SLOW INTERIORS

Just like slow fashion, a subject that is close to my heart is slow interiors. I don’t know if it’s the age I am at with turning fifty this year, or if it was always in me I just didn’t quite have a handle on it – but I am seeing more and more the beauty in acquiring possessions slowly and with good intention. I try to take this into my interior design business. When you work with KD Interiors as a potential Client, a first step we take together is often walking through your home and looking at all the pieces you’ve collected over the years that mean something to you. I am fascinated by people’s stories and how their lives can be viewed so beautifully in the collections and possessions they’ve kept over the years. They might have travelled extensively and have interesting keepsakes from different countries, or they might be a collector – of books, pottery, even crystals. I find it fascinating – and a great basis for building an interior design concept.

I have used “placeholders” at times in my own home – that is, pieces of furniture from an op shop, auction house or family relic that hold the place for treasured furniture that we will get down the track. My husband Jules and I both love the idea of collecting pieces that are interesting and timeless, pieces that we will hand down to our children. I am utterly obsessed with chairs and Patricia Urquiola is a Spanish Architect and Furniture Designer whose furniture I adore. So in the future I will have a piece or two of her wonderful works in our home. But for now, rather than purchasing something that I feel lacklustre about to fill that space, I would rather have a placeholder sitting there instead.  

There is something about walking into your home filled with things that you love and feel proud and grateful for. Things that you have collected over time and with intention. Your home then becomes a personal retreat that you return to at the end of each day. A sanctuary that brings you good feeling. And isn’t that something we all need in this crazy-fast world?

Second-hand “placekeeper” chair