House and Garden September 2022

SUSIE ATKINSON / INTERIOR DESIGNER Having studied at Inchbald School of Design, Susie began working with interior designer Chester Jones in the early Nineties. In 1998, she set up her own design practice from her kitchen table and, 15 years later, started employing a team to help. Her studio has designed many London projects for Soho House, including Shoreditch House, Dean Street Townhouse and Electric House: ‘Working with Soho House helped raise the profile of my work, and I look at these projects with real fondness,’ she says. Susie takes pride in not being swayed by passing trends, preferring to create interiors that are tailored to each individual client. ‘It’s all about curating and collecting and remaining inquisitive,’ she says. Her own family house in Hampshire is featured this month from…

Ask designers how they begin choosing colours and fabrics for a room and they all give a different answer. I suppose, as with anything creative, there are no hard and fast rules. Different rooms and looks require different approaches. Robert Kime always starts with a rug and is very certain about that. However, in my current house project, it is looking as though I will be ending with the carpets and rugs – in all but one room, which I’ve based around a rug we bought in Morocco. I hope it will all come together well, but I feel rather nervous. Perhaps that’s par for the course – there’s an element of risk for even the most experienced designer. To help us all on the rug front, assistant decoration editor…

‘Multicoloured Woven’ cotton and iron light, £95, from French Connection…