Episode 1 - The Super Power of Interior Design

In this inaugral episode, Susan discusses the Super Power of Interior Design, identifying the DNA of a scheme, and how to guarantee success in your designs.  How getting your interior design right can really enhance your wellbeing and life in general. She explores the importance of colour theory, looks at ways to identify what resonates for you, discusses the 60-30-10 rule for colour schemes and highlights upcoming design trends for 2025, including Pantone's Color of the Year and Dulux's uplifting colour suggestion. 

In coming episodes guests will be joining Sue from all areas of the interior design world.

Key Messages...
Find your DNA for a scheme and build your space around it!
Interior design is a superpower that can transform spaces.
Understanding light and colour is crucial in design.
Putting together Mood boards
The 60-30-10 rule helps in creating balanced color schemes.
Nature provides excellent inspiration for color combinations.
Personal experiences influence our reactions to design.
Design should reflect individual identity and preferences.
Trends like Pantone's Color of the Year influence design choices.
Creating unique spaces enhances the quality of life.

Music Credits
Music from #Uppbeat
https://uppbeat.io/t/hartzmann/good-feelings
License code: GFDQBSDPBEIR08XJ

Music from #Uppbeat
https://uppbeat.io/t/oliver-massa/orange-clouds
License code: 9HPDRFIOL6DVYLVD

Music from #Uppbeat
https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/thrive
License code: XPA3DJXY7HJFSPBJ

Contact
email - contact@allaboutdesign.online
Instagram - all_about_design_podcast

Novo Interiors - www.novointeriors.co.uk
Insta novointeriors_uk
email - susan@novointeriors.co.uk

Transcript

Welcome to episode one, All About Design, brought to you by Novo Interiors. My name is Susan Parsons and I've had the pleasure of designing interiors for over 20 years, working on everything from five star hotels like Mandarin Oriental, Fairmont and Hilton, to residential projects, yachts, and even a few palaces.

This podcast is for you if you love to live in surroundings that reflect your style and elevate your mood and productivity. This podcast is for homemakers, whether you own or rent, have one room or 20. I'd also love to help students of interiors and design, lend them a helping hand and be a touch point for any questions you may have. And I really encourage fellow interior designers to share their thoughts and experience too, so we can all benefit and continue learning. 


So please do get in touch with any questions or comments. My email address here is contact@allaboutdesign.online. I'll be sharing tips, tricks and inspiration to help you transform your home or workspace with a behind the scenes look at the world of interior design. And over the coming months, I will be speaking to experts from the worlds of interiors, design and architecture, and hopefully fabric houses, colour consultancies, and get the inside track on what's new and how to elevate what we have already and bring out our own style. I'll also be joined from time to time by one of my best friends and the stellar designer, Debs, who's worked with me at Novo Interiors previously and continues to join me on larger projects. Her alternative insight is hugely valuable and a great point of inspiration. 


Let's kick off by talking about why I think interior design is a superpower and why I wanted to do a podcast around this subject. 

We live on this tiny planet spinning around in the solar system and we've only got a limited time here. So why not live in spaces that reflect who we are? Spaces that nurture us, that make us feel alive. Interior design is the secret ingredient that helps create those spaces. It can have a huge impact on your mood, how you feel and ultimately your wellbeing. When you step into your home, you should instantly 
feel safe, happy and restored. 

That's the magic of design. It has the power to turn your home into a sanctuary, a place where you can recharge, be nurtured and inspired, or calmed and restored so you're ready to face everything that life throws at us. Interior design isn't just about aesthetics. It's about creating environments that soothe your soul. And when we get it right, it can enhance your quality of life in ways you never expected or imagined. 

I passionately believe interior design does far more than it says on the tin. 

Your home really is like a theatre stage or a film set. It should be designed specifically for you and your family. Think about hotels or restaurants. They don't just rely on design for looks. They use it to create an emotional response. Every detail is carefully chosen to wow you, to make you feel something. Of course, your home doesn't have to be a constant showstopper. Not every room has to bombard you and make a statement. 

When you play with colours, textures, lighting and accessories, you create a space that speaks to you and that's how you achieve that wow. 

So let me just give you a little bit of an insight into my career to date. 

I actually didn't know what I wanted to do at school and became an air stewardess when I left college because I did know I wanted to travel. And that was an amazing experience. And I got to stay in the most beautiful hotels all around the world. And that was what really inspired me, the sights, the colors, and the interiors from hotels in the different continents And I started to sort of... play around with the interiors of my house and everyone else who knew me, stencils, making curtains, soft furnishings, just reading loads of interior design magazines. So fast forward and I just knew that interior design was what I wanted to do, but that meant leaving British Airways and people thought I was mad to give up this glamorous career for something so uncertain, but I just couldn't imagine sitting on a jump seat for the next 20 years. 

So I hung up my wings. I did go from an incredibly glamorous lifestyle to having no income whilst I went back to college and I studied interior design. And so eating baked beans for tea was something that happened quite often, but it got me through and it was so worth it. I also knew I needed to get a proper education and a qualification and well put together portfolio. 

if I was going to go and get a job in one of these fantastic design studios. I was living in London anyway, so it was quite easy to sort of have a pick of wonderful places that I could ask for a job after I'd done my course. I applied to the Inchbald School of Design, which is based in Chelsea, their Postgraduate course in rchitectural Interior Design. and I went to study there for a year. The job of an interior designer is still, I think, bit unknown. And some people think it's just about wafting around with a paint chart and throwing some cushions around. And that's about 1 % of it. The rest of it, there's so much to learn. There's so much detail. There's so many things that go into making a design look effortless. That's the trick that looks like it should be like that. So space planning, architectural styles, colour theory, materials, the properties of materials, finishes, and the history of design and so on. was just so much. But that solid foundation gave me the tools to start building a successful career in design. As I say, just before I was graduating, I sent out 100 letters to interior design studios in London. And I was offered a job by a lady called Khuan Chew of KCA International. 

So I really do need to credit Khuan for teaching me how to put these colour schemes together, starting off with the DNA of the process, something that's central to the whole design. And she gave me my first opportunity in interior design so I'll be forever grateful. I was putting together designs for projects all over the world. Hong Kong, Dubai, Prague, London, obviously. 

And for example, projects like the Mandarin Oriental in Prague where we renovated a 14th, 15th century monastery into a luxury hotel. 
was one of the first that I worked on. It was just incredible to see how this old building, which had been empty, I believe, was suddenly transported back into a super glamorous space. it just makes your heart sing when you have these buildings that have sat there and just have the most incredible architecture and they've been shut up and ignored for years. To bring them back to life is amazing. 

and to do justice to them. So integrity in design is such an important thing that it has to work, it has to not jar and you know in your heart and how you feel when you walk into a space if they've got it right or not. Anyway, fast forward 20 years and I've been lucky enough to work lots of luxury hotels, high-end residences, commercial projects. 

I run my own business now, design a studio called Novo Interiors and I work on both residential and commercial design projects. When I was in the studios in London, I specialised in FF &E which basically stands for furniture finishes, equipment electrics, take your pick. It's basically everything in a space that is not nailed down if you like, but it's obviously all the colour schemes, all the materials, all the lighting. 

And then you have to put that together. It has to obviously stand up to a commercial environment, fire retardency all those things. But there's many people in the team that you work with. It's fantastic to see how the projects develop and the opening of these hotels is a wonderful thing. 

So it's January. It's the start of a new year and you may be thinking about starting a project at home, or you might even be dreading it. I'm here to give you some help if you would like it. I've got lots of experience. You can take or leave my advice, but it might just help steer you in the right direction or away from something. Or it might just give you a little bit of a light bulb moment occasionally. So this is what we're going to talk about in episode one. 

First thing with a redesign and whatever you're going to do, the colour is the first thing to catch your eye. you might have heard of the Pantone Colour of the Year 2025. Fashion, interiors, homes are all very, very linked together as you are no doubt aware. So you might see, for example, the Colour of the Year this year 2025, by Pantone and they've announced it's called Mocha Mousse and it's like a warm chocolate coffee colour. Almost like a little bit of a metallic look to it you can imagine it on the lipstick and nail varnish but you'll soon see it on so many clothes, shoes, handbags, you'll see it on furniture, artwork, it just will be everywhere because that's just the link there is always between colour, 
from Pantone announcing it and it's a global community that decide this colour. they sort of decide what's going on in the world and as a global choice put that idea forward. For me, it's a colour that it's a very calm and cosy colour. I could definitely use it within the schemes. 

It wouldn't be a key colour. I think it's more of a supporting colour in many, of the schemes that I would do. Certainly a warm and cosy colour that I will look at using on the other end of the scale, the wonderful Dulux put forward their colour suggestion for 2025, which is called True Joy And they're saying it's an uplifting yellow that fills our homes with optimism, pride, and a pop of colour. So they're very different suggestions from two of the main colour consultancies in the world and I'll put pictures of them on the socials afterwards but yeah quite an intriguing choice both so different at opposite ends of the scale really. 

So let's talk about colour. And obviously there are seven different colours in refracted light, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. And within that, there are millions and millions of colours. I think the human eye can see one million, but there's around 14 million out there. The average paint chart obviously doesn't have millions of spaces, but this day and age it's amazing you can get any colour at all that you like mixed. So if you've got something that you love the colour of, that's a great starting point for a colour scheme. It could be a scarf, could be a favourite dress, it could be a vase. As long as you can take it and get it scanned at the paint mixing centre, then you can recreate that colour. So that's wonderful. 

And I'll come back to talking about the DNA of a scheme if you have something there that you can start from. But before we get into that, there's an interesting thing to bear in mind that many people don't even think about, and it's the colour of the light entering your space, which is governed by the direction of the room. have a cooler blue-toned light as they face away from the sun. 

So if you want a warm and cosy atmosphere in here, avoid blues and avoid lilacs and those sort of cooler tones and use warmer colours to make it a sort of cosy space that you want to be in. If it's a south-facing room, you will often get a lot of sun and it is bright for many more hours of the day. 

So tones that you put in there may try and go a bit yellow. If you put a white in there, it may still look like a pale yellow anyway. So you might need a cooler white to balance it. But these rooms can take almost any colour. But you might decide that putting a strong yellow or red in there could be a bit overpowering. East facing spaces have a cooler morning light and a go a bit darker in the afternoon. 

So important to think about when you'll use these rooms most and design for that time of day primarily. West facing spaces start with less morning light, but they get the warmer toned light in the evening and the afternoon. So they're great for dining rooms and lounges. 

One of the things my clients always say is, I can't decide on colours, I'm scared of strong colours, I can't do it, I'll end up going beige, that's why I've got you in to help me. They're scared to commit to it because they think they'll get it wrong. So as an interior designer, I always introduce coloured elements to the clients and I'll test them with things, see if they like it. 

And actually they can embrace the most amazing patterns and colour palettes in the end. When they say, I wouldn't have chosen that myself, but I love it. I feel very happy that I've done my job. I need to see a reaction. So saying no is as good as saying yes in terms of, I need feedback. we can't include everything in a colour scheme. So if you don't like purples and reds, great, let me know, then you will make sure that that's not in the final edit. 

I love working with colour. believe life is like a big canvas. We should throw all the colour on it we can, but colour also needs light and space around it to breathe and stand out and be seen. So this is where balance comes in. We all have different reactions to colours and this is due to our experience in life perhaps and all our senses are linked. So we appreciate interior design as a visual art. 

But actually it's also through touch, sound and smell. So if you ever walked into a building and it had the smell of your old school, for example, the colour of your doctor's surgery, that might be why you'd sort of not keen on it. There are clearly some definitive traits each colour has that are well known and that can change through the continents. So bear that in mind as well. But talking about Northern European colour schemes, perhaps even North American colour schemes, 

These are the sort of general rules that we have. So we see colour through the different vibrations it causes in the eye. So the less vibration, the easier the colour is to live with. So green is the calmest colour, obviously the colour of nature, vibrates the least amount. But again, within that group that can go from sort of limey greens, which are touching the yellows, all the way through to teals, which are almost in the blue zone. So you just have to... work with the one that resonates best with you. Reds create a strongest vibration so if you're planning a room to be relaxing and calming, avoid red maybe or use it in smaller areas like a vase or a cushion perhaps. Red is the colour of strength, power, passion but it also be a bit angry and an alert so needs to be handled carefully. 

So neutrals like beiges and creams, they are lovely in rooms, but they can be a bit bland if everything is neutral and beige. So, I mean, absolutely great for a canvas, for a space, the sofas, the carpets, a couple of walls could be a neutral, but then just bringing a little bit of colour just to zhuzh it up. I just feel it's an opportunity that's not been taken if everything is just a neutral. 

You can edit these spaces beautifully by bringing in some metallics and some darker tones, some charcoals, some chocolates, some copper tones. That's when you can start to then really get a bit of colour in there without perhaps committing to the colour. 

A great way to test out paints is not to put a large splurge on the wall which takes forever to paint over but to paint it onto some A3 or A4 paper and then try it into various places around your home that you're going to be considering to paint this colour and then look at it with different sorts of lights. So natural light and electric light and floor lamps, table lamps, whatever is going to be in that space as well, just so you can see it in all the different lights, and making sure you like it. 

There's a 60 30 10 rule that is great to start with if you're a little bit worried about how your project is going to turn out. So that is that you use 60 % for one colour in terms of it could be one of the largest walls and a sofa and some of the accessories. 30 % could be a smaller wall, a smaller piece of furniture and a rug for example. 

And the final 10 % can be a bit of a contrast colour that can just pop a little bit, can be on accessories, artwork, a vase, some flowers. You see the sort of 10 % rule in there. I often pop in two or three different, make it 120 % scheme, just because I don't like following rules too much. Every space is individual and unique. But if you're... feeling a little bit anxious about what you're going to put together, that's quite a good rule to follow. 

So going back to the DNA of a project, the nucleus of the whole thing and how it holds itself together. So when I worked in the design studios in London, if we had a guest room or a spa or a ballroom, we needed something to start from. And it could be a piece of fabric, an architectural detail. So for you, could be a painting you cherish or a scarf, a pattern, a colour combination you love. This is the DNA. And working with this, you can start to bring in colour and texture and pull in all the elements the lighting, the fabrics to back up your central choice. Designs do always go through a process. Many things are considered and often discarded. So you work through to a final edit of what you love. And even then it can change. You've always got to be a little bit flexible, but don't move too far away from what your original scheme was in terms of what your hopes and dreams were for it. Don't let it get too distilled. but also be aware that it is a flexible process. If you don't have a clue, it's absolutely fine. It's often the case. Don't worry. Perhaps take a moment to visit Pinterest or look through some visual images of places that you've loved to visit. What makes you tick? What did you feel drawn to? What colours did you not enjoy? What did you walk away from? That's a great starting point as well. And another interesting thing to consider is what do you like to wear? 

If you feel great in pink and orange, but a bit drab in brown and grey, which often we do, then test out these tones in interiors. Start to collect your samples, put them together on a mood board, take them out and about with you if they're not too big or a picture of them on your phone. And the colour we carry in our minds is not always very accurate. So if you're trying to buy a cushion and you get it home and it's just the wrong shade of green, that will happen. 

So taking your phone with you and your pictures with you, that will really help. One of the best places though for inspiration, one that I use all the time, is to look at the colour combinations in nature. And these are just amazing and they always work. So for example, a Blue Hydrangea often has that beautiful green zesty middle, lots of frothy whites and darker greens and beiges around it work beautifully. And that can work in many different... rooms in the house, I think. So bedrooms, hallways, kitchen, lounges. I mean, that's such a lovely scheme for anywhere, 

Here are few makeover memos you can easily try out this week. So if you're worried to go all in with a stronger colour, try to introduce elements such as painting a little part of the room, like the door frame, or perhaps you might have a little console unit or bureau that's not an heirloom, that's not an antique, and that you're happy to paint. 

Perhaps you could try out a sunny yellow or a gorgeous orange on that with purple painted draws inside. You know, just have a little play and see what happens. You can also change the handles. It really will make a complete difference. Well worth a try. Another thing you could try experimenting with artwork. That's always a game changer. Perhaps have a move around of pictures that you like. Artwork is so personal and how you respond to it is really individual. 

Often my clients ask me to find artwork for them, which of course I can do, and I do that at the end of a scheme, but it's great to get a gauge of what they like. Or the other way around is to find the artwork and then build the interior design around it, and that's really successful. Or finally, you can put together a trayscape. This is an interior design term, and it does sound a bit silly, but it is a thing. So often found on a coffee table or an ottoman, it's just about putting together a lovely tray, with three to five elements on it. So in interiors and in design in general, actually, three is often the best number of things to group together. It works better for some reason than even numbers. odd numbers, three, five, seven is always a good quantity to have a collection of any items. But yes, three is the magic number. 

So pull together a lovely tray with three to five interesting and different things on it. Things that have different scale, that are made of different materials, such as a couple of nice books that you could have lying flat, maybe with a glass paperweight on top. That could be grouped next to a lovely coloured vase with some flowers or grasses in it. And finally, like a framed photo or a little carved box or an object that means something to you as well. That's better to have them out there than tucked away in a drawer. 

So if you're channeling some colour into this space, this is a great way to pick up the thread of it and then link it perhaps to a cushion on an armchair or a bit of piping on a cushion or again, a key piece of artwork. 

So we've taken a quick tour around colour. Here are the key takeaways if you're starting your own project. Number one, most important, check the light colour of the space. Is it north, south, east or west? Is it a warm light? Is it cool? What direction does your room face in? Number two, who's going to use it and at what times of day? Number three, see how you respond to different colours and think about what you like and don't like and what resonates with you. 

Number four, base the scheme around all these factors or bring in your own DNA, that special thing you love to build your scheme around. And if you're unsure what to do, you could always try the 60-30-10 decorating rule. First of all, make sure you put your mood board together and check it in different lights and at different times of the day. 

you so much for joining me on episode one. I'm looking forward to hearing any thoughts you have. Please do send through any questions or topics that you'd like me to cover. You can email me at contact @ allaboutdesign.online. 

I hope this gives you plenty of inspiration for your own design journey. And in episode two, I'll be joined by fellow designer Debs and we'll be talking treasure hunting. Think antique shops, charity shops and more, 

Plus ways to declutter, lift your mood and find beautiful storage solutions. And we'll share ideas on taking your interior style outside. Finally, our makeover memos could give you a boost to create a fresh new look. Please get to ask a huge favor. If you've enjoyed this podcast, do tell your friends and share the podcast link on your socials. It would mean a great deal to start growing this little idea into something a bit bigger. 

And a final word, if you've watched this video as well as just listened to it, please do excuse my hair being up one minute and down the next. The editing process is like trying to drive a car without having any lessons. It's been a bit long and painful, but I'm learning. So thanks so much for bearing with me. I'll see you next time.