Double Merrick giveaway
It’s no secret that I dream of living in France one day. Today’s post is not helping my impatience to be living that phase of my life now, rather than in a couple of decades.
This is the home and work of Merrick Angle, a designer originally from East Yorkshire but now living in Limousin, France who runs the online shop Double Merrick. They specialise in prints and homewares and supply the likes of Liberty, Selfridges, Pedlars and Culturelabel.
Merrick has kindly offered my readers the chance to win a screenprint of your choice – worth €60 – inspired by the ephemera he sees in his remote corner of France.
I’ll pick out some of my favourite prints later but first, let’s take a tour of their 215-year-old home.
Featured on Design*Sponge a couple of years ago, it was built in 1799 and when Merrick and Alice bought it was covered in vines and hadn’t been lived in for 40 years. They took on the challenge and worked through the project slowly, Merrick doing most of the work himself and Alice sourcing a lot of the furniture at France’s famous brocantes.
Merrick says: “Our tastes in interiors can be different, but our home is a collaboration, and I am always amazed by the ideas she comes up with and the things she finds.”
Merrick has a unique take on his design style, describing it as “scuzzy pop art”.
He says: “I accumulate lots of things that capture my interest – old books, packaging, all sorts of ephemera really. I love design from about 1930-1970. The challenge for me is not just to ape what I collect, or create a pastiche, but to do something fresh with it.”
Merrick met his wife Alice in 2002 when he was in Paris visiting a friend from college.
He says: “At that time I had no inkling to live in France, I was working for my family business in Pocklington. But you know how it goes!”
The couple first lived just north of York but decided to go back to Paris in 2003. Suddenly, Alice was offered a job in the Limousin. They hopped in their van and have been there ever since.
Double Merrick launched in 2010, originally as an offshoot of Merrick’s work as a freelance illustrator. But the business quickly gathered momentum and he began selling his prints on Etsy. After a fantastic response, Merrick set up his own shop.
The name Double Merrick is the invention of Flora, one of Merrick and Alice’s two daughters. She describes him as ‘Like my daddy only better’. How sweet is that?
Here are some of my favourite screenprints – if you fancy winning one, just enter below. Easy as that. Good luck!
What do you think to Merrick’s home and work, friends?
