Meet interior stylist Lucy Gough
Meet Lucy Gough, interiors stylist and award-winning blogger. From the pages of Livingetc and The Sunday Times Style magazine to campaigns for Marks & Spencer, Heal’s and Aram, Lucy’s worked her magic to create some seriously stylish spaces.
What colours and trends are you excited about right now?
It’s all about a grey/blue palette for me. Dulux has announced Denim Drift as their colour for 2017 and I’m thrilled that they have. I also love that the idea of bringing the outside in has really taken off. I’ve been blogging about bringing the landscape into the home for years now and I love that people are filling their homes full of plants and generally feeling inspired about what is outside their front door.
What’s your favourite room in your home – and why?
My kitchen is my favourite room. People congregate in the kitchen as they do in most homes and since we renovated it there is so much more light bouncing around which can really lift your mood on an otherwise grey day. Behind each cupboard door you will find all of my blue and white earthenware crockery that I have picked up on our travels. But I also love my son’s nursery. Here we went with an adventurer theme, painting mountains on the walls and hot air balloons on the ceiling. It’s such a fresh and happy space.
Are you a minimalist or a maximalist?
I lean more towards being minimalist. It’s all the years of being an interior stylist, having to hoard millions of props for shoots that has taught me to be extremely tidy and ordered so that the house won’t look cluttered. Then, in the months leading up to having our baby last year I removed about 50% of everything we owned so the house now feels very minimal. I just can’t bear the house to be full to the brim anymore.
When you’re designing an interior scheme where do you start and why?
I usually decide to undertake redecorating project when I have been inspired by a single thing. It could be a ceiling I saw in a coffee shop or a colour palette I noticed in a film and it starts my brain on a journey where I won’t be satisfied until the project is complete! Needless to say, our house is constantly changing. Usually though, I start with the lighting for the room. If I’m working on a project where the windows are small and there is no budget to replace them with larger ones then I will think about styling the room with a bright colour palette. However if there is a lot of natural light then I go to my default palette of dark colours. I just love dark, moody colours and as long as you accent the room with brighter notes then the space won’t feel like a cave!
If you only do one thing to your home it should be?
Install great lighting. It’s an immediate mood enhancer and can make you feel good about yourself. It’s doubly useful as it can also help to create zones within your room which helps to layer up your interior scheme.
Who is in your secret address book?
I get up early and go to New Covent Garden Market for all my flowers, plants, trees and props for the interiors shows and events that I design for. Nerostein is my go-to marble supplier – they ship direct from a quarry in Europe and are very cost effective.
For more interiors inspiration, design tips and ideas take a look at Lucy’s blog.
Image Credit:
Top large Insert – Lucy’s kitchen by Oliver Perrott
Bottom Large Insert – Dulux
Bottom right-hand side – Surface View landscape bedroom by Oliver Perrott
Middle right-hand side – Brintons stripey carpet by Jan Baldwin