Felicia Gibson founded Brisbane-based homewares brand Home Dweller in mid-2018, creating the boho-inspired collection of large and small scale fabric wall hangings to eliminate the need for expensive frames.
Gibson was inspired to start the brand while working as a graphic designer in the river city. Her inner intuition was always telling her to create a business of her own, to do something she felt truly passionate about. “At the beginning of 2017, my youngest child started school and I had six months of long service leave from my corporate design job,” said Gibson. “I used the time off as a type of creative exploration – a chance to experiment with all my interests, further my skills and see where it led me. Home Dweller was launched 18 months later.”
She had always loved textiles and anything in handmade form, a love she inherited from her grandmother. “She grew up in a little town in Sicily and during the war her school was shut down so she was sent to learn dressmaking from the age of 10. She has been a dressmaker her whole life and is still happily sewing at the age of 84!”
Home Dweller was born out of Gibson’s struggle to find affordable artwork for her home that was not mass produced. She found framing large sized prints was expensive, but saw a gap in the market for large-scale affordable artworks that have bold, simply, graphic-focused designs. “I wanted to design a new type of wall decor with a focus on quality and craftsmanship, that was ready to hang and didn’t require expensive framing or canvas stretching,” said Gibson. “The use of fabric is the point of difference for these artworks – the fabric adds another layer of tactility and aesthetic beauty to an interior space. You don’t get this textural element with paper art prints or framed behind glass.”
Her first collection Botanical was inspired by the simplicity and aesthetic of Scandinavian design, with the hangings paying homage to the natural world using organic shapes, graphic patterns and layered complementing colour palettes. “The idea was to create home decor that comes from a place of quality, authenticity and originality – creating pieces that project creative energy in a space and inspires the people living in it.”
Sustainability is also an important factor for Gibson. “The organic cotton fabric has been grown on cotton farms where the use of pesticides has been banned. It is printed using a pigment ink process that is a water and waste-free, and the Australian timber is FSC certified. I’m really proud to say all of my products are proudly designed and produced in Australia – a commitment I will continue to uphold for future collections.”
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