Ilse Crawford

In the May issue of Domino, they did a spread on London-based Interior Designer, Ilse Crawford. I did a post on her book, Home is Where the Heart Is, a few months back. Ilse bases her designs around the philosophy "form follows feeling" and every time I flip through her book or read up on what her latest projects are, her down-to-earth, no-nonsense approach to design makes me take a step back and re-evaluate the way I approach a project. In the the article she says, "I think there's something quite weird about having someone design your house and fill it with everything." I find this to be true in so many cases - as designers, we sometimes tend to want to fill up a home with lots of "stuff" to achieve a certain look and we forget about the client's needs and the practicality of it all. We can actually make things more complicated than they should be. Ilsa takes into consideration the way her client lives and functions then bases her design around that. She included some fantastic tips in the article and I'd like to share a few...

1) " A room should be really good at one thing, rather than try to do three." A functional space will lend itself to other activities and uses.

2) "Hang on to the pieces you love most." Some of the best designs are created by mixing in the old with the new. If you really want to hang on to that old, tattered chair, go ahead but have it refinished and upholstered in new fabric!

3) "The floor is the spine that holds a place together." Keeping your flooring consistent throughout gives your home a sense of continuity and flow.

4) "A successful design is about your life, not a look." Bravo! This quote speaks for itself :)



"To me, interior design is not about the latest trend in sofas. Instead, I begin with a simple question: How do you live?" -Ilse Crawford