Any questions?
Interior designer Emma Burns shares her aesthetic inspiration
Who is your aesthetic hero?
David Hicks, whose approach to interior design was so chic. He often used dark colours and had an amazing ability to mix old and new. He used Perspex furniture with antiques and was extremely bold in the way he approached decoration. As a teenager, I used to spend hours outside his shop with my nose pressed against the window.
Which book have you found inspiring?
Living by Design is the story of John Stefanidis’s house in Dorset. It was a group of cattle sheds that he transformed with brick floors, heavenly colours (in particular, strong pink) and inexpensive fabrics made up in a way that is extremely stylish.
An exhibition that has really impressed you?
The Antony Gormley exhibition at the Royal Academy (RA) last year, where a room was filled with tons of clay and then flooded with seawater. Simply being in the RA, looking through a doorway into a flooded room— the colour from the water and the mud and the reflections was completely sensational.
What music do you work to?
Mozart opera. My favourite is Così fan Tutte. Music is like good lighting, flowers on your desk and a scent in the room. It’s another layer of calm and order.
Your favourite Instagrammer?
Uberta Zambeletti (@uberta zambaletti) runs a concept store in Milan called Wait and See. She has all these wonderful T-shirts, which say things like ‘tea, coffee, marijuana’. Her shop is full of colour and interest.
A possession you’d never sell?
A majolica vase of a boy leading a donkey. It was at my grandmother’s house when I was a child, and I always wanted to be the one to choose which flowers would go in it. I love it so much because it is a bit kitsch and when it’s got flowers in it, it’s charming. It’s a lovely idea, this boy going to market with the flowers. Mimi Habib