House Guest by Country & Town House | Interior Designer Interviews

My House Guest today is Caryn Hibbert, a lady for whom I have the utmost admiration. Following a career in obstetrics and gynaecology where she specialised in cervical cancer, she moved to the Cotswolds with her husband in order to raise her children in the countryside. They found a house in Southrop and after a few years of bedding in and enjoying a quieter pace of life, some local barns came up...

Very excited to announce today’s House Guest - Lee Broom is one of the UK’s leading furniture and lighting designers and a premium global design brand. His Crystal Bulb launched one of his earliest designs, and was an instant hit, making him a darling of the design world and one who has continued to reach new heights with everything he does. He has had an interesting career path, starting out in t...

In the run up to Christmas we have some special guests and this week it is hospitality guru, Olga Polizzi talking about her own 3-hotel collection, The Polizzi collection, as well as her role at Rocco Forte hotels where she is deputy Chairman and director of Design. She says of Hotel Endsleigh in Devon, ‘I bought it with my heart rather than my head,’ and of her first hotel, The Tresanton in Cornw...

I am in awe of people who follow a dream and Karl O’Hanlon did just that after leaving London and a secure job to head to France to a place he and his wife Anita had always loved - the Languedoc. His dream was to venture into the hospitality industry and after an initial false start, in 2008, Domaine & Demeure was born - three beautiful wine estates brought back to life with a discerning eye a...

Mike Fisher founded Studio Indigo in 2005 and it now employs over 50 interior designers and architects.  He says, 'Architects are often monochromatic and rather restrained in their use of colour. I soon realised the architect wasn’t most important person and if I wanted to be in control, I had to be an interior designer too’. Mike chats to host Carole Annett about choosing colour in a norther...

Today’s House Guest podcast is with Buchanan Studio - Angus and wife Charlotte set up their eponymous studio specialising in interior design, event and set design, creative direction and branding. Originality is at the core of everything they do. “We encourage clients to be brave’, explains Angus who worked as an assistant to fashion photographer Mario Testino before moving into set design alongsi...

Emma Manners the Duchess of Rutland lives in  one of Britain’s most magnificent stately homes, Belvoir Castle. The Duchess chats to Carole about her journey from running around on a Welsh farm as a child to running a 200-room stately home when she married the 11th Duke of Rutland 30 years ago. As a keen decorator, she gives an insight into how she stamped her personality onto the&nb...

The next House Guest in our ‘How To’ series is Anthony Barzilay Freund of 1stDibs talking about how to buy online. Anthony Barzilay Freund is editorial director and director of fine art at the online marketplace interior designer Duncan Campbell of Campbell Rey, calls ‘eBay for serious antiques’. Anthony chats to Carole Annett about how 1stDibs was founded, how it has become a go-to tool for the i...

Born and raised in Vicenza, Italy and then moved to New York City to start her career in design, Manuela Hamilford first cut her teeth at Bergdorf Goodman, working within luxury Italian home furnishings. She gained a flair for interior design and after heading back to London in 2000 she launched her own interior design studio, Hamilford Design. Manuela has created many beautiful projects...

The two creative dynamos, Annie Selke (chief vision officer and founder of Annie Selke the Massachusetts-based go-to for colourful rugs and bedding) and Kit Kemp , founder of Firmdale Hotels and Kit Kemp design studio who together have launched a new collection of lifestyle designs based on three favourite destinations, London, New York and Barbados.  Having never met, the two were introduced...

My House Guest this week is Guy Oliver , managing director and principal designer at Oliver Laws. We natter about designing luxury hotels as two of Guy’s long-term projects are Dublin’s The Shelbourne and London’s Connaught hotels. Guy joined Oliver Laws after finishing his commission as a Royal Naval Officer and credits the training with being able to work with demanding clients including first b...

Charlotte Lawson Johnston of Cloth Collective is on a mission to educate consumers on non-toxic fabrics and using sustainable fibres such as linen, silk and hemp. Trained at the New York School of Interior Design, Charlotte now lives between Oxford and Uruguay. She has two daughters and a cow called Leche, which her husband gave as a birthday gift. She is passionate about natural fabrics having be...

Today we are looking back at one of my favourite House Guest podcasts - the dreamy Martyn Lawrence Bullard. One of the most talented and entertaining people i have met, I met up with Martyn in Paris in 2019 to chat about how he conquered the celebrity world to become their go-to interior designer. He relates delicious stories about Cher’s bathroom and working with the Kardashian clan. I’...

Today's House Guest is the guru of interiors - Nina Campbell . Nina was my very first podcast victim and has graciously agreed to chat again to celebrate 50 years in the business. Having started with John Fowler at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, 'I considered myself lucky to be carrying his bags', she says, Nina went on to work for Mark Birley on the interiors of Annabel’s members’ club. They te...

My House Guests this week are Skye Gyngell and David Rowley , who between them oversee food and farm at Heckfield Place in Hampshire. "When a restaurant has a real relationship with a farm, it's both of our work on the plate.' explains Skye, who rose to fame via the food pages of Vogue and the Michelin-star Petersham Nurseries before launching Spring restaurant at Somerset House. The ethos of...

After training at Paris’s oldest couture school Sabina applied for a work placement at Alexander McQueen and there was able to hone her craft. ‘Alexander McQueen was the ultimate storyteller and everything there is hand-drawn. They sat me down at a desk and gave me a pencil.' After McQueen, she decided to go it alone printing her own designs onto silk squares. She sold these ‘to all my mum’s frien...

My House Guest this week is garden designer Richard Miers who will be showcasing a garden next week at Chelsea. 'I've always wanted to do the RHS flower show, it's a bit like Everest for a garden designer,' he explains, 'always there as the ultimate challenge'. The garden is sponsored by Perennials, the gardeners' charity, which inspired Richard's theme of love and nurture. 'I knew i wan...

Welcome to the third episode of this new 'How To' series of House Guest. Today's House Guest is Morten Warren, well known in the industrial design world for his work with Philippe Starck and global brands such as Bang & Olufson and Samsung. Zuma is his new baby - Morten had a light bulb moment when renovating his home and wondering why so much wiring was needed for sound and technology. Z...

Welcome to the second episode of this new 'How To' series of House Guest. This week's podcast is all about tiling - 'How To get to grips with tiles'. Interiors editor Carole Annett chats to Rob Whitaker, Creative Director and co-founder of Claybrook Tiles . 'The whole tile world can be a bit of an enigma,' says Rob, 'knowing the difference between a floor and wall tile, what's suitable for indoor...

Welcome to the first episode of this new 'How To' series of House Guest where Country & Town House Magazine's Interiors Editor Carole Annett chats with experts from the world of interior design and decoration. 'Rattan makes a statement in an understated way, which is why i think it's so glamorous,' says Louise Roe of Sharland England. In this week's House Guest episode, Louise gives tips on ho...

Welcome to episode 159 of the House Guest podcast, where Country & Town House Magazine's Interiors Editor Carole Annett chats with experts from the world of interior design and decoration. My House Guests this week are Lucinda Chambers and Serena Hood of Collagerie . 'The most beautiful shopping experience you can have', Collagerie offers an innovative online shopping experience, characterised...

Welcome to episode 158 of the House Guest podcast, where Country & Town House Magazine's Interiors Editor Carole Annett chats with experts from the world of interior design and decoration. My House Guest this week is Tom Dixon, known as a restless innovator who rose to prominence in the mid-1980s as a maverick, untrained designer with a line in welded salvage furniture. While working with the...

Welcome to episode 157 of the House Guest podcast, where Country & Town House Magazine's Interiors Editor Carole Annett chats with experts from the world of interior design and decoration . If you’re dreaming of an Italian getaway, today’s podcast is for you. Count Benedikt Bolza and his wife Nencia Corsini have created Castello di Reschio, a castle sitting at the top of undulating Umbrian lan...

Welcome to episode 156 of the House Guest podcast, where Country & Town House Magazine's Interiors Editor Carole Annett chats with experts from the world of interior design and decoration. This week's guest is former editor-in-chief of Elle Decoration and dubbed ‘interiors guru’ by The Sunday Times, Michelle Ogundehin, writer, author, brand consultant and tv presenter. Her book, Happy Inside,...

Welcome to episode 155 of the House Guest podcast, where Country & Town House Magazine's Interiors Editor Carole Annett chats with experts from the world of interior design and decoration. It’s an exciting year ahead for this week's House Guest, the acclaimed interior and furniture designer Francis Sultana . His first hotel project opens in Capri in July (Hotel La Palma, part of the Oetker Col...