A sneaky peak behind the scenes! Get the inside track on Interior Designers – from signature moves and pet peeves, to their biggest regret and ambitions for the future.
This edition of the Insider Scoop features Interior Designer Emily Brogden senior designer at Furnishing Futures.
Furnishing Futures creates healing homes that bring hope and dignity to women and children who have escaped domestic abuse and been placed in empty social housing.
They are able to do this thanks to high quality items donated by the interiors industry, which could otherwise have ended up in landfill. You can learn more about their work or get involved at www.furnishingfutures.org
Quick Fire Five
1. Favourite paint colour?
This is very difficult to choose but I do love Piglet by COAT Paints or The Tobacconist, for a joinery piece, is a lovely deep olive!
2. Must have interiors accessory?
Rugs! I feel like they are key in changing the look and feel of a space, whether that is by defining an area of a room, grounding the space, adding warmth, a great way to add texture, pattern and/or colour and can sometimes even act as a piece of art!
3. Signature interiors move?
Using lots of textures. Often the women we work with ask for a lot of neutrals and I think a great way to add interest and warmth to a neutral space is varying the textures across furniture, cushions, artwork and accessories.
Within trauma informed design, it is particularly important to lean into textures and patterns that remind us of nature so this is key in the homes we work on.
4. Go to interiors brand?
We’re very grateful to partner with so many amazing brands, some of these include COAT, Soho Home, Atkin & Thyme, Le Creuset, Mustard Made, Cotswold Co & Anthropologie.
5. Interiors pet peeve?
Harsh overhead or really bright white lighting – I love lamps and soft lighting!
Four Insider Insights
1. Give us the scoop on your first interior design job & how much you made?
My first role was within the Interior Design team at a large Architecture practice in London. I started there on a 1 month work experience placement and at the end of the 4 weeks, they offered me a Design Assistant role. This was where I spent a lot of time learning how to create in depth CAD drawings, putting concepts together for tender and creating a lot of sample mood boards.
2. Biggest regret or mistake?
Not spending more time as a student gaining work experience at a variety of studios. I think this is great for not only learning skills and knowledge from different people, but also seeing how different studios operate and getting an insight into the working environment you prefer i.e. residential or commercial, or a large office with multiple large teams or one smaller team working across all projects etc.
Plus it is great for building your network of designers, suppliers and other trades.
3. Biggest achievement or learning to date?
My biggest achievement has definitely been within my role at Furnishing Futures – since joining the team 2 years ago, we have supported 117 families to transform their empty properties into welcoming, healing homes.
4. What’s next for your business?
We have recently launched The Atrium! This is our first permanent retail store selling a curated collection of premium furniture, homewares and accessories all in aid of the charity’s work – creating trauma informed healing homes for survivors of domestic abuse.
This space is also home to Furnishing Futures’ employability programme Thrive which offers an engaging program of workshops, wellbeing sessions and talks for beneficiaries.
Thanks for reading the Insider Scoop on Emily Brogden – senior designer at Furnishing Futures.
If you enjoyed this read you’ll love more Interior Designer ‘behind the scenes’ insights – read about Chloe Bullock Alix Stoney and Tor Cooper
If you’re an interior designer and would like to take part – I’m always looking for contributors. Please email me at [email protected] Thanks, Lisa x
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