From carefree to nostalgic, period to patterned, this eclectic interior showcases the ultimate freedom of expression...

When and why did you start thinking of redesigning your space? What sparked the idea? 

Our house needed a lot of work when we bought it, before we could even think about interior design we replaced all the wiring, plumbing and re-plastered all the walls. So essentially we were starting with a blank canvas and could consider the house as a whole when it came to design process, not just room by room. The house was built in 1910, towards the end of the arts and crafts era and still had many of its original period features which is what attracted us to the house in the first place. We wanted the fabric of the building to feel original so we painstakingly restored all the fireplaces, ceiling roses, Edwardian tiling, dado rails, picture rails, and plaster ceiling coving that had survived. Rooms that had lost their period details over the years we replaced them with new that were as close to the originals as we could find.

Where do you begin in the design process? What inspires you? A specific colour, feeling, theme, era?  

Once the fabric of the house was sorted we could get on with the fun part, designing the interior. We approached the house as a whole, but wanted each room to be unique. We needed something to tie all the rooms together making it a unified home, for us that was colour, using lots of colour and careful consideration of colour. The basic idea for the colours palette we chose was ‘day and night’. The ground floor is for daytime, the first floor is for night time, we created two different colour palettes around this theme. If you split the colour spectrum in two parts down the middle. Our ‘day’ colours are the first half of the spectrum, earthy colours like greens, yellows, browns and orange. Our front room is yellow and brown, our hallway is orange and marigold, our kitchen/diner is green and yellow. The second half of the spectrum are our night colours, purples, pinks, blues. The bathroom is blue, the kids room is mint and pink, the master bedroom is magenta and purple. Each room has it’s own unique dominant colour, but we try to use all the colours from each palette to add variety to each room.  

The next thing we considered was the ‘feel’ we wanted for each room. We chose fixtures and fittings, furniture and fabrics that had design cues from different eras to help us create the right mood.

How did you go about selecting the prints? 

We were very excited to discover the Archive by Sanderson Design, it fits perfectly with the look and feel we are trying to create. Our house has design cues from all the periods that have come and gone during its 110 year existence. We’ve tried to isolate the different design styles on a room by room basis. The Archive by Sanderson Design contains prints from different eras, we were able easily find and pick a pattern that suited the design era we wanted to reference in each room. Plus the prints come in multiple colourways so we could match them to fit perfectly with the colour palette for each room. 

What do you feel are the key principles to making pattern work in a space?

Choose colours that work in your home, and a design style that you love.

When it comes to interiors, which rules are made to be broken…?   

It really depends on what look you want to achieve, if you want conform to the norm, don’t break any rules. If you want a unique personal space then break them all! We’ve decorated our house for us to live in, not to add resale value. To be honest we never really considered any rules when designing our space, we just went with what felt right for us.

What is it that defines your interior style? 

Colourful and eclectic is probably how I would describe our interior style. I don’t think it would work for everyone, but that’s ok we like having a home that doesn’t look like everyone else’s!

Likely to get your tape measure in a tangle? Let us recommend an expert fitter, who'll measure and install your bespoke curtains or blinds.

Sit back and enjoy your design moment, let the transformation begin.

Follow us on Instagram @archive_sdg for more inspiration as we uncover the design story behind each room. You can find Sophia and Simon at @sophiarcook