Style hero
She’s the woman behind Asda’s bold and colourful George Home range, but design manager Siân Kerrigan has come to love a more neutral decor in her own home
Meet George Home design manager Siân Kerrigan
Siân designed textiles for Marks & Spencer, Dunelm and Debenhams before joining Asda in 2012. George Home was launched shortly afterwards and she now heads up a team of eight. She lives in Mirfield, West Yorkshire.
My house has changed a lot since I bought it two years ago. Back then the decor was very Sixties – it had a peach bathroom suite, woodchip wallpaper and a stairlift. However, the rooms were big and, once the heavy curtains and pelmets came down, there was so much light. Even now, I still manage to find new ways to improve it. I’m always decorating and getting stuck into new projects.
I toyed with going dark in some rooms, but I knew I’d get bored. It’s nice to come home to a bit of calm after a day at work, so most of the rooms are painted in Valspar’s ‘Sleeping In’, which is a white-grey. It gives me a blank canvas to furnish and accessorise however I like.
I’m a complete hoarder and collector. I have lots of accessories, cushions, throws, vases, frames, lamps, and so on. I’m constantly
moving things around the house and getting pieces in and out of storage. That’s why neutral rooms work so well for me. It means I don’t have to get my paintbrush out every time I want to change or refresh a space.
I’ve been collecting vintage mirrors for a while now. Bevelled designs with hanging chains are my favourite. You can get sets of new replica ones, but the original midcentury pieces have more charm. I think they look amazing hung together on one wall but they are so big and heavy, I’ve yet to get around to hanging all of my collection!
I have a real passion for house plants. I love bringing the outdoors in, so I have plants in nearly every room and some of them are really huge now! They look amazing in handwoven baskets.
The kitchen is probably the most transformed room in the house. I updated it on a shoestring, so it’s also had the least money spent on it. I painted the melamine cupboards black and found some copper handles that looked great against it. I also painted the brown tiles white and redid the yellow walls in Valspar’s ‘Magic Touch’. There was an old pantry in the corner, so I papered the back of it in palm-print wallpaper and painted the shelves black to create a home for my crockery.
At work, I like that there’s no restrictions to my creativity. I work across so many trends and seasons – I mean, where else could you buy a resin fox in a bell jar, a rainbow-shaped butter dish and a family of giant garden gnomes?! We’re constantly looking for new trends and ideas.
I love to travel, but I love coming home, too. I live on my own, but the house is always full of family and friends. I enjoy having the girls over for a few Proseccos and a dance-off! I like to play the hostess, so having my house full of happy people is always a joy to me.