House Guest by Country & Town House | Interior Designer Interviews

This week Carole sits down with Sandrine Zhang Ferron, the founder and CEO of Vinterior, as the online marketplace celebrates 10 years of selling beautiful pre-loved furniture.
‘I think that it’s important that things are beautiful and to be in beautiful places,’ says Sandrine. Sandrine values beauty so dearly, in fact, that she was inspired to quit her successful finance career when she found herself struggling to source the perfect Poul Volther chair to match the yellow of her cat’s eyes. Frustrated with the inefficiency of the vintage furniture market, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Motivated by her desire for a better pre-loved shopping experience, she taught herself to code – and so Vinterior was born. Tune in for more.

Fiona Barratt Campbell's 'industrial meets superluxe' design philosophy sets her apart and has earned her some impressive projects, including The Powerhouse Chelsea Waterfront – formerly the Lots Road power station which once powered the London Underground network. I met up with her in one of the penthouses to talk design, work-life, her love of rugged texture and natural stone and why everything she does has to have integrity. Tune in for more

'Young Sainsbury is a cheeky little sausage with the most wonderful eye for detail. His furniture is extraordinary', says his client Sir Rod Stewart. 
Meeting in Guy Goodfellow's Chelsea atelier, this week Carole Annett sits down with the design world's best-kept secret: Jonathan Sainsbury. Founded in 1918, his eponymous family-run business has a reputation for creating some of the finest furniture in the world, often (though, as he stresses, not always) inspired by classical interiors of the 18th- and 19th-centuries. The key to his success? Quality. As he tells Carole: 'I only trade off my quality. I don't trade off price. I don't trade off being the quickest in the world. I don't trade off any of that. I only trade off people saying "If you want the best job then go and see Jonny and he'll sort it out for you".'

This week Carole sat down with celebrated chef Jason Atherton to chat about life, food, Michelin stars and his collaboration with luxury kitchen design company Smallbone. As a young boy growing up in Skegness, working in a restaurant gave Jason discipline, which along with a lifelong passion for fresh seasonal ingredients, has shaped his life. He has been married for 22 years with three daughters and they all know how to cook pasta from scratch. Tune in to hear more about fine dining, the simple way to upscale supermarket tomato purée and how to design a perfect kitchen.

Coco Chanel once said: 'Luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury' – words that perfectly encompass the philosophy of this week's House Guest, Alua Kul, of Lumi Interiors. 'Practicality and functionality are the most important aspects of interior design,' she says. Tune in to hear more about how she fell in love with interior design and used her inquisitive mind and business acumen to set up a successful business practice which bridges London and Dubai.