Staffan & Monique Tollgard

The Language of Design

The Language of Design

Assimilating a Swedish and South African background, adaption is key. Staffan and Monique Tollgard have merged two opposing cultures not only in marriage, but in a celebratory fusion of partnership in an architectural interior design service.

TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELVES.

We are partners in life as well as in design. I was born in Sweden while Monique grew up in South Africa. We met in our twenties in our previous lives on a London film set – Monique was the actress and I was the

First AD on a low budget feature film. We joke that while those careers didn’t last, our marriage goes from strength to strength. After we refurbished our first house together, I started thinking seriously about a career change, and took a year sabbatical to study at the Inchbald. Monique jumped ship from making documentaries a couple of years later and joined the company. That was nearly fifteen years ago.

DID YOU HAVE AN INFLUENCE IN YOUR YOUTH THAT SHAPED YOUR CAREER PATH?

Staffan: Interestingly it was my mother’s poor dinner party presentation that first allowed me to make inroads into the interior design of our own home. I also remember from around the age of 11 asking her not to buy me any more clothes as I knew exactly what I wanted to buy. I can see that I have a strong strand of my father’s engineering DNA in my approach to problem-solving and in my preference for functional sculpture.

Monique: My father always talked about the importance of finding a path with a heart. He was convinced that a career was important only if it contained meaning and could make a difference. My mother was, and is, a consummate home-maker. That role has been so problematic for women over the past few decades, but in my work as an interior designer I am increasingly convinced that it is not just design that makes a house a home; it is the people that spend time in the home that make it a haven. My mother’s home is always filled with fresh flowers, always immaculate and yet effortlessly warm and welcoming.

YOU HAVE A BACKGROUND IN FEATURE FILM AND DOCUMENTARY PRODUCTION. HAS THAT STOOD YOU IN GOOD STEAD DOING WHAT YOU DO TODAY AS AN ARCHITECTURAL INTERIOR DESIGN SERVICE?

Monique: A love of story-telling is the common thread between these two careers. As a maker of documentaries, I had to assimilate then sift through a vast amount of information, finally distilling it into one clear story. Being a producer of any creative endeavour, you are responsible for bringing together specialists and then bringing the project in on time and on budget … so the two careers certainly share a lot in common. We tend to use the language of film-making when we discuss a project because of our shared interest and past life in film: we will talk about the hero piece of a room, or the story that our clients want to tell about themselves through the choices we are making. We say that we use the language of design to tell our clients’ stories.

YOU STARTED YOUR FIRM STAFFAN TOLLGARD DESIGN GROUP NEARLY FIFTEEN YEARS AGO. WHAT AND

WHO INSPIRES YOU?

Staffan and I are hoarders of inspiration and information. We are constantly on the look-out for new as well as tried and tested answers to the questions of living our projects throw at us. It can be a little irritating when we go to new places (hotels, restaurants, friends’ homes … ) and pull everything to pieces to see how good things have worked, and why something hasn’t.

For our projects, our clients are a key source of inspiration, as well as the architecture they have chosen to express their identity through and the setting they have chosen. We’ve been lucky enough to have worked in different cultures and have tried to make the most of vernacular traditions, craft and materials. So often, we need to look to the past for answers, especially when it comes to protecting homes from the elements. Technology has a huge role to play, but there are certain traditional answers that we just shouldn’t ignore.

IT’S QUITE UNIQUE TO HAVE AN ARCHITECTURAL INTERIOR DESIGN SERVICE; USUALLY IT’S ONE OR THE OTHER. HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO ‘MARRY’ THE TWO CONCEPTS SUCCESSFULLY?

A really successful project integrates architecture and interiors, considering function, layout, materials, furniture, lighting and all the technical gubbins that make everything possible. We love to collaborate with architects as well, where they are responsible for the interior architecture and we are responsible for the softer side of things. But fundamentally, we are inquisitive and obsessive by nature, so by offering a nearly 360-degree service for the inside of our client’s projects, we can ensure that no details escape the red thread we are weaving.

WHAT ARE / HAVE BEEN YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGES IN YOUR CAREER?

Staffan: For me, it has been running a growing company while giving the design projects the creative energy they demand and deserve. Opening a showroom in 2013 was a further challenge: most people are running away from bricks and mortar commerce, but we decided to dive in and invest in a place where people can come and talk to us about great design that we have curated from around the world.

IMPORTANT LESSONS ALONG THE WAY?

We read a beautiful quote recently that has resonated strongly: Just because it’s not perfect doesn’t mean it’s not great. The pursuit of perfection is a torturous path. Understanding that every project has its challenges, constraints and compromises has been difficult, but it’s one that we have grasped. There isn’t just one right answer in design, so one person’s perfect is another’s so-so.

Kindness is a simple and effective mantra that we try to live by. We have learnt that treating people well at every stage of the design and construction process is a lot more effective than toy-out-of-pram throwing. Everyone is human and will make mistakes. The trick is learning how to fix them and make different ones next time. We’ve also learnt that every project is not right for every design practice. The design journey and relationship between client and designer is intense and personal, and understanding at the outset that you have shared values, design DNA and mutual respect is fundamental for a successful project.

THE FAVORITE PART OF YOUR JOB?

Monique: I love the transformative element of our work. In documentary making terms, it’s the before and after montage … although it seems to take a lot longer in this industry than it does on TV. Being able to change how people live in a space, and in so doing, increase their enjoyment of life is a real privilege. Over the past decade, we have become really interested in the nitty gritty of family life and how wellconsidered, functional and nurturing spaces can enhance a family’s time together.

Staffan: When a project or product finally takes shape, it has the fulfilling quality of finishing a jigsaw puzzle. The sense of having understood and answered a question of living – perhaps even before your client has articulated it – is immensely satisfying.

WHAT IS THE BEST THING ABOUT BEING AT THE HELM OF AN ARCHITECTURAL INTERIOR DESIGN SERVICE?

No two days are the same. It is an extremely interesting, multi-faceted job. It’s impossible to get bored of it.

AND THE WORST?

It can become incredibly stressful and with so many aspects to numerous projects, it is easy to become overwhelmed.

IS YOUR HOME / ARE YOUR HOMES AS STUNNING AS THOSE OF YOUR CLIENTS? I’M THINKING OF THE OLD PROVERB OF THE SHOEMAKER’S CHILDREN THAT HAVE NO SHOES …. HOPEFULLY THAT’S NOT THE CASE WITH YOUR ABODE.

It has taken time. And it’s not perfect. Often our home is a transitioning area for pieces of furniture left over from the showroom, so it’s certainly a work in progress. But it is our haven and it makes us happy every time we open the door to go in. WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE ROOMS IN YOUR OWN HOME AND WHY?

Staffan: I think the open-plan kitchen / living / dining has to be the best place in the house. We clad the doors of the kitchen using De Castelli bronze panels and, because of a great back-kitchen, we manage to keep the front of house looking vaguely presentable at most times. The living room and dining area looks out onto the terrace and garden beyond, and with the doors open, it feels like you are right in the garden. We chose a fantastic Skantherm wood-burning fireplace for the living room – it’s both an architectural focal point as well as a really great heat source during the winter. Proper functional sculpture. The kids do their homework on the dining table, Monique plays guitar with our youngest son around the fire … or the kids run shrieking round the island trying to kill each other. It’s a real family living space.

WHAT KEY PIECES IN YOUR HOME CAN YOU NOT LIVE WITHOUT?

Monique: We have a growing collection of stone sculpture that means a lot to us. My grandparents started the collection when we got married by giving us a sculpture that came from an exhibition of Shona artists in the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town. Made from leopard stone, it’s a beautiful piece with strong memories and emotional value. Since then, we have added to the collection and housed it in a metal and glass cabinet from Porro. A pair of Jade book ends joined after we went as a family to New Zealand, and most recently, a Jade inukshuk from Canada came back with us to commemorate our 15th wedding anniversary. We imagine that the inukshuk and the leopard-head sculpture tell each other tales of faraway lands when the lights in the house go out.

DO YOU HAVE DIFFERENT TASTE IN INTERIOR DESIGN FROM ONE ANOTHER AND HOW DO YOU NEGOTIATE / SOLVE THAT AMICABLY?

Monique: Our individual approaches to design stem from our relative strengths: my background in English Literature and then documentary marking (and general wordsmithery) sees me analyze my way into a design direction. For Staffan, it’s a much more visceral, visual and creative approach, underpinned by an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of furniture. The two approaches tend to be important at different times of the design journey, so we rarely have to battle each other for our view to take precedence.

TALK US THROUGH A TIMELESS INTERIOR DESIGN STYLE.

Staffan: We often wonder which of our interiors will stand the test of time. When I

think about timeless interiors, I immediately picture heirloom pieces that have gone through generations: beautifully crafted, functional sculptures that continue to answer questions of living for different people in different times. Materials that are truthful to themselves, and suitable or native to the architectural setting fortifies a timeless interior. Think of a Swedish summer house with a pale pine floor or a Portuguese villa with cool slabs of limestone that stay cool in the summer … the fundamental ingredients of a timeless interior are the key to a home that will endure.

WHAT IS THE RED THREAD?

The Red Thread is a northern European expression that describes the guiding principle of creative endeavour, whether it be a piece of art, literature or music. It’s the design DNA that we strive to find and then express in each project. Within the client, architecture and environment are clues to a distinctive and powerful narrative: a unique red thread that we use to tell a new story using the language of design.

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO ACCESSORIZE?

Accessories are the final – and I would say vital – layer of the interior design process.

After a design journey that might have lasted a number of years, it’s all too easy to run out of steam (and indeed budget) for this last leg of the race, which is why we have now started putting money and time aside at the outset to allow for this stage of the project to have the proper time and energy it deserves. Accessories are a catch-all term that too easily demotes the pieces around us that give us joy. Too many and a house can feel cluttered and overwhelming. Too few and a house feels like it lacks a soul.

IS THERE A RIGHT AND WRONG WHEN IT COMES TO DECORATING? PLEASE EXPLAIN.

I’m tempted to say that there are many rights and many wrongs when it comes to decorating. If a design journey starts with function, and clearly sets out to answer the questions of living asked by the residents of the space, then the answers are one sort of right. Design is immensely personal, and if it satisfies the criteria of the residents, and gives them joy, then it’s the right answer. We don’t have to like the answer for it to be the right one for our clients. Wrong answers are usually those that ignore function, budget, climate, the environment and the clear voice of the client.

HOW DOES ONE KEEP THINGS MODERN / TIMELESS WITHOUT HAVING TO BREAK THE BANK?

There has never been a time when it has been easier to search for and find good quality, affordable design. Both for contemporary

design or reproductions and vintage.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN REPURPOSING DATED PIECES OR SHOULD ONE JUST SHOP FOR NEW ONES?

Good design lasts, so definitely reuse and refurbish if you have some good pieces. The drawback of living in a time when furniture is astonishingly well-priced can lead to throwaway design (like throwaway fashion). We prefer our clients to buy once, so will advise them to wait for better pieces in a Phase II project, than buy pieces that we all know won’t stand the test of time.

YOU HAVE DONE SOME EXQUISITE INTERIORS. DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVORITES?

That’s like choosing your favorite child. Impossible. So many have been so satisfying to work on, all in different ways. It’s particularly rewarding when a favorite client asks us back to update a project, or work on something in a different location with them.

HAVE THERE BEEN PROJECTS THAT YOU HAVE DECLINED? IF YES, WHY?

We do decline projects when we can see that there isn’t going to be a good understanding between us and a client. We’ve done enough projects now to know that while we don’t have a house style, we have strongly held design values, and if we can see that those values aren’t shared, it’s better to decline at the outset.

IS IT CHALLENGING TO RUN A BUSINESS AS HUSBAND AND WIFE … WHEN DO YOU SWITCH OFF OR CLOSE THE PROVERBIAL OFFICE DOOR WHEN YOU GO HOME? OR IS IT GOOD TO HAVE A SOUNDING BOARD?

There are some couples who run businesses and never bring their work home. We do not live by this rule! Our company was set up on the strong belief that creative collaboration, both within our design practice and with our clients, brings the best out in everybody. So, depending on the project, both Monique and I will contribute according to our strengths and its requirements. We’ve certainly found it hard to switch off from work at home, and it has taken us a good number of years to even get close to doing it. Overall, it is a fantastic thing to run something together with someone you trust and love more than anyone else.

YOU TRAVEL FOR BUSINESS, AND HOPEFULLY PLEASURE TOO. WHICH HAVE BEEN YOUR FAVORITE PLACES TO TRAVEL TO THAT HAVE LEFT A LASTING IMPRESSION?

Traveling to Jordan for work, and North Canada for pleasure (skiing) have left indelible marks. The former made us grateful that work could take us there. The latter gave us a reason to work harder so that we can go back!

WHAT DO YOU DO FOR FUN?

We share a love of skiing, travel, movies and eating. Monique has started playing the guitar and secretly wishes she had been in a band when a band would still have her. Last year, we took our boys on a trip around New Zealand in a camper van. Mostly fun, and sure to be repeated.

ANY EXCITING PLANS ON THE HORIZON?

Staffan is going to focus on the product design division this year, which he is really excited about. There are some projects that we have been working on for several years that will finally be completed in 2019, and some interesting ones starting in the UK and a little beyond. A rebrand is also shimmering on the near horizon, so watch this space.