Although our tastes here in the studio have always tended somewhat to the darker side (not that you’d know it with our cheery bluetits, even if they were inspired by a taxidermy installation!), I have always been entranced by the confident and invigorating work of Kit Kemp, the creative mind behind Firmdale Hotels.

She uses a mix of colour, texture and pattern in a mind-blowing manner that somehow always seems to just work, perhaps picking up tiny thread of colour throughout, or a pattern recurring here and there.

Whereas the majority of interior designers tend to work with scarcely more than five or six fabric suppliers for the most part, tied by a huge investment in their books and samples, Kit Kemp uses ikat, prints, florals, embroidery, felt, wool, suzani, silk, tapestry, stripes, insects in big pastel watercolour pinks – she rules out nothing in her schemes, which means she must have an extraordinary memory – or studio archive – or both.   Can you imagine looking through her sample collection?

Kit Kemp – Firmdale Hotels

@firmdale_hotels