Ask The Experts
Ask The Expert: Bedroom Design with Minnie Kemp
We spoke to Minnie Kemp, Interior Designer at Firmdale Hotels, to learn about her process of designing unique bedrooms, full of character and lively prints and patterns.
Design Your Bedroom with Minnie Kemp
Meet Minnie Kemp, an acclaimed interior designer and Design Director at the Firmdale Hotel Group. We spoke to Minnie about her top tips for creating unique and individual bedrooms full of character and personality.
What is the most important aspect for you to consider first when designing a bedroom?
Will it be an antique wooden sleigh bed perhaps embellished with Illustrations? Could it be a bobbin bed in a natural oak finish? Maybe you want it to be low on the ground and built-in? What about a four-poster with all the trimmings? One thing for sure is that a bedroom is never complete without an oversized headboard as its main feature!
What country or style inspires you most for your bedroom interiors?
I love a bedroom with a big fluffy cloud bed with a romantic tester above, elaborated with two fabrics—a small repeat or a stripe for the inside paired with something a bit more flamboyant on the outside.
Bedside lights are very important for any before-bed readers, as well as old quilts and antique textile bed throws for a unique touch. I usually go for quite calm walls but use patterned curtains and oversized headboards for maximum effect. I’m always barefoot, so I love soft wool-fitted carpets.
How many cushions are too many to scatter on a bed?
I love just two 60 X 40cm cushions on a bed.
When designing bedrooms for your hotels, is there anything you include to make guests feel more at home?
We create our own appliqué headboards that tell a story depicting the Tree of Life or falling leaves. In the past, we have commissioned artists such as Clio Peppiatt, Tash Hulse and Kumi to make bespoke one-of-a-kind headboards to make our guests smile. We have also introduced record players into the rooms with a curated vinyl selection.
"Little details like this make all the difference."
What is the design process/brief that you implement when deciding how to style bedrooms in Firmdale Hotels to create such a wonderful individualistic identity for each bedroom?
Find a fabric design that inspires you and build the scheme around it, we don’t overcomplicate things. There are so many incredible fabrics and antique textiles out there. Once you have the star piece, just build around it.
Where do you mainly source artwork and crafts from?
We love Kempton Market which is open on the first Tuesday of every month where you can find some real treasures!
Do you have a favourite colour scheme for bedrooms or a colour scheme you avoid?
I love organic natural colours like oatmeal combined with green and blue, essential when I’m trying to create an indoor jungle or wildflower meadow scheme.
I really don’t like strong dark colours on the walls. Some people often use a dark teal or “Marine Blue” in drawing rooms all over the walls, that’s just a nightmare for me! I crave fresh and light for a bedroom.
Do you subscribe to any particular rules when pairing patterns and prints?
There are rules and the one that most people struggle with is scale. To achieve balance in a room, the scale of the furniture, the layout and the patterns must be in harmony. This is something I have found you either have or you don’t. I feel like in the future this will be the thing that differentiates between the human touch and the AI touch.
Is there a particular Penny Morrison Fabric / Wallpaper / Accessory that you have used in previous schemes which you loved and if so, why?
We love the Zanzibar pattern! The Slipper Chair in Zanzibar Raspberry is our favourite and we cannot wait to use it!!
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