Wealden Times | WT244 | September 2022 | Winter Interiors Supplement inside
The lifestyle magazine for Kent & Sussex - Inspirational Interiors, Fabulous Fashion, Delicious Dishes
The lifestyle magazine for Kent & Sussex - Inspirational Interiors, Fabulous Fashion, Delicious Dishes
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<strong>Winter</strong> <strong>Interiors</strong> <strong>Supplement</strong><br />
Designer’s World<br />
We speak to Ben Stokes – founder of KAGU in<br />
Tenterden – about his opinions on the latest trends,<br />
life as an interior designer, and design process<br />
What inspires you?<br />
Everything and anything. I love staying at hotels, drawing<br />
inspiration from their hugely talented owners and interior designers.<br />
Do you have any go-to designers when it comes to fabrics?<br />
There are so many fabric companies! To say I have a go-to one<br />
I cannot do, BUT there are a few out there at the moment that<br />
I love‚ Designs of the time, George Spencer Designs, and Mind<br />
the GAP are all favourites.<br />
Where do you source your furniture?<br />
We try to design and make our clients their own bespoke<br />
pieces of furniture. For me, that gives each client a 100%<br />
designed room and quite often a fantastic talking point. But<br />
we are also willing to get up at 4am or 5am in the morning<br />
and head off to an antique fair to find unique pieces and we<br />
also have furniture suppliers across the UK and Europe.<br />
What trends are you excited about for 2023?<br />
I get this question quite a lot, and to be honest, I don’t<br />
know what the next trend is. I don’t particularly look out for<br />
trends, I just look for beautiful things in design. I understand<br />
that looking for yearly or seasonal trends really works, but<br />
to me, when designing a space for a client, I have to think<br />
about items that will be on show for many years to come.<br />
How does your design process begin?<br />
I would say my first place to start with is usually the flooring.<br />
Getting the flooring right is key, and I would generally steer my<br />
client towards more natural flooring materials – wood, marble,<br />
limestone and brick flooring, wool carpets etc.<br />
What is your personal interiors style?<br />
I would not say I have a particular personal style. I work<br />
with many different, ranging from grade II listed buildings to<br />
modern commercial projects. They’re each so unique, I feel that<br />
my design style has to be tailored to the property and not the<br />
other way round. You need to find the right style to bring out<br />
their beauty instead of enforcing‚ “My Style” onto them.<br />
How did you start out as an interior designer?<br />
After living about ten years away, mainly in London, I came home<br />
to Kent and started a small property development company. I was just<br />
doing one or two Victorian houses a year, and though over the three<br />
years, my business grew, I could feel that my passion was not in property<br />
development but in interior architecture and interior design. Many people<br />
had commented on the high standard that I had kept while doing up these<br />
properties, the beautiful materials I used, and how I had a good eye for this.<br />
So, being severely dyslexic and not wanting to return to college, I thought I<br />
would open the KAGU shop to lead into an interior design business.<br />
Find out more about Ben and KAGU at kagu-interiors.co.uk<br />
priceless-magazines.com<br />
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