Matthew Williamson on his new curated interior design platform – Evening Standard

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hen a couple contacted fashion designer-turned-interiors guru Matthew Williamson on Instagram recently, they hoped hed settle a disagreement about which lampshades to choose for their bedside tables.

They were coming at it from the wrong angle, I said lets talk about the floor first is it concrete? Is it wooden? I cant help you pick lampshades if I dont know what the foundations of the room are, says Williamson.

Fortunately the couple, who certainly got more help than theyd bargained for that day, loved the idea.

Lamp from collaboration with Pooki, lampshades 70, lamps from 180

The floor informs the bed, you work up and over the room, he tells me on a call from his home in the mountains of northern Mallorca, where he has spent most of the past year with his partner, Joseph Velosa, and their five-year-old daughter, Skye.

Williamson describes designing his own homes as well as a traditional stone-walled house in Dei, he also has an apartment in a grand Victorian building in Belsize Park and the homes of clients much in the way youd tackle a painting.

His vast overestimation of the laymans painting skills aside, he speaks of painting the background first: the walls, the floor and the ceiling in a room design, or the shell.

It sounds elementary but people miss that trick, he says. Thats the first step, its madness to buy cushions before you consider the background.

Matthew Williamsons collaboration with Pooki on display in his Deia home

Big-ticket items such as the bed and the dining table, are the middle ground, then the details follow: The petals, the flowers, the eye colour, these are your cushions, your mirrors and your lamps.

And its Williamsons own pivot from fashion to interior design and now shoppable homewares the details that is affirming his brand as a household name. Once the fashion favourite of A-listers and friends including Kate Moss and Sienna Miller, Williamson is bringing all his products to one, curated platform (matthewwilliamson.com).

From 12 notebooks in a Persian design-inspired paisley pattern, to a newly launched decorative furniture collection with Roome London in which bespoke dressing screens and sideboards are priced from 5,500, the products cover eight categories from lighting to rugs and cater for all budgets.

You could always buy wallpaper [I designed] through Osborne & Little, and you could buy stationery, he says. I wanted to put it under one roof rather than it being fractured, a one-stop shop to see my whole universe of design.

Lamps from collaboration with Pooki

And theres plenty more to come, says Williamson, who turns 50 in October. The antique section of the online store is growing and he hopes to create a gallery wall of artwork soon, so well get to see those painting skills in action.

Hes also a guest judge on the new eight-part Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr and Michelle Ogundehin.

Were all at home now, weve all got to the same place that home is not just a place to sleep and wake up in it counts far more than ever before, he says.

Even if youre not interested in design, you probably now need a table thats not just a dining table, it also needs to be a school for children or a place to work.

While fashion was my chosen subject, Ive always been fascinated by interior design, homes and how people live. This is really the icing on the cake.

Interior Design Masters airs on BBC Two on Tuesdays at 8pm

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Matthew Williamson on his new curated interior design platform - Evening Standard