Design Notes: Gabby Deeming

It's a very good bed for daydreaming

if you're a bit of a daydreamer.

[jazzy guitar and violin music]

I'm Gabby Deeming and this is my flat

in the middle of Bloomsbury, London.

I've lived here for six years

and the flat's owned by the Rugby School, it's a charity,

so I rent the flat from them.

Rented flat or not, it's time to commit to this place.

The flat existed already in my head as a decorated space.

It was just a case of, kind of, ordering the stuff.

I bought the quilt in India, in Jaipur,

a couple of years ago.

The colors in it, and the way it has

all these little tiny squares,

I think it feels like a painting.

I wallpapered the hallway

in a Japanese screen-printed wrapping paper

from a brilliant shop in Covent Garden

called Choosing Keeping,

and I just think the colors are perfect.

One day you can, sort of, look at all your things

and you think, How did you all get here?

Like, When did I choose you?

Where did you come from?

And then, funnily enough, I think painting it brown,

kind of, gave them all a reason to be here again.

It, kind of, gives a lovely ground

to some of the more natural colors.

So, this little corner was quite awkward

and I made it into this nice little library corner

using these white shelves

which were built for me by Jali.

This is one of the little chairs David Seyfried made

for our House & Garden popup shop a few years ago.

The big, fat chair behind, the Poirot,

is upholstered in a wool from Pierre Frey.

Sometimes I, like, watch telly here, get my delivery chips.

[Gabby gobbles and snuffles]

I don't really have a desk,

but if I was going to do some painting or drawing,

I usually sit in the window on the little table.

I started designing textiles a couple of years ago

when I took a two-month sabbatical to India.

So, these are some of the block prints

for my dress business, which is called Daydress.

If I'm feeling a bit under the weather,

I just, kind of, make myself a little textile nest,

a little fabric nest of beautiful quilts

and embroidered cushions and, yeah, I mean, I love it.

[jazzy guitar and violin music continues]

I bought this cupboard on eBay and it's really fantastic.

So, in the bottom half I just store dresses,

and in the top I just keep things I like.

I like to open the door and rearrange them

from time to time.

The pendant lights are from Petite Friture

which is a French company

and I feel like it grounds the prettiness a bit.

This piece of furniture is really useful.

It's a Swedish company called Superfront

who pimp IKEA carcasses, so it's really affordable.

It's amazing how much furniture

you can actually get into a space.

Also, I can hide all my shoes underneath it.

So, I wanted a pretty wallpaper for the bathroom.

The wallpaper I bought from Cole & Son.

It's a recoloring of a design,

a very famous old design they do, called Sweet Pea.

Sweet peas are my favorite flowers.

So, I did quite a lot in here.

I think bathrooms are quite fun for decorating

'cause you can accessorize them.

The table was made by Brenda Nassarian

and I asked her to decoupage this for me in sugar paper.

I like this print, which I bought it at TENT.

She's an artist called Sarah Fennel.

Love these little flowers.

I think what's lovely about the bed

is that it's, first of all, it's just a really good vehicle

for textiles, so I can surround myself.

The way the canopy works, it feels so self-contained,

a bit like a ship that's going to set sail with me in it,

which I love.

[jazzy guitar music]

The flat feels very representative

of where I am at the moment

and, I suppose, that's because I've, sort of,

just decorated it.

But the decorating is really just the walls

and wallpapers and things.

The things in it I've had for a really long time.

So, it, kind of, does tell the story of a longer journey.

It isn't just, I didn't just knock this up three months ago.

Delivery, random.

Can I have a name? Yeah, it's Gabby.

Okay. Thank you.

Ooh, Le Labo, [door slams] birthday present.

I mean, seriously, I was so excited to hear about this flat

and I think it was on a Wednesday

and I flew home from France the next day.

I came to see it on the Friday

and I moved in the following weekend.

It happened very quickly

and it was a total like, [speaks French language]

I was just like, me and this flat.

We were like, ugh, immediately.

It was love at first sight.

[jazzy guitar and violin music]