Our Designer of the Year Sophie Ashby on decorating her rented Georgian house | Design Notes

Decorating a rental has just been liberating because I didn't have to worry about the architectural framework of the property. I walked in the door when we came to have a look at it and I just couldn't believe my eyes that something like this was available to rent. This was the once home of Jocasta Innes. She lived here for about 30 years. She wrote lots of books and she wrote them here and she was a decorator, a cook, a maker and she bought this house as a complete wreck and ruin and over time slowly renovated it and we just love living here and you can feel the history. I was born in London. My mum is South African and my dad is English. It's hard to articulate how South Africa has influenced and inspired me. It's a love of kind of space and volume and scale. I like things to feel like they've got space to breathe. I had a lot of art and bought a lot more art. That's kind of, as usual with my philosophy of Start With The Art, that's kind of where I began. I'm quite impatient and go really fast and so I think things that I planned to go in one place ended up somewhere else but that's how I kind of like to do things. It's just about collecting things that I love and then finding a place for them to all layer in together. This is my office where I spend so much time, particularly during the pandemic. I was here every day, all day, late into the night but it was such a special gorgeous room to be in. I love being in here. This is a piece by Aniko Mosta. She's a young emerging South African artist. I bought this first and I pulled all of the colours out for the room. The joinery came in this black and yellow combination which at first I thought was quite hectic but actually dressed with all the books and objects and kind of brought to life through the furnishings. I really love it. These are our chest chairs from Sister which swivel as you can see and they are upholstered in an amazing flame-stitched Ferdini-Borghi fabric from Pierre Frey. The desk chair is a bit of a joke because my mother loves leopard print and it's a very marmite pattern. My clients generally speaking don't ever let me use leopard print and Charlie hates it too so for my own desk chair at my own desk I had my little leopard print moment. In the sitting room I wanted to start with this artwork. This was in our old flat and it had pride of place. It was the focal point of the room and I put it above the fireplace. I knew I wanted it to go there and then I extracted the yellow from his hat for the banana yellow sofa. Sustainability is something that I'm really passionate about and trying very hard to incorporate particularly in my own home where I had the freedom to experiment. This coffee table is by Dirk van der Kooij and it's actually made of recycled fridges. The rug as well is made of vintage key limbs and they've been patchworked together to kind of create a new design. I love kind of reusing refurbishing antiques you know most of the armchairs in the house are all vintage and have been recovered as well. This is Woolly the sheep and he is Rainbow's very best friend and pet and she's allowed to sit on him, braid his hair. Gaia also loves to mainly pull his hair out but he's a very willing participant. I love the informality of having the dining in the kitchen you know we're not very formal people and Charlie does most of the cooking. I mainly just lay the table. The kitchen was one of the things that just really sold the house for me. The amazing original brick flooring, the cabinetry, that run of cabinets is made of old chemistry lab Iroko tabletops. A Degorne screen in the kitchen is a pretty extravagant purchase but it's a west-facing room which is quite dark most of the time and so I really wanted something that was going to be golden and kind of reflect the light and give the room some real warmth and then the chairs I just chose the fabric based on the screen I kind of just pulled out these like rich tobacco tones and the golds and it's a Le Maniac kind of African design that I've always loved. This door leads to the pantry which is about the coolest thing to do with this house. We put all of our dry goods and machines and ugly things in there and it's just amazing extra storage. It's really messy in there. My husband Charlie Casely Hayford is a fashion designer. He's very stylish but luckily when I met him all he kind of came with was lots of suits, lots of shoes, tons of books, some sculptures and artworks. It wasn't like too complicated for me to incorporate all of those things and the things that he did have were exquisite and are some of my favourite things in the house. This is actually Charlie's wedding suit which is so beautiful and it's a fabric that he designed and had made especially for the big day. He was very hot in Portugal. I started with this artwork which is by Lakina Ogonbanwo who's a fashion photographer from Nigeria. It's from his Nigerian Bride series and I love the attitude and the colour and the vibrancy. I love the idea of kind of sleeping with this amazing woman above our head. I love the pinks from this photograph and so pulled them out and they trickle through with the fabrics and these canthiquilts and other artworks. This is Dada's Tiger Mountain fabric which is now iconic and just so cool. This is Rainbow's canopy bed which is basically what I always wanted as a kid and she now loves it and uses it as a stage and does puppet shows and hides and makes dens and it's actually been a huge success. This is Ian Mankin's Cotton Strike which is brilliant. I needed tons of fabric so it worked really well. Every room has a fireplace actually pretty much and this one had the internal pink tiles painted by Jocasta which is lovely. We didn't know what we were having boy or girls so I designed the room with that in mind. It's this lovely green colour called the Final Furlong from Little Green. It's a lovely fresh happy apple green. The vintage chair I had recovered in a spent stem fabric and we're actually very good friends me and this chair because this is where I nursed Gaia when she was born. The dressing room is definitely one of my favourite places in the house. It feels like the ultimate luxury and one I'm not sure I'll ever have again so I luxuriate in it. It all kind of started with this vintage kimono that I bought in Japan on my honeymoon. I just love the freshness and vibrancy and the palette and it's just so beautiful and everything in here has kind of taken on a bit of a Asian influence. I've got some photographs by Salva Lopez, one of Japan, one of Korea and then kind of Chinese chinoiserie fabrics. These are actually Ikea wardrobes which I had spray painted in a beautiful colour called Pollen by Atelier Ellis. I just feel like the glamness of those mixed with Ikea is just the perfect balance. We spend so much time in here as a family. Bath time for the kids, the washing machine and stuff is in here and I really wanted it to feel like a room rather than a bathroom because it's so big that yeah I decided to just put furniture and artwork in here basically. This is a family home for me, Charlie, Gaia, Rainbow. Things get messed up, things get stained and I don't really care. I think it's just about creating a very relaxed, easy vibe. When we moved into this house I just had no idea what was coming down the tracks. We've had a baby here, I started United in Design from my desk here, I started Sister here. It's been a place that's worked so hard for us and just been the most amazing backdrop for us to kind of live our lives.