Meet the team: fashion led senior interior designer Victoria Varney

14.08.2018

Victoria Varney has been an interior designer at Richard Grafton Interiors for six years and during that time has been busy completing a diverse portfolio of luxury interior design projects as well as being mum to three small children under the age of five!

As a busy working mum Victoria brings a whole wealth of experience to the team and her passion for colour, fabric and texture is reflected in her beautiful designs. We took five minutes to chat with Victoria and hear more about her role and three of her most favorite things fashion, fabric and family!

What sort of projects do you love working on?

“I love being able to use colour in a project, creating an unusual unique colour palette which the client may not have thought of is something I get really excited about! Clients can be afraid of colour or don’t really know where to start, so I enjoy the challenge of making it easier for them. I enjoy working on projects which include more than one room to design where I can really make an impact in the home, creating a flow throughout the house. When working on larger projects it’s important to connect with the client because you can quite often spend a few weeks, months or even years being part of their lives, so if I happen to click with somebody who loves colour it gets me really excited about working with them!”

Is there a project that you’ve done that’s most like your own preferred design style? What was it?

“I have done a few projects that I could quite happily live with in my own home, but I love colour and introducing weird and wonderful fabrics into the mix. I don’t like to be pinned down to one style. I believe that interiors are dictated to by many different aspects, the main one being fashion, I often think of a scheme as if it were an outfit, so the percentage of bright colour is often the smallest item but easily changed if your mood changes or you want an updated look without spending a fortune. Fashions change every year and that change transitions to the fabrics so the trends and styles are forever evolving, so I don’t think I can say I only have one ‘look’.” 

Does being a mum with small children help when it comes to working with clients with children? Do you see things differently/does it affect your approach?

“I am a mother of three small children 4, 2 and 10 months who make life very interesting. Since having them I have a different outlook on interior design and can sympathise with clients because I have experienced that kids don’t appreciate nice fabric or colour co-ordinated rooms, they need hardwearing, robust and wipeable interiors! They have made me challenge myself to find fabrics and products which have all the practical qualities that children require whilst also still appealing to the parents.” 

What are your tips for giving the ‘wow factor’ to kids bedrooms?

“I love creating the ‘second look’ for children or the teenager bedroom, when they have out grown the child stage and have started to have their own taste and style. I think it’s important to embrace this age and I like to help create their vision and bring their ideas to life so they love it and it still flows with the rest of the house.

I think a good tip to remember when designing the nursery or for small children is that they come with a lot of ‘stuff’! It’s great to have everything calm, minimal and colour co-ordinated but before no time you have so many toys and books etc that they take over the interior. Thinking about unique storage ideas is great, for example fabric bags to hide toys in or baskets and trunks are a good way to keep a sense of style in the room”.

What current trends do you love?

“For a couple of years, I feel as though I have been fighting the trend for a neutral grey interior, searching for colour and texture to add to my design schemes, but finally the world has caught up with me and I feel that now is my time!  The new collections are packed with colour and textures which make it easy to put together exciting schemes, even if you still prefer a calmer look and choose the more neutral palettes, they are packed with textured fabrics so you can really layer them up to create a new style.”

Find out more about Victoria’s experience here if you are interested in working with our team on your next interiors project please get in touch.