Meet the ‘home curators’ you never knew you needed
Want a perfect pantry or bespoke art collection? There’s now an expert for that, says Jessica Doyle
If Instagram is the first port of call for a snapshot of perfection, it is no wonder that a trend for images of the immaculately ordered pantries, playrooms and dressing rooms of celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Mandy Moore is upon us. The urge to declutter and reorganise is nothing new; but the need to share the results with the world is a product of the social media age. Our homes, and what they reveal about us, have never been so visible – and whether it’s your book collection or your gallery wall, there’s an expert out there who can help you get the message right. Meet the interior curators you never knew you needed.
The pantry queen
“People want a good-looking pantry. It’s becoming a thing,” says Caroline Caron Dhaouadi (homefulness.co. uk). Reorganising kitchen cupboards, larders and walk-ins takes up a sizeable chunk of her time as an expert home organiser.
Dhaouadi begins with a home visit where she measures cupboards and shelves and talks to the client about what they use daily and what they use less frequently, then she and her team go off to plan the layout. They order in boxes and containers to fit, returning about a week later to organise and label everything, a process that normally takes 3-4 hours. Dhaouadi’s service costs around £150 for the shopping fee (plus the price of the products) and £250 for a three-hour organisation session.
The book curator
The advent of the “shelfie” – shots of beautifully ordered bookshelves – has had its impact on the work of Philip Blackwell (ultimatelibrary.co.uk), who compiles book collections for hotels and private clients. But the content is where the fun starts: “We’ve done one for a horse racing fanatic, and we did a witchcraft collection the other day. We try to make them playful and amusing,” he says.
Each collection starts with a conversation, when Blackwell discovers what his clients’ interests and passions are: his team buys from the UK, Europe and America, and sources second-hand if an important book is out of print. In the end, “In a world of excess, we all value curation,” he says, “selecting, finding, cutting down to what really matters”. Blackwell’s service costs from a few hundred pounds into the thousands.
The wardrobe whisperer
Anyone who has battled to find an elusive uncreased shirt in an overstuffed wardrobe will appreciate the value of a closet curator such as Julia Dee (thewardrobecurator.co.uk). Dee takes on everything from decluttering to alterations and mothproofing and has been in the business since 1992, when she started a tailoring company.
“They’re overwhelmed,” says Dee of the state she normally finds her clients in. “Sometimes they’ve put on or lost weight, or had a bereavement, or they’ve had children and are going back to work. There’s normally a trigger; they realise they need help.”
The first step, she says, is to work out what actually suits you before the detox can begin. “People need to know they don’t have to be too ruthless about getting rid of stuff,” she adds. “But let’s keep it properly: in a box, with a label.”
Once a collection has been cleansed of superfluous pieces, Dee can alter things that don’t fit but that her client wants to keep. If a client is getting new wardrobes, she advises them to judge the space they need: “Think about how many pairs of trousers you have, and how you like to hang them, and measure them. That’s the only way to know.”
Dee then helps to assess any gaps in the wardrobe and fills them with made-to-measure clothes, so the client ends up with a wardrobe that’s as tailored as the clothes inside it. Dee’s service starts at £80 an hour, or £600 for a full day.
The art assembler
For the would-be serious collector, how to spot the most promising young talent? That’s where Scarlett Colicci (projectsonwalls.com) comes in. Colicci, an artist herself, sources collections for hotels and developments, as well as private homes. “Some people want to take their time building their collection, but we get most of our requests with a deadline, and work in tandem with an interior designer so that the art and the interior schemes complement each other.”
Colicci’s advice is to find a curator whose taste you share: “They will have a thorough knowledge of where to look and which artists to put forward.”
Most of her projects also involve framing and hanging, and she’ll also do bespoke commissions to add to or complete a collection: “That way, the client can really be at the forefront of making decisions in terms of colour and composition, and they get something entirely unique.”
A curated artwork proposal by Colicci, with multiple options, costs £400.