Snapshot: culture and craft on Fogo Island

On Canada’s tiny Fogo Island, local craftspeople teamed up with outside designers to create furnishings and textiles for the world-famous Fogo Island Inn, a hotel that’s built a global reputation for its architecture and sustainable ethos.

Fogo Island Inn tapped designers from outside the island to work side by side with local makers to create furniture and textiles for the inn’s rooms.

The furnishings are made with what they call a ‘new outport aesthetic’ – essentially a mix of old-school Newfoundland design and modernist minimalism.

The inn’s custom-made quilts, created locally with natural vintage fabrics, are inspired by Fogo Island’s traditional textiles and quilting culture.

The brightly colored designs are a fresh take on the familiar strip quilt, ‘crazy quilt’ and heritage quilt styles.

The Woodshop on Fogo Island was launched to create and sell the inn’s furniture and furnishings – from chairs, tables and wooden butter spreaders to bread baskets, quilts and knitted socks.

Located in the former Fisherman’s Hall built in 1909, the woodshop sells the products online, priced to create a surplus which is then reinvested back to fund local social initiatives.