I live in a flat in a Victorian terrace, at the top of a leafy square in north London with my boyfriend, Duncan. Our bedroom is my favourite room because we worked on it quite recently. It has a leopard carpet, heavy pink velvet curtains and green marbled paper walls. It’s also where a lot of my best-loved books are stacked on shelves and it has a charming view over the back garden, a church spire and trees.
One of the first pieces Duncan and I bought together was a bar cabinet from the 1950s with inlaid malachite panels and a mirrored interior that lights up pink. We still have it and keep our favourite glassware inside. The newest item in the house is a rug with a Greek key design in dark blue and emerald green for our living room. We had admired it for years.
I like lots of different eras – English country house interiors by John Fowler, mid-century Italian design and designers such as Gio Ponti, a sprinkling of Memphis Milano… At the moment I’m having a real baroque and rococo moment.
I most enjoy collecting vintage art and design books, because they provide inspiration for my work. I like to buy books because often they include images that can’t be found online.
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The designer I most admire is Cecil Beaton, because he worked extremely hard and produced so much, from photography, writing and costume design, to book covers, interiors and more. I love his pencil drawings in particular. He had a unique take on the world and I admire designers who have strong aesthetic visions.
When decorating my own home, the most important things to me are colour, texture and pattern. I believe in juxtaposing to create interest, so we’ll have a 1970s ceramic lamp with a hand-painted lampshade on top of a Georgian chest of drawers, or a contemporary marble coffee table in the same space as an Aesthetic movement ebonised chair. I like bold colour combinations and a mix of fabrics. There’s a lot going on in our flat because I like being surrounded by the things that inspire me. At the moment we’re kind of drowning in pieces picked up on trips. We need another house!
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A decorating project that didn’t go to plan happened early last year when we painted our living room pink. The first attempt went very wrong – the pink was much too bright, sort of a highlighter hue, and the first night we lived with it we realised it was giving us headaches. We had to repaint it a few days later a calmer, softer shade.
A free day doesn’t occur too often so I’ll be at home with Duncan. I’ll shop for ingredients in nearby Primrose Hill, cook, read, put on a murder mystery and sit at our dining table with my watercolours or scrapbook, cutting and pasting things in. I travel a lot, so days at home doing not very much at all are precious to me. I like to be busy, but I strongly believe in taking time to enjoy simple pleasures.