Boulderite Edie Ure has a creative streak that just can’t be tamed. After leaving a New York–based career in fashion, she designed a naturally dyed velvet and started a line of popular throw pillows (available at Hygge & West). Then the pandemic hit. “I had the idea to make wallpapers using flowers and naturally foraged things because, working as a natural textile dyer, I saw patterns and colors that I thought would be lovely on the wall,” says the British-born designer. “While everyone else was perfecting sourdough, I started to design a wallpaper line.” The wallcoverings are available locally at WallTawk and through Ure’s website. We chatted with the designer about letting nature guide her creative impulses.

A portrait of Edie Ure outdoors, holding a bushel of yellow botanicals.
Edie Ure. Photo by Rebecca Stumpf

5280 Home: You created your wallpapers using natural things foraged (responsibly) in the West: foothills wildflowers, dirt from trails, garden-grown indigo.
Edie Ure: You don’t have to be a wildflower-chaser to find an abundance of incredible flowers and grasses in your local ecosystem. I hike around Indian Peaks Wilderness and the foothills near Boulder year-round, and many of my flowers come from there. I usually take a flower press with me—or put [the blooms] in a map book in the car if I forget it.

5280 Home October/November 2022
More From The Issue

What is it about a color palette sourced from nature that’s so universally appealing?
Colors derived from the natural world are powerful because they harness the pleasure we feel from being in a garden or forest or looking at the blue sky—which encourages us to feel balanced. There is color and energy running through all things. The artist Andy Goldsworthy talked about how the iron that makes rocks red is the same iron that makes our blood red.

How has living in Colorado shifted your design aesthetic?
For much of my life I lived in cities and always loved the noise and buzz of humans. But since being here, hiking alone and gardening has forced me to engage all my senses. Observing how natural materials like mud, ash, weeds, and flowers are ephemeral, I decided to capture the essence of them—creating patterns with the tempo and spirituality of nature.

(Left) Abiquiu No. 10: a grid of paint colors Ure made from rocks and earth collected on hikes in “sacred spaces” in Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico; (Right) Wildflower No. 6: pressed wildflowers that Ure foraged in nature­—grape hyacinth, blue prairie flax, larkspur, forget-me-nots, and violets. Courtesy of WallTawk
(Left) Rose Stain No. 2: dogwood rose–stained silk that Ure photographed and turned into a large-scale pattern (Right) Aibana No. 3: backyard-grown indigo dye on fabric, which Ure photographed and put in a symmetrical repeat. Courtesy of Walltawk

This article was originally published in 5280 Home October/November 2022.
Cheryl Meyers
Cheryl Meyers
Cheryl Meyers is a contributing writer to 5280 Home, which means she gets to spend her days writing about Colorado’s most beautiful indoor spaces.