BOLD AND BRIGHT HOME 42
Three-bedder dazzles in the capital thanks to award-winning designer Mairi’s lively palette
Interior design that uses colour with confidence.
BORN and brought up in the Scottish Borders, textiles and interiors have been a constant influence in Mairi Wilks’ life – both her parents studied textile design, while two of her grandparents were architects.
“Growing up, our home was always full of colour and it must have rubbed off, along with mum’s eye for detail,” says Mairi, who only now, aged 30, is following suit. She is forging a career designing and creating luxurious high-end textiles, wallcoverings and home accessories, having first trained as a veterinary surgeon in Edinburgh and spent the last few years working in private practices.
“Ironically, Summer Hall, where I studied while at vet college, is now an arts centre,” adds Mairi, who admits that, although her career choice was driven by science and a passion for animals, art was always her respite.
“I continued to experiment, initially with portrait and then animal photography until I found a way to fuse textiles and photography in a new way.”
It was only after she won two awards and exhibited for the first time at the 100% Design show in London last year that Mairi decided to make it her main focus, trading under the name Mairi Helena.
Mairi and her husband Richard, 31, a commercial pilot, were childhood sweethearts. In 2015 they married and bought their first home.
Originally servants’ quarters, the three-bedroomed upper conversion now forms one of three properties within an imposing former mansion house tucked away in a leafy
Edinburgh conservation area. The flat needed quite a bit of work, much of which was done by Richard and his dad.
“We altered the layout to make a window part of the kitchen, turned one of the bedrooms into a work studio, replaced floors with oak planks and installed a wood-burner in the living room, which is now partially open to an adjoining dining room,” says Mairi, who is now adding the finishing touches to their newly refitted breakfasting kitchen.
In addition to the existing turquoise mosaic-tiled contemporary bathroom, the couple created a dazzling, Moroccan-inspired en suite shower room off the main bedroom – jewel-bright tiling combined with an ornately patterned washbasin and yellow walls embellished by Mairi with a stenciled motif.
It goes without saying it’s a showcase for the Mairi Helena collection – vibrant colours inspiring a regular blog promoting what she calls ‘colour confidence’.
The result is instantly uplifting. Bold primary colours merge with muted pastel shades in a range of designs on sumptuous velvet and linen fabrics. The wallpapers, cushions and printed lampshades are made in Edinburgh, and although the patterns are abstract, it’s easy to identify thistle motifs and tartan influences.
Puffins, pheasants and stags ensure animals also feature in her designs.
Mairi and Richard’s home is the antithesis of the bland, neutral colour palette that has dominated interiors in recent years. In fact, if a house could smile, this one would be positively beaming.
mairihelena.co.uk