Inside the kaleidoscopic home of a colour-loving nonconformist | Interiors

There’s plenty of stress round Christmas – a sense that every part have to be accomplished proper,” says Zoe Anderson. “So I prefer to create an anti-stress ambiance, fuelled by enjoyable.”

Her north London residence, which she shares together with her husband, Gavin, and their daughter, Ruby, is a stone’s throw from Arsenal’s soccer floor. It’s a kaleidoscope of vibrant pleasure and homage to her nonconformist power. Zoe refuses to give up to the mainstream, and is unashamedly true to herself – which, she says, is liberating.

“My fashion has acquired extra assured as I’ve acquired older. I’ve all the time actually recognized with various cultures. I like pop artwork. If I may very well be any tribe, I might be a punk. I all the time wished to put on Vivienne Westwood.” Zoe as soon as owned an interiors store which, after six onerous years, fell foul to the a number of pressures small unbiased shops are topic to: Covid, Brexit, eye-watering rents and lastly the cost-of-living disaster.

Shunning the custom of Christmas cake and turkey, Zoe prefers to decide on a theme to have a good time. This 12 months it’s Mexican and features a fluttering parade of vibrant Day of the Useless paper flags and sequined textiles. Glass Día de los Muertos baubles sparkle on the banister, and Christmas Day will start with a margarita. A Guadalupe statue on the eating desk is consistent with the theme. It’s tremendous kitsch however, for Zoe, who loves the golds and the ornate iconography of renaissance artwork, it provides to her festive imaginative and prescient to create a way of event and drama.

Zoe had initially launched her design retailer in a bid to create a spotlight to allow her to go on after the loss of life from Hodgkin lymphoma of their 11-year-old son, Sonny. She discovered that the enterprise allowed her to operate day after day and make decisions in her work and at residence that have been constructive.

Firmly a maximalist, Zoe would by no means choose darkish colors and has chosen to make her residence an exaggeration of color, utilizing it to brighten corners, make a press release and supply “zing and life and power”.

“Positivity is so necessary; having items of artwork, color and objects in your house that offer you good power is extremely highly effective. Once you get up, the belongings you see if you are available from a tough day, how these make you’re feeling, is central. Studying to discover a option to dwell by wanting on the belongings you love and the items you create is nourishing for everybody.”

Zoe’s maxim in her design work was to help unknown artists and rising makers, and that is nonetheless the very important core of her interiors at residence. In her eating room a placing backdrop of cobalt blue referred to as Wyatt, from toxin-free model Painthouse, gives a vivid body through which to show items by road artists Pakal, Skeleton Cardboard and, from Haifa in Israel, Broken Fingaz.

“I purchase issues from in all places, mixing homeware, textiles, trend, previous and new, Cornish pottery, classic Nineteen Seventies. I prefer to mix, I like odd sizes and mismatch. I really like faces, eyes and mouths – it’s ridiculous. I prefer to have the entire world in right here with me. I’ve candles from Anya Hindmarch, my Pulpo mild is by Sebastian Herkner and the brilliant orange hand chair, named Brigitte, is Jonathan Adler. The cushions, by Silken Favours, are from Vicki Murdoch, a graduate of Central Saint Martins – her work is so vibrant. I actually consider in longevity and I’m interested by discovering future design classics, showcasing upcoming designers and supporting new expertise.”

“Color likes color,” Zoe provides, and the Parisian paper ornament from Return to Sender conforms to the playful sense of bohemian kitsch that steers a course all through your entire home.

Once you undergo stained-glass double doorways into the sitting room, painted in Inexperienced Smoke by Farrow & Ball, you see, above a cupboard by Bethan Gray, a bit by Damien Hirst. This was a purchase order that Zoe and Gavin made after they first moved in. “We blew our paycheck on this younger artist referred to as Damien Hirst,” she remembers. “It was the primary piece we purchased for our residence: we each like color, so we purchased one thing vibrant collectively.”