro, chances are this is you - it’s this meticulous attention to the craftsmanship of the humble towel that really resonates.
Which brings us back to quiet luxury and the part that textiles play in creating a sense of welcome and warmth in an interior. For Houf and his team, the feeling of familiarity and warmth comes not from following a trend, but from remaining devoted to producing textile products that will be treasured and cared for as much as the baby blanket knitted by your grandmother.
