Designer Spotlight: Timeless Designs with Marie Kalsi Interior Design

Left Walls: Light Blue No.22 | Woodwork: Oval Room Blue No.85 . Right Walls: School House White No.291 | Panelling: De Nimes No.299 | Staircase & Bannister: Railings No.31  

How do you create a home you’ll love for years? Well, asking the experts at Marie Kalsi Interior Design is a perfect place to start. This talented team are all about curating homes that are timeless, versatile and adaptable. Many of us live with our decorating decisions for decades, so we need décor that grows with us as our needs and styles change. From timeless colour schemes to ways you can update your space — and their go-to Farrow & Ball shades, of course — we caught up with the team to find out more about their approach to long-lasting design.

To give a design longevity, we like to choose more neutral colours for walls and add accent colours through fabrics etc. This allows clients to update their scheme easily by simply changing the accessories, rather than having to paint a whole room. However, in smaller spaces, like bathrooms, we like to add drama with strong colours and wallpaper to give our clients’ guests something to talk about at dinner parties!

Our clients wanted to transform their Victorian house in London into a colourful yet glamourous home, which reflects their personalities.

We wanted to add drama to this bedroom with an oversized headboard. Once we’d chosen the fabric, it led us to Oval Room Blue for the woodwork and cool Light Blue for the walls. Now it’s a room guests will love to stay in.

The current bathroom layout simply didn’t work for our clients. It was also very bland and they wanted a more opulent feel. To open up the space, we moved the bath position and the bespoke copper bath became the heart of the design. We needed paint colours that would add to the drama, so we chose Railings for three of the walls and India Yellow to add a pop of colour on the other.

Our clients wanted to add some character to the hallway and give guests a glimpse of the glamorous home beyond. We introduced some low panelling and painted that, along with the doors, in De Nimes to anchor the space. We then painted the walls in the soft hue of School House White . To add a fun element, we painted the staircase in Railings and added a black and white striped runner with yellow binding.

Long gone are the days of painting all woodwork in brilliant white! We love to use darker colours on these areas to create a feature and then find a complementary colour for the walls. That is why I love Farrow & Ball — the palette has a wide range of complementary tones. Plus, the variety of finishes means you really can paint every inch of your home!

1. Don’t immediately throw everything out. Look at what you currently have and ask yourself if it be upcycled. For example, a can be easily updated by spray painting the cabinets, adding new handles and replacing the worktop. 

2. As a London-based firm, we renovate a lot of Victorian homes, which have been stripped of their character over the years. Don’t be afraid to put it back! The simplest way to do this is adding a cornice and highlighting it with paint. 

3. Start your design by focusing on one main feature, whether that’s the wallpaper, fabric or furniture and work from there. You’ll be surprised how well a scheme will come together if you start this way. 

We turn ten next year! So, to celebrate, we want to introduce a scheme to give back to our lovely clients, as all our work comes through referrals. We have lots of new projects coming up and we have past projects to photograph too. We’re looking forward to the next ten years.