It was difficult. Walking through the door to a groovy Chelsea bachelor pad that I designed a couple of years ago and seeing an array of tatty DVD’s and clutter on those lovely chunky shelves. Not to mention TV controls and doilies. AGH! And as if the bachelor paraphernalia was hard enough to deal with, the bachelor went and got married (how dare he). The fluffy teddies arrived in their droves. Piles of them.

But I do like a challenge and to be honest, I would much rather inhabit a space which has a bit of clutter and feels homely than one which has a show home or hotel vibe. All a bit soulless. Our homes need soul, that’s what makes them ours.

That said, I did draw the line at fluffy teddies making their way into the shot. They had to go along with the doilies. Lots of clutter is hard to hide for room shots, so you will see more still life pix in this post but hopefully you get a sense of the bachelor pad colour palette. The brief was “nothing shiny”. More than fine by me but we had to make an exception for the 1940’s gloss, lacquered coffee table. And of course mixing centuries is a must so mid-Century furniture marries happily with the clean angles of contemporary furniture.