So today is a very special day! We are here at
Charlotte Gaisford's house. Yeah. And so many of you because we have to say - yes - we got the
antique slipper chairs in our in our attic room and we got them and we needed to reupholster
them. Hmm, hmm. And someone suggested try Charlotte Gaisford's fabrics -
that's very kind - they are amazing. Yeah. And we checked them and became obsessed. And
this is the woman who designs all the fabrics and wallpaper. Thank you so much. Oh no, it's great.
Well, I mean I really enjoy doing it. I'm really glad they looked so gorgeous. I mean because I
think someone told me that you'd done them so you have to watch these this lovely couple from
Germany. Well, thank you so much for having us. Where are we here? So this is - this is the
drawing room in here. So this is the drawing in which I did I actually repainted in lockdown.
And I just painted it green - wonderful - which is Invisible Green um, color which is amazing.
It goes so well with antiques and - yes - old stuff and goldy things. Yes. Yu know it's
just a really warm green. I just and and the fireplace - yeah - just, I don't
know, it just brings it to perfection. I mean we got that from an antique shop. It cost
me a hundred pounds. Did you? There was an auction and it was completely falling apart. And we got
it and it was just and I just literally painted it. And that's all I've done. Oh I see. And then
we put the fire in and then the and then it was raised up a bit. The builder raised it up so it
feels sort of bigger than it actually is. And I just put like bits and pieces, I got that mirror
that cocoa mirror up there and it's just sort of basically, it's a really well used room this. Yes.
I mean it gets used, it's fun because it feels, I wanted it in a way to remind me of a sort of
comfortable in a way it's a bit like Granny's drawing room because because I used to have a
grandmother that used to live in London. Yeah. And she lived in like South Kensington. She had
this really nice drawing room and it was really comfortable, with really comfortable sofas. And
then when people come for dinner, they'll always come here and they have massive everybody ends up
having a massive drinks party. And then when they come to actually sit and eat the food before they
don't notice what they're eating because they've had too many drinks. This is usually the case. And
this is the fabric we have we have as well. Yeah, that's Betty. Betty yeah. Because I named that
collection after the dogs. Yes. That was named after Betty and that's Rosie. So you've got
Rosie. Yes. By the way we have Rosie here. Yeah, that's Rosie. The fabric was named after Rosie.
She've very friendly. Betty is next door. That's Rosie. Yes. Yes, I read that - yeah -
that you name your fabrics - it just makes it easy to remember. Oh that's true. Because
when you send it to the printers as well, they have to remember the name of the
fabric and it just if I name it in some strange name - yes - then everyone gets
confused so I just make it really simple to remember. Isn't this the Rosie as well?
Yes, it's the other way around, it's called open red as opposed to red. So we have that for
our slipper chairs. You've got the red. Yes but that this is the red the other way around. Yeah.
That's so beautiful. Yeah. And look how nice this goes with the - yeah that blue the blue pom-poms.
Yes. It works really well. Oh absolutely. Yes. Do you actually have - yeah - a favourite favourite
fabric? Not really. It's so difficult. I think it depends I sort of go, I sometimes do a fabric and
then I I really like it and then I decided to go on something else and I said I never have I'm
not very good at favourites. Yes. You know but I'm always doing you know I'm always sort of
like redesigning trying things out and stuff. You know so I don't really have a particular
favourite. I do like the I love the curtains. It works really well in here. And I think it's
because it's it's light it's a light fabric against a dark background and it's just that's
what I really like rather than having a dar, I think a dark fabric in a curtain can look a
bit heavy. The front door -yeah - used to be in the middle here because it used to be it used to
have a sloping roof coming down but then what we did was we did this is called a hip roof so we
hipped the roof into the big roof and this made a bigger room than was here before. Okay. So then
now we just have we have this as an entrance hall, we have the drinks they have the drinks cupboard
over here. So when you come over here - I I must admit we actually stole the idea - yeah, yeah
- Jörg having a bar. You've got to have a good drinks bit so this is the drinks are in here. Oh
that's gorgeous. So we just have all so you come in have a drink and then but it's hidden away so
it's not like a bar. Yeah. I mean I think you can either go for it and have a have a really sort
of vulgar bar on the corner but I quite like it it was like a sort of retro, bamboo. You know
that they have like this miniature little bars and you can really make an issue and make a thing
of it - yes - but we just have this sideboard and then we just have the drinks in here. Yes. And
then we just do drinks and have a drink and then it's - and I I remember when you did Instagram
Stories about this room. Yes. I saw this - oh yes, yes - and spent hours - yeah, trying to find
something. Yes, yeah. I got these lamp bases and I just painted them red. Literally just painted
them red and they. And they made a real you know they made a real difference - oh yes - you know
because I always believe in having big lighting, big things you know rather than like little light
make a big lighting I think is really important. When we had Covid and I was meant to do this um,
you know you might have a stand in London. I was and I had to collect everything together and
I thought it could be cancelled at any time. Yeah. So what I did was I decorated this room as
well so that if it was cancelled everything that I've made or had to get made - yeah - I could
put back into the house. Yes, yeah. So these are two spare beds which I had already and I just
brought them down to London. So everything in here is um, is all what I had in my stand at Chelsea.
Yes, I love that. Because it was going to be it could have all gone wrong. It could have
been cancelled and I'd had all this stuff made - I really love that - so that's why I put
I call this my Chelsea Room now. But I've sort of inherited all the bits and pieces and it's
all there sort of lives and my ancestors lives and you know everything which I quite I you know I
like that you know it makes you feel comfortable. Yeah. It's just old - memories - your memories you
know I like that. Me too. You know the oldness. I just - you know - I just love combining - yes
- things like that and it looks so warm. Yeah, yeah. And I try and do things like I try and do it
something symmetrical so you make it so it's like a little vignette you know so you can sort of see
you know like it's sort of slightly symmetrical but you sort of styled it - yeah - you know so
it's sort of like its own little decoration. Yeah. But the thing about I find with wallpapers
it gives a room an atmosphere. Yes. And it also it decorates the room - yes - you know decorates
the whole room, brings it together. I think it totally changes a room. Yeah. It fills it
in. And I remember you saying - yeah - like I mean you have a lot of patterns -yeah - you
don't have really plain fabrics, do you? Well, no. I do sometimes do I've got a plain
I sometimes mix in with the plain. Yeah, yeah. But I find it's like textures are really
important so that's a text that's a warm texture. Things like the pom-poms will give you a texture.
Yes. I just seeing this all the patterns and it looks so beautiful together. Yeah and then you
know if you don't want to have all the cushions you can take what that cushion away and just have
one cushion. Yeah. But I think the thing is you've got to think of it's it's to do with scales. Yeah.
And also if you think I've only used two colours. I've used green, I've used red but then I've got
different patterns within those colours. So that's what makes it feel - yeah - simple. Whereas
if I had lots of different colours and lots of different patterns and it would look a mess
- yeah - but because I keep the colour palette simple - yeah- that's what makes it. And and
also the scales. You've got small scale, medium scale - yes - and they're sort of help, they're
not fighting against each other. Yes, that's true. See what I mean? That's true yeah. And that's the
thing with small patterns are like a neutral and then you can put a bigger pattern in front of it.
It looks absolutely amazing together. Yeah. Market a second hand shop in Hexham and I just liked the
shape of it - yeah - and then I had it covered in and then I put the red - that's beautiful -which
makes it, brings it up more and shows the gold more but it's not, the thing about it is you think
oh my goodness I'm going to put red with the green but actually - yeah - it's a little bit of it
goes a long way. The majority of it is green. It just highlights it and it shows the green better.
That's true and in combination - yes - beautiful. That's another cushion. Again that's a sort
of it's the knot pattern but it's a neutral but they sort of go together because
they're different types of patterns. So this is your guest or one - one of them yeah
yeah yeah - one of your guest bedrooms which is so beautiful. Well, I sort of decorated it. I
did all the wallpapering myself - yes - and um, and it was a combination of lots of stuff
that I had. Like I had the spare wallpaper and I had the spare the head it started with
the headboards because they have moved from another room so I sort of coordinated it with
the headboards. Yes. But I wanted to sort of break it up a bit and make it and it's quite
a sweet little room. It's like the last spare room so it's not it's like when we're got lots
of people and they can come in here. And I had some of this spare fabric so I just brought it all
together. So it was what I had in hand and that's how I've created it. So it was you you know start
having a starting point which is the headboards and then I sort of worked out what else I
needed. And that's how I worked out this room. What really fascinated me when
I watched it - yeah - you put it on Instagram Stories, right? Yes, I did yes. Yes.
Like the border, this is a trimming. It's a trimming. The thing is I was desperate to put
a picture rail up - yes - but I couldn't get a joiner - okay - because it's important well,
I do know one but I couldn't he couldn't come or something happened. Anyway, so I thought I
would get this trim this trimming and I just put it around to make it break it up and actually it
worked really well. Yes, it's brilliant. You know, when like seeing this - yeah - I think so many
people would shy away - yes, yes - from combining two wallpapers Yes. This looks so nice. Yeah
but it was just again, it's the different scales and the different sort of connected through the
colour. Yes. You know. I think it's so cosy. No, it's great. It's worked out really well.
Beautiful. You know but it's just a sort of it's just literally little spare bedroom so
it's it's not you know this there isn't anything any hanging space or anything. It's basically got
all the windows which are very low level because where they sort of put the straw out you know
so - yeah - and we literally just we just um, it was used to be able to get to it from below. So
behind there is a bit of a void where there used to go up some stairs. And then you could come in
through here. But you always had this beam across so it was always going you would have to sort of
stand underneath the beam. And it always used to be a storeroom. Yeah. So anyway, we decided it was
absolute derelict so we've made it into a bedroom. So it's worked really well. It's beautiful. So
then now what we do is we have so I've got my lamps which I got from Chelsea from somebody
called, they are called Kingatu and I just thought they were great. I just love the gold -
yes - on them. Yeah. And anyway so I got these again. I had to get them and then I've used
them for us. And that's good. And I really, I I do love this wallpaper. Yeah, that's good.
That wallpaper's good. Yes. It's just a small, like a design and the curtains are always like
little and diddy, the little curtains so I've made them look a bit more interesting with the
pom-poms. Yeah. And can I just say that - yeah - I absolutely love your pouffe. Oh yeah. This is
again, this is I had this done for Chelsea. This is gorgeous. It's done, there's a company called
The Clockhouse Furniture - okay - and they made all the sort of upholstery that I had on my stand
in London. I'm always so amazed what difference cushions make. Yeah, they do. I think they just
I think they bring your eye in. They're sort of like a focal point - yeah - even though
they're just a little thing. I always think they're like the focal point in the room.
Yes, yeah. Don't you think? Yeah. I think they are important. Oh yeah. So you've always
loved colour? Yeah, I've always loved colour. I've always liked to create a characterful room.
You know making it characterful and adding things to it. Everything has a story or it just makes
me feel happy you know. And if it's organised, I like to have a clean organised room. I don't
like to live in a mess. But I I like to sort of know that I've done a good job of all the soft
furnishings and they'll last and they'll look nice for as long as possible. Yeah. I had this
before I I did what I do now but I still really like it. Yes. And I just think it's just really
and I don't really want to get rid of it or change it because I just really like this pattern. Yeah,
yeah. You know. I do as well. You know, it's just something really nice about it - yeah - you know,
I've always really liked it. Yes. And I don't want to change it. No. So and it shows that you can
put, I like to mix up different sort of things. This is the your studio. Yeah, this is a studio.
This area here is photography so I've got some I've only got these because I got this fabric
back from Paris and it's um, I've just hung it up so it's a this is photography here. Just
wanted to show you the bestseller. That's the tiger print. That one there. That's the
tiger one. And that's really popular. Yeah, that's really popular. I've got wallpaper in
that as well. Yes. And fabric. Yeah, yeah. And that goes everywhere. Seen it in bathrooms.
I know. It's everywhere. And another one as well. The Americans like this one. This is called The
Countess. That's from my very first collection. Oh yeah. And that's called The Countess.
And that sells a lot. You know every sort of like that's always quite good to have a stripe.
Yes. You know you have a stripe and a different scale. Oh yes. And that's the thing you know. How
it brings it to sort of - this is the fabric that you have in your pouffe. Yeah yeah, that's right.
That's just like a stripe. That's really really nice. You know, so that's quite good. Yeah. You
know. But I mean you know things like you know that's that's very quite a neutral one. Yes. That
would go with lots of different things you know. That's quite popular. That sort of thing. Yeah.
You know. This is very popular for curtains - oh yes - because it looks really good in a curtain -
yeah - it's because it's like the way it moves you know. That's really good. People buy a lot of that
for curtains. Yeah. And then things like this one. They buy it for curtains as well. That one. Yes.
I've got that. That's really gorgeous. That for curtains you know is quite good. Yeah. And you can
feel I must say that the quality is great. Yeah, it's a nice quality fabric. Because I actually
did a thing the other day and I bought I got loads of samples of other people because I wanted
to see how they did their sampling and what their base cloth was like and their colours. Yeah. Just
literally just out of interest. And I was really shocked some how horrible some of the base cloth
is. Oh dear. It's also mixtures. This is all 100% cotton and linen. Yeah, you can just feel it.
So it's natural. 'Cause it not it's not like a hasn't got any man-made fibre in it. No, no. You
know. I draw lots of pictures so I do I I'm quite prolific at drawing. So I do things in black and
white because it goes into the computer so I don't worry too much about colour at this stage. I just
do drawings in black and white. And if I do them on tissue paper it works in the scanner because
I scan them all in. And then things like if I do pencil drawings as well you know. Oh wow. So
I do a lot I do lots of drawings. You know I do things like you know I'll do um, I'll do like
half something so I'll draw a half - okay - and then I'll just reverse it over but I I know I
can reverse it in the computer. Yeah. So when I'm doing my drawing, I'm sort of thinking about
how I do it on the computer as well. Yeah. So it's sort of you know, I can so I just all I need is
the main thing and then I put them together. The other thing is you can't really do a whole room or
a house in one person's fabric. Yeah. You need to have a mixture of things. You can't just use, you
can't, people say to me 'oh I want to do my whole house in your fabric' and you go 'I think you
probably find that quite difficult'. You know, really you need to have a variety of stuff so
maybe use my fabric for the curtains, someone else's for the cushions. You know you don't have
to use my fabric for everything because it's I haven't really designed it to do a whole you know,
I haven't redesigned the fabric - yeah - to do the whole house. You know it's like you know that's
the thing. Anyway, I think designing a room, you need to bring in lots of other people's stuff
as well. And design is when you watch professional interior designers, they're really clever at
putting together other lots of designers fabric. Yes. And that's what works. And then this is
just wallpaper that we have which we just use for sampling. So it's just you know, we just cut it
off. We always give people a really good sample. They get a good size wallpaper. This is actually
the first time I'm touching your wallpaper. Oh is it? And I can feel the quality. It is good.
It's really good. It's very good. Very robust. And people always say can I put it in the
bathrooms and things? I've got all my bathrooms, most of them are wallpapered - yeah - because
it's really tough. Oh yes. And you can use any wallpaper paste. Anything. It's really easy.
It's because, it's paste the wall so it's really strong. Oh yes. I don't even think it's
paper. I think it's something called substrate it's called. Very good. It's it's really
difficult to rip. Cause there are I mean such differences. Some wallpapers. I know. Like you
touch it and it falls apart. It's horrible. No, this is really good quality. Oh yes. It's good.
And some of the designs remind me a little bit of Scandinavia. I don't know if what what do you
think Jörg? It's like, I don't know if you like Scandinavia? Yeah, I love Scandinavia. Of course
I do. I think it's great. Yeah. You know. Yeah, that's sort of like it someone someone's
American picture, an American put that on the on the ceiling. Yeah. In their nursery. Yeah. The
ceiling? On the ceiling but it's meant to be it's like a background wallpaper. Yes. It's meant to
be something that's not it's just going to create the atmosphere rather than take over the room.
Yeah, exactly. You can still put other things with it. Yeah. You know what I mean? That's the
one you have in one of your guest bedrooms. Yeah, that's right. Yeah we've got that above the
thing - yeah - you know. And then you've got one. This is hilarious. This one. This is what
you call a statement. This is called 'The funky elephant'. Oh wow. And this American, I did this
as a digital image of this on the and then this American designer wanted it as a wallpaper. I said
it's a it's a digital picture that you're looking at. It's not real wallpaper. And then I had it
printed and it came out like this. Wow. It's called The funky elephant'. Wow. So if you want
to have a statement, that's a statement. Yes. You know what I mean? Yeah. But people put that
in their loo or all that. You know downstairs or somewhere bright Yeah, yeah. You know. And
then and then then this wallpaper was this was done from a lovely old house not far from us. And
it's called Healy Hall. And I drew this. It took me about three weeks to draw it but it was from an
old wallpaper. Oh that's nice. And I drew it all. It was, I I had it was I took some photographs of
the wallpaper and I sort of I had to go over it. It was a special sort of brush that I used on
my computer. Yeah. I did every layer. I did a colour. Hmm. And I've created it. It was a really,
I don't know how I managed to do it but because it was screen printed, it's quite blocky because
you've got different ,every screen printing you have a different colour for every screen. Yes. So
I just did that. I just found the colours and and then it and then it worked out really well. And
that's called 'Healy Monkey. Yeah. Um, because it was it was the um, there's a monkey there. Yeah.
But that that's that's been a very successful wallpaper. Fabric as well you know. But that's
from original old from a house in Northumberland which I quite like doing resurrecting old
wallpapers. Yeah, yeah. So we're in Charlotte's kitchen here and wasn't it a lockdown project as
well that you painted the kitchen? Oh yes. And I'm always painting the kitchen cause I get bored
of the colour. And I think well I might as well just do a bit of another paint. So then I changed
the handles and I changed the colour but that's a good thing about this kitchen. It was meant to be
painted. Yes. I did do dark blue but it was a bit too dark. And I felt like when I came down the
morning in the dark and the winter it was a bit too dark. So I wanted to make it a bit lighter.
Swedish Blue it's called. That makes sense. Yeah. Um, you know but - that's beautiful - but it's
always changing the kitchen. I'm always doing different things to it. You know. So it's
just a little telly area for me really. Yes, yeah. And then um, so no one else really watches
the telly because they don't really want to watch the same things that I watch. It's a beautiful
space. Yeah, I know. I I must say - yeah - I'm a kitchen person. Oh yeah. I do edit my videos in
the kitchen. Oh right, yeah. But don't you find, we we always have the saying in Germany -
yeah - no matter how big or small your house is people always end up in the kitchen. Yes
definitely. When you have a party. Oh yeah, definitely. Everyone's always in the kitchen.
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. They are around this island. Everyone stands around the island.
Yeah, I know, I know. It's unbelievable, isn't it? Unbelievable. We can't thank you
enough. Oh I know, it's been fantastic. Well, thanks very much for coming. It's been an honour
to meet you. I honestly can't thank you enough. That was a dream. No, it's been really
good. I've really enjoyed having you. Thanks for coming and thinking of me. We
did as well. And coming and having a look. It's been a pleasure to show you around. Same
same. Yeah. Thank you so much for having us. Pleasure pleasure pleasure. Anyway no, thank you.
Thank you. We are sure you will enjoy it. And let us know what you think. So we'll see you again
very soon as always and until next time. Bye. Bye.
