The interiors of Max Rollitt's new Hampshire showroom are as inspiring as any of his houses

When it comes to beautiful interiors, the shops and showrooms of our favourite designers and dealers can be a surprisingly powerful source of inspiration, representing the undiluted vision of the creatives behind them. Here there are no unfortunate demands of clients to be satisfied, and none of the jumble of family life getting in the way as it would in a true domestic space. Max Rollitt's showroom at his Hampshire base at Yavington Farm, recently redesigned into a clever series of art- and antique-filled rooms, is one such place.

Max moved to the house with his family in 2009, having previously lived in Winchester, where he and his wife also grew up. With a number of farm buildings on the site, the intention was always to develop them so that Max's antiques business and his wife Jane's movement therapy practice could have homes there too. He completed the first iteration of Yavington Barn in 2014, with designated office space and a full-height showroom. “The main room gave us an amazing amount of space to play with,” he explains, “but, as is often the case, being given a blank canvas is quite tricky. It was too large a scale to contextualise things realistically for a domestic setting. The shift in mindset, as a result, has been from creating space to creating context.”

In the time since the Rollitts bought the farm, his reputation as a decorator–a world he initially entered in 2006–has grown immensely. In a world where it's now quite rare for creatives to do one thing only, Max was in need of a showroom that could better work for all three strands of his the business – antiques, his bespoke range of furniture, and interior design. The rise and rise of Instagram as a medium for selling antiques and growing a brand also drove a need for somewhere to create content ("Instagram, we’re looking at you," he says). Finally, with a client base that comes from all over the world, Max wanted to create a truly inviting space for people to visit.

The idea for the new space revolved around a series of realistic room-like settings, carved out of the vast open space of the barn. “It was about being able to see both our antiques and the bespoke range amid other pieces of furniture to give a sense of scale and vision," says Max. "Each of the rooms feels like it has its own identity already, but the idea is that we’ll continue to redecorate and redesign them so there’s always something new to see.” 

Read More

The best auction houses for antique finds, according to nine interior designers

The space has all of the hallmarks of a Max Rollitt interior: marvellous antiques, of course, cleverly arranged; rich colours and a judicious use of patterned fabrics; and beautiful architectural and decorative details to give the new space the air of a distinguished, yet comfortable country house. The Drawing Room, with walls in Edward Bulmer's blue-green ‘Aquatic’ paint, has a period – and functioning – fireplace, as well as a set of Georgian Gothic windows sourced by Max three years ago. Generous floorboards throughout, as well as a charming checkerboard floor in the hall, arched doorways, and wall panelling in the Panelled Room all help to do away any sense that this is in fact a barn. 

It is particularly impressive that the work was all completed through a series of lockdowns, the new rooms built, as Max explains “ by a one-man band with an admirable can-do attitude!" As with any building work, it always takes longer than anticipated – but overall I’m just incredibly proud of everything we’ve achieved," he says. “It’s been lovely to watch how people take in the new space – they tend to do an initial recce of each room, and then want to go back around a second time to make sure they’ve taken everything in! We have one room – the Corbett Room – that’s our ode to a traditional antiques shop, so that’s a particularly fun one to end up in.”