Wealden Times | WT245 | October 2022 | Kitchen & Bathroom Supplement inside

Above: The marble-effect wall print in the lounge, from Wallsauce, was the inspiration for the kitchen and sitting
room’s colour scheme. “James was very nervous about it, so he had to trust my instincts,” says Sophia, “but I
could just see it before it went up, a bit of gold, neutral white, then dark blue, which really pops out”
this day,” she tells me joyously at the prospect of finally
being interviewed by one of her favourite magazines.
Sitting down in the lounge I notice there’s even a copy
of the latest edition of WT, neatly slung on the lower
rung of the two-tier coffee table, in the immaculately
arranged lounge. As Sophia explains that the interview
had originally been scheduled for two years prior, but was
postponed several times due to Covid related disruptions.
Being featured in the magazine in the first place was
the result of some rather good fortune, after Sophia sent
photos and a blog to WT from a product shoot she did
right here, in her home for some handmade baskets. She
said laughing at the unlikeliness of it all, “They emailed
me back and asked if they could do a feature on the
apartment instead, they didn’t even mention the baskets!”.
Recognition like this is a big deal to Sophia
because creating spaces is her passion and her
beautiful apartment is the manifestation of a fiveyear
journey, renovating the home she shares with
James and finding out who she is as a designer.
Sophia, a graduate in Event and Experience Design,
was half way through her degree when they moved into
their apartment in the autumn of 2017, as she explained,
“When we moved in I had a week off before I started
year two of university, so we changed the flooring and
whitewashed everything, making it very neutral.”
Not long after graduating, the lockdowns in 2020
gave her the much needed time to focus all her
creative energy on the project for a sustained period,
“For us the lockdowns were great and gave us the
time we needed, it was a really positive time.”
Taking me through to the open plan living area you
63 priceless-magazines.com