Designer Spotlight

London Designer Sophie Ashby Starts with the Art

Sophie Ashby

Still in her 20s, South African–born, London-based decorator Sophie Ashby is already capturing the attention of the design world. Top: In a project in Capestang, France, 1960s Danish lounge chairs by Aksel Bender Madsen for Bovenkamp face an L-shaped sofa and a bespoke walnut-inlaid oak coffee table by the designer’s own Studio Ashby. All photos by Phillip Durrant

No one wants the bland option anymore,” Sophie Ashby says confidently. “It’s a bit like the food revolution in London, it’s a whole new world. I think interior design is having a similar mini-revolution.”

The 28-year-old Ashby is playing a part in that revolution with her strong, self-assured style, characterized by a judicious use of color, a fine eye for form and proportion and a love of bold artwork. About two years ago, at just 25, she started Studio Ashby with a single client. Today, she employs 11 people and is working on projects as varied as a rambling country house in Somerset, England; a Nigerian restaurant in London; and a boutique hotel in the Winelands north of Cape Town, South Africa.

Ashby, who has a South African mother and a British father, grew up in both countries and attributes her career choice, at least in part, to her peripatetic childhood. “We lived in so many different kinds of homes — a Cape Dutch farmhouse in South Africa, an Edwardian house in London, a very contemporary place with wood and glass in Devon,” she says. “My parents were always doing up their houses, and I became interested both in real estate and renovation, although I was also totally obsessed with art growing up, to the great detriment of my other subjects!”

For a while, Ashby thought she would be an artist, but she made the pragmatic decision to pursue design because she felt she had a better chance of success in the trade. “I was put off by the idea of being penniless and struggling, which of course a true artist would not be,” she says with a laugh. “By the time I was eighteen, I had come to the conclusion that interior design was the perfect combination of what I loved.”

For the open kitchen and dining room of a home in Cleveland Court Mews, in the St. James’s neighborhood of London, Ashby designed a dining table with a top of black fossil marble an a base of powder-coated steel, surrounding it with vintage chairs in the style of Giò Ponti. Various illuminated disks from Vibia form a sort of chandelier.

One wall of the home’s combined kitchen and dining room features a pair of Tim Hall photos of Skadar Lake, on the border between Albania and Montenegro. Ashby designed the bench, covering it with Rubelli mohair, while the bar stools come from Thomas Hayes Gallery, in New York. They’re upholstered in Holland & Sherry’s Trocadero Noir fabric.

A wall hanging found in Cape Town forms a focal point in the Cleveland Court Mews house’s media room. The upholstered chair and bookshelf are by Studio Ashby.

The home’s light and lovely reception room has an all-ivory color scheme, punctuated only by Anna van der Ploeg’s painting Noise brings the promise of reinforcements. Toward the back at left is a vintage Harry Bertoia chair re-covered in cream-colored wool. The other furnishings are new (the sofa) and some are of Ashby’s own designs (the coffee table).

On the stair landing, a Patrick Ireland mirror hangs over a Jody Kooman chair. The mobile is by Pamono.

 

A gallery wall in the reception room displays contemporary works by Michael Lentz, Carlos San Millan, Mila Plaickner, Shelton Walsmith, Larroque Guillaume and Christopher Mudgett.

A pair of walnut Milo Baughman for Dillingham nightstands from Palm Spring, California’s Flow Modern and a pair of large brass and opal wall lights from Dutch dealer Morentz flank a bed designed by Ashby. The framed botanicals are by Matilda Goad.

 

Capestang, France

In the Capestang home’s dining room, Giopato & Coombes’s Bolle chandeliers hang over a zinc and black-metal dining table Ashby designed.

Ashby studied art history at Leeds University, then went to Parsons School of Design in New York for a summer course in interior design. After moving back to England, she took a position with Victoria Fairfax, a grande dame of the London design scene, where young Ashby found herself working on the most impressive country houses, French châteaux and European lakeside villas. “I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was a real apprenticeship with antiques and an Old World tradition,” Ashby says. “Victoria was incredibly knowledgeable about antiques and rugs and had the best color sense of anyone I’ve come across.”

After two years with Fairfax, Ashby moved on to a multidisciplinary creative agency, where she started an interior design department. “They were working quite a bit with interiors projects, and they needed someone to dress the spaces,” she explains. “So at age twenty-three, I was required to have a style and make decisions. They gave me a lot of freedom, and that was really formative in developing my own tastes. Although, actually, it was pretty clear to me from the start what my taste was and what I felt was important.”

Ashby’s charm and confidence clearly convinced clients of her potential from the outset. After heading her own team at the agency for two years, she was asked by a real estate developer to dress a large townhouse just off Trafalgar Square and decided to step out on her own. Thus Studio Ashby was born, with Ashby working alone from a café. “I felt that job, managed carefully, could support me for a year,” she says. “But three weeks later, I got another, and it has carried on like that. I never projected anything like it. It has been a shock to me every step of the way.”

The Studio Ashby’s style is “a little different,” she explains. “It’s not a London luxe look. I don’t like things too perfectly coordinated, and I am interested in quirky shapes and objects. Antiques are twenty to thirty percent of every project, because you can get so much more interest into a room if you look to the past.”


“Antiques are twenty to thirty percent of every project, because you can get so much more interest into a room if you look to the past.”


A photograph by David Ryle and a painting by Sandra Beccerelli form the backdrop for the living and dining areas of an apartment in London’s Soho. The single-board coffee table is by Jeremy Pitts, while Tobia Scarpa‘s Monk chairs for Molteni by Pamono sit around a dining table that Ashby created.

Elsewhere in the Soho apartment, an oak A-frame chair stands in front of a bespoke built-in desk and shelving (left), and Milla Eastwood’s Back Into The Cave Where My Spirit Lives hangs above a daybed.

In the living room of another London apartment, a circa 1950 Ib Kofod-Larsen easy chair from Galerie Gaudium keeps company with a bespoke curved couch from the Sofa & Chair Company and a sliding wall-art panel by Ashby.

Wall lamps from Lambert & Fils and tables by Francesco Meda sit on either side of a bed in the second London apartment. Ashby found the framed palettes at a London antiques market.

A brass Jumo table lamp by Eileen Gray stands on a pippy elm and black-stained oak desk and shelving unit that Ashby designed for the apartment.

 

Caption needed

In the Soho apartment, a print by Natasha Russell hangs above an Uso Interno armchair.

A few core values are embodied in all her projects, Ashby says. She dislikes anything that is reproduced, copied or fake and loves to highlight the natural beauty of materials like wood, marble and leather. “Particularly with more contemporary pieces, we aim for simplicity, to create something simply beautiful,” she says. “The drama comes from the antiques. The way I explain it is that, if I need a dining-room chair, Giò Ponti has designed something much nicer than I could.”

For Ashby, who is a young patron of the Royal Academy of Arts and a dedicated frequenter of galleries, the crux of any project, and the start of the design process, is art. “It’s a lot to do with the palette,” she says, “but it’s also a window into the client’s tastes and world. If it’s a project from scratch where there is no art collection, I think of myself as the collector alongside the client. For me, it’s about having a real variety — different media and composition and structure and tone. I try hard for the art and furniture to be elegantly juxtaposed. and they are equally important to me when thinking about a room’s design.”

Ashby’s interiors tend to feature strong, clean lines and a palette of natural tones, with shots of color coming from artworks and objects. She likes to include African pieces and Aboriginal art — “perhaps it’s my South African upbringing, but I find the shapes and stories behind the paintings so beautiful” — but also to reflect the client’s tastes. “The interesting thing,” she admits, “is to know someone’s quirks and passions and to bring them to life.”

That said, Ashby adds, “I’m not the designer for everyone. So much is about the connection with the client. You have to trust your gut instinct at the first meeting. If it’s not a good fit, you should know and walk away. I only want to do work I believe in.”


Sophie Ashby’s Quick Picks on 1stdibs

Franco Albini for Knoll armchairs, 1950s, offered by 20th Century Interiors
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Franco Albini for Knoll armchairs, 1950s, offered by 20th Century Interiors

“This chair is one of my favorites. I love the shape of it, and this pair in particular have a lovely tone to the wood and great bold upholstery.”

Georges Braque gold Hecate cameo ring, 1960s, offered by Hecate
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Georges Braque gold Hecate cameo ring, 1960s, offered by Hecate

“I have a real thing for jewelry, the chunkier the better. I love this little ring — it has such character and personality.”

Pablo Picasso Yan Soleil pitcher, 1963, offered by Heather James Fine Art
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Pablo Picasso Yan Soleil pitcher, 1963, offered by Heather James Fine Art

“I dream of owning a Picasso ceramic, and this one is absolutely exquisite. Nothing could look more right on a big console table.”

Karl Springer and Charles Hollis Jones–style magazine rack, 1970s, offered by Parker's Mid-Century
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Karl Springer and Charles Hollis Jones–style magazine rack, 1970s, offered by Parker's Mid-Century

“I love Lucite and magazine racks, so this one is perfect.”

Rune Bruun Johansen coffee table, 2015, offered by the Apartment
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Rune Bruun Johansen coffee table, 2015, offered by the Apartment

“This table reminds me of a Brancusi plinth.”

Massimo Vignelli table, 1960s, offered by Gary Rubinstein Antiques
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Massimo Vignelli table, 1960s, offered by Gary Rubinstein Antiques

“I generally don’t like glass-topped tables, but this one is an old favorite.”

Le Corbusier <i>Modulor,</i> 1956, offered by Heather James Fine Art
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Le Corbusier Modulor, 1956, offered by Heather James Fine Art

“The forms and colors of this lithograph make it incredibly beautiful. Having something by Le Corbusier on my walls would make me very happy.”

Lynn Chadwick <i>Maquette III Jubilee III C24,</i> 1984, offered by Baker Sponder Gallery
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Lynn Chadwick Maquette III Jubilee III C24, 1984, offered by Baker Sponder Gallery

“I’m a huge fan of Lynn Chadwick’s work. These are stunning; I’ve seen them in real life, and they are really arresting and striking.”

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