Claire Garner Interview
Claire Garner is a spellbindingly brilliant designer; one that is passionate about creating beautiful homes that reflect the personality and lifestyle of her clients.
Approachable and warm, Claire offers a personal and professional approach, ensuring that every project is seamlessly designed and managed from concept to completion.
No detail is left unconsidered, no space is too large, as the Claire Garner Interiors team work from their Design Studio on projects including both residential and commercial properties across the Home Counties, London and further afield.
We’ve long admired Claire’s beautiful work and see a great deal of synergy between her design and the Hudson Home aesthetic, so it’s a delight to be able to introduce you to her here.
Introduce yourself and what you do
I’m Claire, founder of Claire Garner Interiors. We are an Interior Design studio based in Aldbury, Hertfordshire. We love to create homes for our clients that are a joy to live in.
Is this what you always saw yourself doing?
Yes! I was the cliched little girl who spent hours dragging my bedroom furniture around the room and asking me parents to let me redecorate again and again. I did my first work experience with an interior designer when I was 15 and I was hooked.
You’re a keen interiors lover, how would you describe your design style?
Classic, contemporary, with a rustic feel, we love to bring in natural materials wherever possible.
Has your design style changed over the years?
Absolutely. I think as a designer you must always be looking forward and growing. If I look back at my first projects they are so different to the work we do now, but I would say I can recognise general principles that I still follow when designing today.
How have you brought life and your own style into your home?
We moved into our home during the second lockdown during Covid and I was expecting our second son. We bought a new build as it really ticked all the boxes for our families needs in terms of space and location. But new builds can be be quite lacking in character (not all, but most!), so the first thing we did was install natural wooden floors, added a chimney breast and wood burner to our living room, and had built in cabinetry built into our main living areas. These additions have really helped add character to our home. A character property is on my wish list for the future, but I’m enjoying and embracing where we are now.
What are your biggest interior style principles?
Space planning is key, it is so important to get the bones of the room nailed early on when designing.
I like to create balance in a room with both lighting and colour; carefully placing lighting to achieve an even and gentle glow, introducing colour in a way that ties the room together.
Where do you find your inspiration?
I rarely find the time to sit down with a magazine, so for me these days a lot of my inspiration comes from the digital world. Most designers have an instagram account and I could spend hours bingeing all of their incredible designs. I have also made some wonderful friendships with some of these designers on the platform.
What’s your trend prediction for interiors over the next year?
This is a tricky one for me as we really try to avoid being trend led, striving for classic, timeless design that won’t date. We certainly don’t look to trends to change our own personal style. However, there are trends that arrive and we adore because they naturally fit into our aesthetic. I’m often asked if panelling is going out of fashion any time soon, and I would say no, because it is so classic.
Looking to the future, we are becoming much more aware of the ecological impact of design and so the focus on sustainability will only continue to grow.
What are your favourite/most treasured interiors pieces?
As we have two young boys, a dog and two cats, we haven’t invested heavily in to treasured pieces for our home just yet. That being said, one of the first things we bought for this home was a large dining table that we have in our open plan kitchen, dining & living space. We wanted a really large table that could fit lots of people around it, so we could host friends and family. I think so far the most we’ve squeezed around is 12.
What is your go-to podcast?
The Interior Collective - an American series, with amazing advice for any Interior Design business owner given by a different guest each episode. I binge listened to them all within a week or so of discovering it.
What are you reading at the moment?
I am totally converted to audio books as I can listen to them when driving around or putting away laundry. At the moment I’m listening to Steven Bartlett’s ‘Happy, Sexy Millionaire’. In the book he talks about ways to live a truly fulfilled life, a life full of the love and the success you deserve. I love a self help book!
What current Hudson Home product do you love?
I’ve got my eye on your gorgeous large Abrama Bench in Natural - it would be perfect in the styling room of our new studio to style pieces on.
Name 3 Hudson Home products you would potentially feature in an upcoming project.
- Bluff Bay I Art Print (I adore your entire art work collection!)
What can’t you live without (completely non interiors related!) fun rather than serious!
- Bit of guilty pleasure this one, but complete trash TV. I find it hard to switch my brain off from work so watching First Dates, Married At First Sight & Love Island give me a chance to do so! They’re all shows based around love, so I’m not sure what that says about me!
What's next for you?
Over the past 18 months we’ve been working towards a very exciting next step for us as a business. We are moving into a new studio, which is a barn that is currently being renovated - we are due to move in in January 2023.
We have designed every inch of the barn, from the placement of walls to specification of all FF&E and we are lucky enough to be showcasing some amazing brands in the barn to show off to our clients and our lovely followers on social.
We are also now working with a videographer to introduce us as a company, document our move into the Barn and share our projects with our followers and potential new clients. This will also be launching early 2023, so next year is set to be a busy one for us already!
You can find Claire Garner here:
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