better-lived life
DESIGNER CHARLOTTE REY ON THE THINGS THAT ENHANCE HER LIVING
I’m a big foodie so I love having tempting treats, which I often pick up on my travels, at home for family and guests. I’m a sucker for great food packaging: Rummo pasta always looks good, as do pretty olive oil bottles from Joy by Stevie Parle. Some ingredients are permanent fixtures in my kitchen, including Bonne Maman jams, huge hanging garlics from Turnham Green Market and a bottle of River Café negroni. It’s wonderful to come home to so many favourites.
I’d love a really large dining table. We can seat about eight around ours but I’m on the lookout for one that can sit 16 or more. There’s so much promise in a large dining table – think big family dinners, lots of friends over for a long lunch on a weekend, dogs sleeping underneath it or the surface strewn with paints and papers for work. It’s hard to find a table that feels inviting, light and elegant that isn’t disproportionate at that size, so at Campbell-rey we’re working on one for The Invisible Collection.
I always try to bring the outside in. I like cut flowers but I prefer potted plants in well-worn terracotta pots from Whichford Pottery. It’s so satisfying watching plants grow from seed. I love it when my pelargoniums grow tall and spread out.
In my garden I grow roses from David Austin along with dahlias from Petersham Nurseries and W6 Garden Centre by Ravenscourt Park. I love arranging them in vases and dotting them around the house – over the years I’ve collected quite a few La Doublej Colombo-print vases to display my blooms.
Author John Waters said, ‘Don’t sleep with people who don’t read’ and I can only agree. Books are windows to different worlds that nourish the mind and we should buy, collect, display and open them often. At the moment I’m reading The Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia St Clair and The Eyes of the Skin by Juhani Pallasmaa.
Is there a better feeling than getting into a bed
dressed with fresh bed linens? My favourites are from
Once Milano and Frette – although to be honest, I love all linens: kitchen towels from Charvet Éditions at Pentreath & Hall, classic one-colour linen napkins from Svenskt Tenn, Maison de Vacances tablecloths from Cutter Brooks and blankets from Saved NY or Colville… I’ve just realised that linens are a bit of an obsession!