Designer Diary II - Buy well, Buy once.

Hello!

I want to begin this diary entry with a huge thank you to YOU my most treasured and loyal friends, family and supporters. I have been overwhelmed by the love you have all shared since my website launched this week. I am so grateful and feel incredibly fortunate to be able to share some of my ideas, influences and designs with you.

"Buy Well, Buy Once"

I like to think this truism is a big part of my design ethos as it is reflective of the high quality fixtures, fittings, fabrics and furniture that we are supplying. Not only it is a more sustainable approach but it also aligned with our aim to produce spaces and bespoke pieces of furniture that the client wants to have, enjoy, and live with forever.

This could not have been more prevalent in the brief of my recent Battersea Townhouse project. The brief for this project was to furnish the rented property for a young couple with the knowing that they may only live in this property for a couple of years before moving to the country.

Therefore, for this project we started out by creating the 'dream scheme' for the forever home that they will hopefully end up in, then worked the ideas backwards to create a home that would work now and in the future. All the pieces you see in the project photos have been made to last. We also lovingly restored a well made armchair that had been inherited and had already seen quite a good time! The fabrics were all chosen for their versatility, they will not be restrictive when it comes to co-ordinating with another architectural space or scheme. Nothing is too 'tying'.

As it functions now, aesthetically and practically, it still contains layers, character, interest and extreme comfort, and together these are all examples of the fundamental elements behind the 'timelessness' that I hope characterises the properties we design.

This week:

I am SWOONING over -

the work of Marie Caroline Willms.

Spirited and bold interiors that are a feast of energy. Not over-designed, not pretentious but a charming mismatch of layers, all which strike contrast and interest to the spaces she designs.

I have been EXPLORING -

RE-found objects, in Corbridge, Northumberland.

An unusual store with an eclectic range of home accessories, many using recycled materials as well as a few of their own-designed textiles.

I have been READING -

'Half of a Yellow Sun' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Winner of Winner's of The Women's Prize for Fiction.

(You may think this is somewhat ancillary to interior design but I adore literature and infiltrates more than just my imagination. I know there are novels that definitely influence my creativity and thinking and this book is one of those.)

Set under the African sun, it is written so eloquently and evocatively that the reader cannot fail to picture the sweat on each brow, the harsh reflection of sun beams off the weathered corrugated iron shanty house roofs or the intense pull behind each soft kiss.