COULD YOU BE THE CONCEPT FOR LIVING INTERIOR DESIGNER OF THE YEAR?
Ashley Interiors talk about their experience at the Concept For Living Design Awards Show
After initially reading about the Interior Design Awards in Concept for Living and only half-heartedly thinking about entering, Matthew and Simon of Ashley Interiors are pleased with how their interior design business has developed as a result of their involvement. “At the time”, said Matthew, “We were only playing at interior design, because of our other business commitments.” What they wanted to do with design was to be “talented busy” getting involved with structural interior design and not just, colour, carpets and curtains busy as Matthew calls it. Taking a 3mx3m room-set (which is really an empty space) gave Matthew and Simon the opportunity to be more constructive and show off some of their design skills.

Although they thought the size of the room-set was too restrictive, they both agreed that it made them think more about what they were going to do within the space, Matthew explained that: “If the space was bigger it would have been too easy. The idea is that you design a concept of a room, not a full room. In utilising a small space what you do is allow it to make a statement in itself.”

Inspiration can come in all shapes and forms; for Matthew and Simon it came in table form while out looking for furniture for a client. Once they’d had the table customised and designed the room-set, their next stage was to actually create the room at our exhibition. According to Matthew, this was a daunting prospect but once they started implementing their ideas and saw them coming together they enjoyed it.