Timorous Beasties will be one of forty-five leading furniture makers and interior textiles companies from across Scotland joining forces later this month to create a unique one-off exhibition at Clerkenwell Design Week in London from 22-24 May.

Leading well-known interior textiles designers and manufacturers will be presented alongside internationally-recognised furniture makers. In addition, a number of never-seen-before bespoke collaborations will be unveiled, created exclusively for the 2012 event.

The design week, situated in Clerkenwell – an area renowned for more architects and interior designers per square mile than anywhere else in the world – is a three-day festival celebrating design's creative richness, social relevance and technological advancements through an exciting programme of workshops, presentations, product launches and debates.

For customers seeking a truly, unique item that cannot be found on the High Street, our restored furniture pieces are well worth a look.

“I started this project really as an excuse to keep going to auctions, because I’ve no more room left in my own house,” Paul Simmons, Designer/Company Owner.

Quirky finds are transformed at the Timorous Beasties Studio and re-upholstered with Timorous Beasties fabrics.  Often, as is the case with this current footstool, they are upholstered with custom, hand-printed fabrics.  Pieces vary from week to week and have included a beautiful chaise lounges and a restored Edwardian screen as well as armchairs, dining room chairs and stools.   These one-of-a-kind pieces can be bought from the Timorous Beasties stores in Glasgow and London.

Timorous Beasties is currently exhibiting in New York as part of Scotland Re:Designed from the 9th to the 12th of April. If you're in New York, please do check it out otherwise enjoy the following questionnaire completed by Alistair and Paul as press for the event -

How do you describe your creativity/style, and how is it different (or not) from yourself?

Traditionally modern, we like to take products and ideas that people are already comfortable with and push them around.

How do you bring your inspiration into reality?

Pencil and paper then scanner and computer then printable or factory.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of being a Scotland based designer?

The accent works for both.

If you couldn't be a designer what else would you be?

A failure.

Have you a hero or muse?

Tarzan

What makes you different from other Scottish designers?

We are not ginger.

Are there any up and coming designers you admire?

Tommy Hilfiger

Have you an investor or business support team in place, and if so how did you develop that?

We have always had help and encouragement from Glasgow in general.

What advice would you give a young designer starting out?

Do what you feel is right and get a book keeper.

What motivates you to keep persevering with a career in this industry?

Apart from not being able to do anything else there is always a line of carrots on the horizon.

10 years from now where do you see yourself and what do you have hoped to have achieved?

Too depressing.

Do you try to keep up with the trends or do you create your own?

We prefer to look for what is not there rather than follow any trends.

Do you try to send out a message or theme in your products?

Take me home and lie on top of me.

What do you wish people would understand about working in the Interior industry?

It’s the oldest  industry after agriculture but before prostitution.

What is the most difficult aspect about running your own brand?

Being consistent, challenging and fresh.

What do you find most rewarding about your career?

We get to do what we trained for.

 What are your future plans for the brand?

To be stronger and better known for what we do, to be recognised for our difference or indifference.

What do you hope people wearing your clothes/buying your products will get from it?

A feeling of individuality and that they have made the right decision.

Have you made a fashion faux pas or produced a fashion faux pas?!

Probably, but people have been too kind or too embarrassed to point it out

And Finally: List 3 things nobody knows about you? (Only one needs to be true!)

Pauls is psychotic (not good in crowds)

Ali is neurotic (not good on his own)

We were both slapped by Karl Lagerfeld in a lift in New York for being flippant.

Timorous Beasties welcomes our new London Showroom Manager, Kate Mitchell.  Kate, a fellow graduate of Paul and Alistair’s from Glasgow School of Art, has a wealth of experience in printed textiles and interiors.  Most recently Kate worked as a Senior Designer and Project Manager with Brintons Carpets and previously with Stoddards, Ulster Carpets, Edinburgh College of Art and as a freelance designer.  Kate is busy getting up to speed on all things Timorous Beasties and is looking forward to catching up with our existing customers and introducing lots of new ones to Timorous Beasties London.

Elle Decoration have once more used our Birds 'n' Bees - Ochre wallpaper in their April 2012 edition. Check out 'Flights of Fancy' now for all the birds and beasties your could ever want!

We're totally in love with our spread in the Living Etc March '12 edition. It really speaks to or maximalist  tendencies.

Are you a maximalist too? Check out our Edinburgh Toile wallpaper and join the club

This year Timorous Beasties celebrated our annual Burns Supper on the 28th of January '12.

Eventually this space will be filled with a little something from our "Artist in Residence", Stevo, of our London Showroom but until then - We thought the event poster was worth a share too

Our favourite Burns’ verse  - 'To a Mouse', 'Ae fond kiss', 'Death and Doctor Hornbrook', inspired the design for a 21ftx8ft carpeted artwork now installed in the café of the Burns Museum in Alloway.  The rug was produced by the world class local craftsmanship of Turnberry Carpets, described as ‘artisanal’ (not our word!) in Ayrshire.  This is our second installation at the impressive Burns museum, this time last year we installed two engraved overslabs on the walkway leading from the museum to the Burns cottage.

For the refurbishment of the iconic National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, we were commissioned to design a range of home accessories.  The portraits themselves provided the inspiration for a collection featuring Scottish monarchs and other famous Scottish figureheads.  Rather than re-produce the various portraits ‘straight-up’, parts of the paintings were cropped and enlarged, revealing only sections of the portraits and in some cases only hinting at the famous identity.

“A friend of mine once said she recognised someone on the London Underground from seeing their hand holding onto the carriage rail, and I liked the idea of not being able to see the whole portrait, but being able to guess who it was from a small section.” Paul Simmons, Designer.

Within the beautifully, quirky collection is ‘Well Spotted’ - a contemporary spot design with portrait details contained within random spots that give classic paintings a mid-century design twist.  Other designs have an irreverent touch – a portrait of Mary Queen of Scots with a red serrated edge along her neckline, and a ‘Bonnie’-fied, Bonnie Prince Charlie portrait using his medals and medallions as borders and details within the design.

Two years in development (including four weeks on the scaffolding for Ali) and the exterior decoration of Princes Square, the upmarket shopping centre on Glasgow's Buchanan Street, was finally completed in November 2011.  Taking inspiration from the faded grandeur of many of the city's Victorian buildings the design reflects foliage that emerges from neglected historical buildings.  The trailing leaves design was produced locally in powder coated aluminium and moulded on site by Glasgow sculptor, Kenny MacKay.

“Working with Ali gave a new dimension to our design aspirations for the refurbishment as well as helping to overcome the not inconsiderable task of satisfying planning and heritage concerns on a listed building within Glasgow’s showpiece shopping street. The finished installation catches the eye, attracts attention and arouses curiosity and is a beautiful, sensitive and timeless addition to one of Glasgow’s landmarks.” Adrian Higson, Design Director, Three Sixty Architecture.