In his own habitat
At home with design guru Sir Terence Conran
He revolutionised the way we furnish our homes and, six decades later, is still
influencing how we live. So does Sir Terence Conran follow his own rules?
Step into Sir Terence Conran’s London riverfront apartment and the light flooding in from the expansive picture window, with its seagull-eye views over the water to Battersea Power Station, is dazzling. Turn your back on the vista and the open living area is a design dream: pale sawn-wood flooring, woven Conran Shop rug, every chair chosen for its good looks and ergonomics (apart from the marginally damaged don’t-sit-on-me Japanese geometric stunner – someone did) and the metres-long teak table, which is both beautiful and useful, of course.
It is a space that brims with Terence’s creative ambitions and what he still at 85 this month – Cuban cigar and lunchtime gin and tonic in hand – wants for himself and his customers: homes that offer a comfortable and easy way of life. He has been perfecting it now for more than 60 years.
It’s impossible to know where to begin in listing how Terence Conran – entrepreneur and creative retailer, furniture maker and architect, the man behind Habitat, Conran Design, The Conran Shop, the Design Museum, Benchmark Furniture and dozens of top-end global restaurants – has boosted our style confidence and shaped our homes through the decades.
Back in 1965, when he set up Habitat, it was the most exciting shopping experience in town: a seductive aspirational room-set store, clever lighting at every turn, ethnic throws, the smell of rattan, the scent of laid-back living inviting us to enjoy beautiful affordable things. One bedspread could turn a grim bedsit into a home, a simple wooden salad
bowl – or, for the adventurous, a garlic press – could bring pleasure to the kitchen and to your life.
‘It was the first time young people earned enough money to live independently from their parents,’ says Terence, who was knighted for his services to design in 1983. ‘They didn’t want the same brown furniture and old-fashioned carpets, or a central light hanging down and a telly in one corner. They wanted open-plan living and a different life.
‘When I started Habitat, people would buy a spaghetti jar for focus in the kitchen and duvets to free them from bed making. The idea was “A few things take my eye and are inspiration for change. I can’t afford to do it all at once but can gradually.”’
Terence, who has created his own design dynasty with three of his five children, Sebastian, Jasper and Sophie all in the industry, splits his week between the London apartment and his rural Berkshire home, Barton Court. He’s seen design styles and interior trends move and shift with the way we’ve lived our lives through six decades and, he says, this way of setting up home works just as well now. Embrace the Conran mantra that ‘objects have life and meaning’ and you’ll be on track for making your place very much your own. Know what you like.
‘I’m passionate about bentwood. I have bentwood chaise longues and some very nice strangely shaped wicker chairs – they have pockets on the side to hold a drink or newspapers and good feather cushions to make them comfortable,’ says Terence, who also likes immaculately presented displays in his homes. ‘I have a big collection of objects, from ceramics to glass, things that I love.’
Gleaming copper pans hanging in size order, an extraordinary collection of model Bugatti pedal cars in his Berkshire home, and an exotic flight of framed butterflies in his riverside flat in the capital all provide a daily sense of background pleasure for him and his fourth wife Vicki.
So, along with being selective when buying items for our homes, what other advice would Britain’s tastemaker in chief, as he’s been called, give us? The first thing is not to be afraid of mixing contrasting elements. His classic combination of clean, crisp modern lines: ‘plain, simple and useful’ is a key Conran concept and the genius behind it has recently been commissioned to design a wallpaper range called that, along with distinctive globally inspired fabrics, rugs and textiles.
Combining pieces from different style periods is also something Terence is keen on. ‘Ethnic pieces with gleaming industrial surfaces are very Habitat,’ he says. ‘Colour, pattern and texture have always been important to my enjoyment of life. I also like antique furniture and often find it an inspiration for modern design. I like mixing old and new.’
A major factor in his homes and the interiors he’s designed is a sense of space. ‘What I remember
of our family house in Hampstead is that my mother had created a large living room with beige linen comfortable sofas – she had a very keen eye. Having a room that’s spacious is very important to me,’ says Terence. ‘Something I did at Barton Court was to make an open-plan room across the front of the house by demolishing two walls. Create as much space as you can rather than lots of little rooms. I also think it’s liberating for people to get that green-space connection with their home. I’d always try to have a kitchen that has a big window and goes out to a patio so it’s part of the outside.’
Light, nature, space, things you love, furniture that’s well made, comfortable and functional, rooms that please the eye and make us feel at home – it’s a simple template from a man who still wakes at 3am buzzing with ideas for his latest restaurant or finishing touches to the new Design Museum that opens this autumn.
Back in the 1950s when he shared a workshop with his friend, acclaimed sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi, Terence put his first pieces of furniture together: ‘they were all welded metal and rope – very easy and cheap to make, with an old door on trestles for a table.’ None of it would look out of place now.
My Life in Design by Terence Conran is published by Conran Octopus, £30