Contained in the kaleidoscopic house of a colour-loving nonconformist | Interiors

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

Her north London house, which she shares along 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 vitality. 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 at all times actually recognized with different cultures. I like pop artwork. If I could possibly be any tribe, I’d be a punk. I at all times wished to put on Vivienne Westwood.” Zoe as soon as owned an interiors store which, after six arduous years, fell foul to the a number of pressures small impartial 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 fun. This yr 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 perform each day and make selections in her work and at house that have been optimistic.

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

“Positivity is so vital; having items of artwork, color and objects in your house that provide you with good vitality is extremely highly effective. Whenever you get up, the stuff you see once you are available from a tough day, how these make you are feeling, is central. Studying to discover a technique to stay by trying on the stuff 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 important core of her interiors at house. In her eating room a placing backdrop of cobalt blue referred to as Wyatt, from toxin-free model Painthouse, supplies a vivid body during which to show items by road artists Pakal, Skeleton Cardboard and, from Haifa in Israel, Broken Fingaz.

“I purchase issues from in every single place, mixing homeware, textiles, vogue, outdated 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 gentle is by Sebastian Herkner and the intense 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 imagine in longevity and I’m curious about 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.

Whenever 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 chunk by Damien Hirst. This was a purchase order that Zoe and Gavin made once 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 house: we each like color, so we purchased one thing vibrant collectively.”