Paloma Faith reveals all about her vibrant new homeware range
Singer, actress and creative polymath Paloma Faith tells Rosamund Dean how her new interiors collection is bringing pattern and joy back to the fore
‘Vintage, eclectic, bohemian vomit,’ says Paloma Faith, with a dramatic pause between each word. I’d asked her to describe the style of her London home, and it’s a subject she seizes with relish. ‘I became quite fanatical about doing up my house,’ she explains. ‘People thought I had an interior designer, but it was all from ebay and antiques festivals. Pre-covid, I travelled a lot and I’d often buy another suitcase to bring back pictures and vases.’ Luckily, she has a great eye. ‘I love it when people tell me they would never have thought to put all these clashing things together yet it looks warm, and like a home.’
This is the ethos behind
Paloma Home, a collection that encapsulates the retro maximalism of her personal style. From rich velvet cushions with pouncing tigers to chinoiserie print wallpaper and bedding hand-drawn with birds in flight, every piece represents the rebellious spirit with which Paloma has become synonymous. Rather than simply putting her name to a range, she wanted to be in control, and proudly tells me that the timber is Fsc-certified, the carbon footprint is low and there’s no landfill waste. Accessibility was also important and, with prices starting from £21, Paloma Home is a far cry from Boris Johnson’s £840-a-roll wallpaper. ‘A lot of stuff in the maximalist world is really overpriced,’ she rolls her eyes. ‘I often see things and think, I’m not spending £400 on a cushion! That’s outrageous!’ Her brand of affordable maximalism has come at the perfect time because, after years of playing it safe, she feels people are prepared to take risks. ‘Maybe because we’ve spent so much time in our homes, we’re dressing them up more than ourselves,’ she shrugs. ‘But I don’t really follow trends, I’ve always been maximalist. My house is like a colour explosion.’
Paloma is sitting in her kitchen as we chat, although all I can see over Zoom is a glimpse of the garden through the doors behind her. Hair piled up in a topknot, she’s wearing a Marc Jacobs sweatshirt and is texting her artist boyfriend Leyman Lahcine, who’s currently feeding their three-month-old baby. ‘He’s telling me how much she’s had because he knows I’m tense,’ she says, replying to his message: ‘Burp her please.’ The couple also have a four-year-old daughter.
I have to ask how on earth does she keep that spectacular home clean? ‘I don’t!’ she guffaws. ‘As a mother I realised I had a choice between having the house I want and accepting it will be destroyed and dirty, or I could compromise and have it all wipe-down and stain-absorbent. So we have the home we want, with the scars to match.’ When we speak, she’s emerging from maternity leave and has spent a lot of time in bed. ‘My daughter loved that I’d had a caesarean and was bed-bound for two weeks. We ate in bed, watched TV, did some art … she was like, I don’t want you to get out of bed again!’
But now it’s back to work. There will be more acting with a third series of Pennyworth and, in September, she’s touring her fifth album, Infinite Things. She also plans to start a new album. ‘And raising two children,’ she adds, with the slightly frazzled air of someone wondering how they’re going to fit it all in. Paloma says the baby will come on tour and, while she’s looking forward to it, she’ll miss home. ‘Growing up the way I did, from a broken home, it’s always been important to have a place of stability,’ she says. ‘Home, for me, is a nest where you can return and feel cradled.’
The Paloma Home range will be available from palomahome.com from 28 June