Furniture designer Russell Pinch's home sports a new look each season

Interview,Rhiannon Harries
Saturday 18 October 2008 19:00 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

My interest in furniture goes back to when I was 10 years old. My godfather used to work for the office furniture company Herman Miller and he introduced me to the Powers of Ten film made by the experimental furniture designers Charles and Ray Eames (in which, starting from a view of the entire universe, the camera slowly zooms in until we see the subatomic particles on a man's hand). At the time I don't even think I knew what I was looking at, but I was hooked.

This Victorian house in Brixton also functions as a showroom for the furniture collection I design, so it looks different from season to season. I like seeing it change. Every time I design a new piece we think we won't want to replace it, then we get excited about the next new thing and it keeps moving on like that. It's good seeing things progress.

As a designer I've become synonymous with wooden pieces, although I work with other materials too. Wood brings warmth to a room; the shelving alone changes the mood in this sitting-room. The side-tables are made from coppiced hazel wood – each pole is individually sourced from the forest, then cleaned up and pinned together.

I make miniature wooden maquettes of all my pieces first, some of which are on the shelves. I am under strict instructions to save them all for my one-year-old's doll's house – it's going to be the most stylish around.

The sofas are my designs, although my wife Oona chose the fabrics. I would have played it much safer with grey linen, but she found these wonderful bold floral prints that make the pieces. People always think you have to go for neutrals with big pieces but good design stands the test of time regardless. The smaller sofa I am sitting on is covered in a 1940s print we found in Sweden, but it looks perfectly contemporary in this context.

Early in my career I worked as a design assistant for Terence Conran, which was the apprenticeship of a lifetime. The teapot beneath the Patrick Caulfield lithograph is one of my pieces from that period. I never got one, so the other day when we realised we needed a teapot, I went to the Conran shop and bought it myself. The wooden piece next to it was a present from my wife – it's an original Eames leg splint. It's odd, but I love it.

My biggest indulgence for the house is artwork, but my tastes exceed my budget. The colour-block painting was a Christmas present I made for my wife. It was an interesting exercise in colour balance, as it looks simple but was actually very tricky to get the combination exactly right to make it special. The painting of the eggs was a 30th birthday gift from my mother, who is a painter. I like it as it is so calm and considered. There's something about the ordered line of the eggs.

www.pinchdesign.com

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in