Spring is a time of new beginnings. A time to dust away winter cobwebs, open the windows – and freshen up the furnishings.
While a well-known Swedish furniture store once told us to ‘chuck out the chintz’, we don’t want to throw everything out each year. Not least because it goes against our philosophy of having things that are long lasting. So how can you give your home a makeover without costing the earth?
For this month’s blog we’re taking a peek inside two of Skye’s most stylish home interiors. We asked the creative brains behind them about their inspiration and design tips.
The Black Shed
Blair Hunter-Davies is a designer, photographer and stylist with an impressive portfolio in both interiors and fashion. We’re lucky to have collaborated with her over many years. We love her fresh, contemporary interior design style, exemplified in the architect-designed holiday house that she created on her Skye croft: The Black Shed.
How would you describe your design approach?
I love clean, cool lines and I’m a great believer in the less is more mantra. I like to stick to a palette of neutrals for the basics, but it’s important to avoid being too bland. I use accessories to inject a pop of colour and personality – and it’s a great way to keep things looking fresh.
Minimising impact on the environment is really important for me, too. The Black Shed is very ‘eco’ inspired, but in a subtle way. For the Black Shed we chose vintage furniture and even a recycled WC cistern – it’s a way of not buying new things unnecessarily. The wooden walls mean we won’t need to keep redecorating, too, making them very low maintenance. When sourcing objects I always take care to avoid plastic materials as well.
What are your top design tips?
Choose the best quality natural materials you can afford, and use them as your core ‘palette’. But don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort zone. Experiment with different colours and textures, vintage pieces, found objects – mix and match to find your own style. Seek out functional, tactile furnishings that you will enjoy and cherish for a long time.
The Spoons
On Skye’s north-east coast, Marie Lewis runs The Spoons – a luxury self-catering in a private wing of her loch side home. Trained as an artist and now working as a producer for Skye arts promoters SEALL, Marie brings style and creative flair to everything she does.
How would you describe your design approach?
I like to use a neutral background to showcase fabrics and artworks that reflect the textures, light and colours around us.
At The Spoons we tried to create a cosy, comfortable ‘home from home’ imbued with the essence of Skye. We wanted a light filled space where, on a good day, you can open it up and let the sunshine pour in, but likewise when it is blowing a gale you can batten down the hatches and coorie up inside by the fire. I love to mix new and vintage: it creates character and I think this gives a familiarity to a room, making you feel at home and comfortable. I want our guests to feel that the space is beautiful but not intimidating.
What are your top design tips?
I think it’s important to spend time in a room before you make any final decisions – to observe the light and colour and the changing seasons and not rush out and buy everything at once. When planning a room I tend to choose one object or painting or a sample of fabric, and I use that one thing to inform how the interior evolves.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money to make your space cosy and interesting. We are avid collectors of rejected chairs and sofas that most folk would see as only fit for the bin! It’s also very special if a piece tells a story – we found some 1930s cinema chairs in a reclamation yard and it turned out they are from the cinema in Campbeltown where my dad went to watch films as a boy.
Being aware of texture and colour in choosing your fabrics and objects is really important. We chose to mix up floral Liberty fabrics with Skye Weavers and Johnstons of Elgin tweed and the result is stunning. The vibrancy of the prints and the texture of the tweeds work so well together and bring the outside in – reflecting the surrounding hillside, water and sky.
Living on Skye, surrounded by nature it was important for us to be informed by this and so we have used the natural landscape as our source of inspiration for our palette.
Feeling inspired? Why not visit our online shop to see our range of home furnishings, as well as tweeds to create your own upholstery projects.