We were thrilled when Tracy reached out to us. She explained a bit about her interior design company and advised that she was designing a stand for the House and Garden Festival. It was our Ava blue cocktail chair and matching Lola ottoman that caught her attention and prompted the call. We chatted on and it was clear that there was a professional (and creative!) spark. She outlined her interior vision which involved incorporating lots of rich jewel velvet tones to create a luxurious feel and we were of course interested! We visited Tracy during the exhibition and we were delighted with what we saw. The stand looked beautiful. Every tiny detail tied in perfectly and overall resulted in a bold design with chic touches.
We loved Tracy’s work so decided to feature her and her company in our ‘Designer Discoveries’ blog.
Tell us a little bit about your company
Tracy Graham Interior Designs has been in business for around 15 years. I thrive on creating a beautiful home, space and lifestyle for people. Whether it is a residential or commercial design I am working on, for me the concept is to make everything flow and gel together. It’s important to understand how people like to live within their property, making sure it works for every member of the family.
Although my style has a contemporary and clean feel, I still like to add warmth and texture with wallpapers and lots of soft furnishings to make it homely. I also love trying to fit hidden storage into a space, as we all need more storage! Transforming a space into something beautiful always excites me, it’s what I love doing.
Interior design can be misunderstood in a way that people think it’s going to cost huge amounts of money. But I believe that interior design doesn’t need to be expensive. In fact, I am able to make savings for my clients by passing on all my trade discounts and knowledge, so that they do not make costly mistakes.You don’t need a huge budget to transform your home into something beautiful. I like to help people envisage their home in a way that will help benefit the whole family’s lifestyles, without breaking the bank!
Now there are so many fabulous companies creating amazing furniture with a high-end feel all for a fraction of the price. You just need to know where to find them and have the knowledge of how to put things together in a way that they complement each other. Believe me, after years of being in the business and tons of research I have a huge catalogue of “Go to companies” to save my clients some money. But still delivering them a stylish home to be proud of.
What made you decide to exhibit at the House and Garden Festival?
I was asked to be part of a team of designers for KLC School of Design and Designs Direct. The main theme of the festival was sustainability. I love the idea of displaying my designs and watching people’s reactions and interacting with the public. It was a very exciting show with many noteworthy stands exhibiting.
What was the theme of your stand and where did your interior inspiration come from?
I found the Matthew Williamson Arini Parrot wallpaper months ago and knew I wanted to incorporate it into my design. I thought we should have a bright bold theme to be able to stand out and make people stop and look, which they did! The base colours I used were royal blue, orange, teal and golds against a black back drop.
I normally like working with quite a lot of muted, natural tones and adding accent colours within the soft furnishings, rugs, accessories and window dressings. But with this design I was really able to be very bold with rich jewel tones and fabulous velvet fabrics. Hence why I loved the gorgeous Ava velvet chairs and Lola ottomans by Julian Joseph, they matched my colour scheme perfectly!
Looking ahead towards 2020, what interior design trends could we expect?
Pantone announced their colour of the year as living coral. But quite frankly I try not to get too hung up with trends. Whether I’m designing a residential space or office, or if I’m focusing on anything from a kitchen to a bedroom, I like to reflect and use what works best for that space and the people who are going to be using it.
Although I do have a sneaky feeling that bold colours, prints and wallpapers will continue to be very popular. Along with golds and bronze and maybe a little nod towards the art deco era. I also think that a sustainable home is higher up on people’s wish list. But who am I to predict the trends, my motto is just do what makes a happy home for all who live in it!