My design philosophy and why a beautiful home needs to do more than just look good.

I’m a strong advocate for the perfectly imperfect. Rather than striving for pristine and all matching, I love the character that comes from things that have been used, loved and lived with – whether by my clients or by someone whose story we’ll never know.

That might sound strange coming from an interior designer. Surely, interior design is about creating something new?

I don’t think it has to be. Often, it’s the imperfections – the patina, the wear, the signs of a life lived – that give a beautiful home its character.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with a show home. But they’re designed to sell an aspirational version of life. Not necessarily to cope with the reality of actually living it.

You know the sort of interiors I mean. Everything is immaculate. The cushions are perfectly plumped. The coffee-table books are artfully arranged. There’s a strategically placed vase containing three sculptural branches and not a charging cable, half-read paperback or clashing family photo in sight.

It looks lovely.

But whose home is it?

Beauty lies in the imperfections. 

One of the things I’m most interested in when I start working with a client is what’s already there.

Not just the furniture, but the stories behind those pieces.

The painting you bought on holiday 15 years ago. The slightly eccentric chair inherited from your grandmother. The collection that has somehow grown without you ever consciously deciding to start one. The old pine table covered in marks from family life.

These are often the things that give me the beginnings of a design.

Because my job isn’t to sweep all of that away and replace it with a perfectly coordinated collection of new things.

It’s to work out what should definitely stay, what needs to change and what we can introduce to make the whole thing sing.

Your home doesn’t need a ‘look’

I’m not interested in giving every client my version of the perfect interior. And I certainly don’t want you to be able to scroll through Instagram and identify one of my projects because every house has the same sofa, paint palette and pendant light.

Good interior design should start with the people who live there.

How do you use the room?

Where does everyone naturally congregate?

Do you regularly have ten people around your kitchen table or would that be your idea of hell?

Are you somebody who likes everything hidden behind cupboard doors, or do you love being surrounded by books, pictures and the things you’ve collected?

What do you already own that you genuinely love?

And, importantly, how do you want your home to feel?

Those questions are far more useful to me than asking which interiors trend you currently like.

The best homes are collected, not bought in one go

Buying everything from the same shop or following one particular aesthetic can create an instantly polished room, but it can also make it feel strangely anonymous and utterly dull.

Character is revealed in contrast

An antique chest next to a contemporary lamp. Beautiful new upholstery on a chair that’s been in the family for decades. A smart bespoke bookcase filled with dog-eared paperbacks. A piece of art commissioned from a local artist hanging alongside something picked up for £20 at a flea market.

Old and new can quite happily rub shoulders.

In fact, I think homes are usually more interesting when they do.

Bespoke isn’t about making everything expensive

I love incorporating bespoke elements into my projects, but never for the sake of having something that’s been custom made.

For me, the value is in creating something that solves a problem particularly well.

It might be a window seat that turns an awkward corner into somewhere everybody wants to sit. A run of cabinetry designed around exactly what a family needs to store. A kitchen layout shaped around how the owners actually cook. Or shelving designed specifically for the books, artwork and objects they’ve collected over the years.

Sometimes the best design decision is commissioning something new. Sometimes it’s keeping something old. Knowing the difference is important.

Curious about the pros and cons of investing in custom made joinery? Discover more here.

Because creating a home with character isn’t about spending money everywhere. It’s about knowing where it will make the biggest improvement to your lives.

Character is more than just decoration

This becomes particularly important when renovating.

Before thinking about paint colours, cushions and curtains, I’m looking at the bones of the house.

What character does it already have? What has been lost over the years? What should we preserve? And where can we introduce detail that feels as though it genuinely belongs?

That might mean restoring an original feature rather than ripping it out, introducing well-proportioned joinery, improving the lighting, reconsidering a doorway or creating architectural detail where a room currently feels flat.

These decisions aren’t always the ones that shout the loudest when a project is finished.

But they’re often the reason the room feels right.

I want your home to still feel like yours in ten years

Trends aren’t inherently bad. Interiors have always evolved, and there will inevitably be colours, materials and ideas that suddenly feel exciting again.

The problem comes when trends become the starting point rather than inspiration.

If we design an entire home around what happens to be popular now, there’s a fairly good chance it will start feeling dated when the internet moves on to the next thing.

I’d rather create a strong foundation and then allow your home to evolve naturally.

Furniture can move. Art collections grow. Children leave home. New things arrive. Old things become more precious. A room that once needed to accommodate toys may now need to accommodate teenagers or older members of the family.

Life changes.

A good home should be able to change with it.

Perfection is overrated

Some of the most memorable homes I’ve been in aren’t the most immaculate.

They’re the ones where you want to linger.

There’s something interesting on the wall. Books piled somewhere unexpected. An antique piece you want to know the story behind. A slightly surprising colour combination that somehow works brilliantly.

You get a sense of the people who live there.

That’s what I’m trying to create for my clients.

Not a showroom. Not a house designed for photographs. And certainly not a carbon copy of whatever happens to be filling our Instagram feeds this year.

A beautiful, characterful home that reflects the people who live in it.

Because the best compliment I can receive isn’t, “This looks like a Kate Parslow Interiors house.”

It’s, “This feels completely like us.”

If you are beginning to think about a renovation or a larger redecoration project and want to talk through your plans, get in touch to talk with me.

Kate x