Style hero
Meet Tesco Head of Design Steven Rowe
Steven worked for Laura Ashley, BHS and Marks & Spencer before heading up Tesco’s design team. He lives in a village in Bedfordshire with his partner, designer Paul O’donovan, and their fox terrier, Oscar.
We live in a 17th-century former mill house with lots of character.
It’s full of beams and tiny Hobbitlike doors that you have to duck through. Despite living there for two years, we still manage to bash our heads every now and again! We’re really lucky to live in such a wonderful house. Because we both travel a lot for work and can live in hotels for weeks at a time, having somewhere we can retreat to is such an enormous blessing.
We waited for two years before decorating.
In our previous Victorian house, we spent a fortune decorating it in keeping with the style of the era. We revamped the dining room into a beautifully formal space, but I don’t think we used it more than once.
It’s important not to be a slave to a trend.
It’s good to mix things up a bit, even if it’s a bit scary and out of your comfort zone. But, ultimately,
what’s going to happen if you don’t get it right? You’ll just change it, so it’s not the end of the world. I once painted my living room grey and yellow, because I thought it was such a cool mix of shades. It really didn’t work in the space and everyone kept telling me it looked horrible. Though I secretly agreed, I was in outward denial for ages before caving and painting over it!
If I really love something, I’ll find a place for it in our home.
I guess you could call our style ‘eclectic’. I kept the things that I really loved from previous homes and I’m happy to mix them up with other pieces – different styles, different eras… it doesn’t matter. My style has changed a lot over the past decade. It’s much more relaxed now.
Deep down, I’m a terrible hoarder.
I love buying pieces for my home, although I’ve learned to let go of things we don’t need in the last few years. Having said that, I have a huge thing for wine glasses. In our kitchen, we have a huge floor-toceiling cupboard, packed full of them. No matter how many I have already, I’ll keep buying wine glasses ’til the cows come home! And I’m a bit of a fiend for candles and lanterns. Paul often tells me off about all the smoke marks our candles leave on our white walls.
My pet hate is curtains.
In my opinion, they’re expensive, ridiculous, dusty and just very messy looking. One of the first things we did after we moved in was to get shutters fitted in every room – pale grey shutters on each window and black ones for the master bedroom.
Having a dog has changed my life considerably.
I’m less precious about everything. Our gorgeous teal velvet sofa basically became a giant dog bed covered in muddy paw prints. Eventually, you have to realise that if something gets broken, it’s not the end of the world. It’s just stuff!