Life as the collector of beautiful things and designer of South Bank homes

“When you’re doing a Georgian townhouse or something,” says Ashby, “you’ve got moments of the outside world creeping in through the windows. But in these vast skyscrapers, the view is the room. It’s so extraordinary and prominent.” The intrusive urban landscape inspired the neutral colour scheme, which plays around with monochrome and green, the colour of nature chosen in stark contrast to the view outside the window. 

 

 

Luckily, Ashby has plenty of experience with tall glass structures as she studied interior design at Parsons in Manhattan after finishing her History of Art degree at Leeds. She describes herself as “a collector of beautiful things” and says the best thing about her job is the hours she spends at auctions, art galleries and antiques markets looking for the perfect item to complete her aesthetic. “I spend my life searching for these odd items and little bits. Unless you make that special effort, then you get everything looking too perfect. I don’t like things to look too pristine, it has to look lived in in a convincing way.” 

 

 

This, she believes, is the key to her current popularity with developers, who are looking for mass market appeal in a non-sterile fashion. Ashby now employs four members of staff, all of whom are “flat out” working on eight projects. While her rapid success has surpassed all expectations, she now feels she has carved a niche for herself on the South Bank (she also dressed apartments for NEO Bankside). “I feel that I’ve got into the mind of the sort of person who buys around here. I imagine the buyer of that apartment will be very well-travelled, cultured, interested in the arts and a collector – having things from everywhere. 

 

“Basically, I think you’ve got to be a bit of a quirky person to want to live in this area, and that’s the category I feel I fall into.”