Natalie Tredgett On Designing A Multi-Functional Garden Room

In our Staying In With column, we ask the experts of interior design to tell us about their ultimate night in. Here, we speak to interior designer Natalie Tredgett about the artsy garden room that does it all and why you should never underestimate the power of a curtain pole.

Staying In With Natalie Tredgett

What’s your favourite place to stay in, and why?

It has to be our garden room, without question. It’s the brightest room at the back of the house and the most obviously characterful one. It’s one of the rooms that makes me happiest.

I wanted an immersive space with a painterly, artistic approach. When I couldn’t find wallpaper at the scale I wanted, I made my own. It is decoupage, cut from end-of-line plain paper into shapes inspired by Matisse. I built the palette around green and black, to welcome the garden in through the large doors at the back.

For me, a room isn’t finished until it feels like a decision I’d make again tomorrow. It’s a room you feel like reaching out and touching, as lovely in the morning as it is at sunset, designed to lounge in and make you feel inspired.

Is this a space you like to host guests in, or wind down in?

Both. I’ve never believed in rooms with a single job to do. It’s where we read the papers at the weekends over coffee, with the dog and cat curled up nearby. It is where my husband stretches and I get through a Tracy Anderson exercise session or some weight training. It is where we love to host pre-dinner cocktails. On the more energetic nights, it’s been known to become the dance floor, for kids and adults alike. I think that’s the only kind of room worth designing. One that can be perfect on a Sunday morning and the best night of the year, with barely any effort to change it around to suit the occasion.

How have you set it up? 

I have the most comfortable sofa at one end of the room, and a console table with an enormous mirror at the other. The end with the sofa has a pair of swivel chairs, plus room for my perfectly small chairs, brought in when we have more guests. It makes the perfect conversation space. Between the seating and the console there’s an open area, sometimes used for extra seating, with folding tables and chairs, if we’re hosting something larger, like a birthday or a New Year’s party.

By day, it’s lit by three skylights. In the evening, lamps in the four corners of the room to set the mood. We also have downlights for when we hoover. Yet, everything is on a dimmer to get it just right.

The fabrics were deliberately chosen to enhance the decoupage wall appliqués, but in a different scale of pattern, so as not to flatten the effect. I love that it strikes the right balance of energy and calm. There are a few unexpected pieces too, because a room that’s too coordinated stops feeling like it belongs to anyone in particular.

Tell us about a ‘wow’ feature that you love to show off/tell guests about (or like to keep to yourself!)

The ‘wow’ feature that I love is the mirror. It began life as a prop for a shoppable art installation I co-founded called Mrs and Mr Bateman, a fictitious couple, patrons of the arts, who host an annual estate sale of art, fashion and interiors. This one hung on the ceiling of Mrs Bateman’s wardrobe. It is made of MDF and 2×4 wood, specially painted in a naïve style to mimic traditional moulding, and I love it. It’s my nod to Bloomsbury, where every surface, precious or not, can be treated as a canvas. I particularly love its scale, how it reflects the room, and that it’s one of a kind. I don’t buy things because they’re beautiful. Beautiful isn’t enough. It must feel purposeful, or it doesn’t get to stay.

What was your best buy or investment for that space, and why?

The curtain pole. It was custom-made for the room; one very long pole, with curtain fabric hanging at each end of three floor-to-ceiling swing doors. Because the room feels like more window than wall, the curtains play an enveloping and acoustic role. The wrong pole would never have provided the structure needed for the weight of the fabric, balanced with the modernity I wanted to create. It wasn’t the easiest decision on paper, even though we rarely even draw the curtains. But I have never once regretted it, because the feeling it gives you in the room is even better than how beautiful they look. That is usually how I know when a piece is worth it. It is not whether guests notice it, but whether I’d miss it if it were gone.

Is there anything on your wish list?

I would love one very large artwork above the sofa. At the moment, we have some meaningful Inuit drawings hanging there. They were a wedding gift and meaningful to us, as my husband and I are both Canadian. Although I’d like to hang them somewhere I can appreciate them better.

Some spaces are allowed to stay unfinished until the right piece finds you. I love the idea of re-curating art in a home: collecting takes time, and staying open, building versatility into the design, allows a home to evolve with you and your family. That way, when new pieces are brought in, it feels fresh, brings vitality and excitement when they arrive. Versatility is central to my design philosophy.

What does the space say about your personal design style?

That I would rather a room feel considered than perfect. I want to see myself and my family reflected in our home. Home is emotional. It is a place to feel connected to, safe in, a vessel for memories. Self-expression is what lets those things play out, a source of wellbeing and joy. Taking the time to know what you love, and placing those things with purpose, serves you more than whatever is on trend or simply good-looking. A home is not a showroom. It is a scrapbook of memories and things I love to keep, and it needs to work for your life, spatially and creatively. That said, my design style, at its core, is about creating immersive spaces that evoke feeling through colour and radical artistic expression.

Do you see the space changing or evolving much in the future?

Always. We moved into our home when the children were babies, and they are now about to fly the nest. The room has gone through as many iterations as we have, each one expressing how we live. This room was once used for play equipped with a trapeze and crash mats. Now it is where we gather for mornings, catchups and cocktails with friends.

The next consideration is extending the seating area in the garden, with a large awning overhead, to enjoy the warmer months outdoors. We could leave the three doors open and extend our living space. For years, the space has been kept open, for kids kicking a ball and gymnastics shows with friends. But now, we all just want to be together, seated, catching up on the day. Reinvestment in your home is reinvestment in how you live. How wonderful is that? That a home becomes a living organism that supports you through life.

Do you prefer staying in or going out?

I love staying in. After a full day with people moving about London, I love settling into cosy clothing, eating healthy food and catching up with family. Most nights we barbecue, our go-to way of cooking: meat, fish, vegetables, it all goes on the grill. We set the table every night. I love my placemats and napkins and change them depending on my mood. We each have our own napkin ring, so we can use cloth napkins a few days in a row. I don’t light candles every night, but I love the new rechargeable lamps we use on the table.

When I do go out, it’s to tightly packed, buzzy places in the centre of town, full of character, with fresh food and sharing plates. I love dining in a group. Sharing food is the best way to get to know people, and to catch up with family and friends.

How do you live a life in balance? Is this reflected in your home at all?

I give in to the way we need to live to stay harmonious. Everything is temporary. Sometimes it’s chaotic, but I know it won’t remain so. Some weeks I focus on work, others more on the needs of my family. The temptation, when running your own studio, is to let the work follow you everywhere. I’ve been known to clear the dining table of samples, but I try to have a place for everything. I can cope with a temporary mess.

What I don’t do is let packages pile up or buy two of anything just in case. Keeping things tidy, with a minimal point of view, lets me move efficiently in and out of home, keep waste to a minimum, and mostly just go with the flow. I think that’s what a home is for, really. Not an escape from your life, but the place that supports the life you live, so you can feel most like yourself in it.

Anything else we should know?

Design is about achieving something that works, like a home that reflects you and supports you. Successful design, to me, is being able to see the person who lives there. Like the role of set design in cinema, I love it when the objects tell a story, saying what someone is about, what’s meaningful to them, and how they live. If there is one thing I would want anyone to take from this room, it’s that I love creativity, comfort and fun. I want us all to pile in, pile on, and enjoy.

More From Natalie

You can keep up with Natalie Tredgett over at natalietredgett.com and @natalietredgett on Instagram.