Interior Views with Frank & Faber

Having switched careers from events specialist at the Guardian, Sarah Ellison established her design studio – Frank & Faber in 2015 and hasn’t looked back. We talk to Sarah to find out more about her design process and how she encourages her clients to identify their own style and create spaces that stand the test of time…

THE ORIGINS OF FRANK & FABER
Like many people my move into interior design started with a long-term hobby-based passion for interiors. I used to drive my friends, family, and partner mad with my constant need to re-decorate and personalise my own spaces. Always subscribing to a plethora of magazines every month, attending shows and spending weekend city breaks on the hunt for the best vintage markets.

I put my passion into practice eleven years ago when I bought my first home. A wreck which needed a full gut renovation, despite having no formal training at that stage I set about doing it up with gusto. I wanted to steer well clear of a soulless box and design a space that felt lived-in right from the start. Mood boards galore were accompanied by hours and hours on Ebay and Preloved sourcing reclaimed pieces and a very hands-on project management process – we lived in the house throughout the renovation, so we basically spent a year living with our builders – I even learned some Polish which was an added bonus.

Whilst not without its trials and stress points I absolutely loved it. I was over the moon when I saw my vision come together and it totally cemented my passion for interiors.

My career up to that point had been in marketing and events – firstly in the Music industry for Virgin and then at the Guardian, where I ran the sponsorship and events team. Despite having a job I loved, I decided to take the plunge, leave my job to do a diploma at KLC and the rest is history.

Number One Bruton, a Georgian townhouse, medieval forge and row of cottages converted in to a twelve-bedroom hotel and restaurant – Osip.
Photography: @emmalewisphotographer

PERIOD OR MODERN?
We love characterful buildings and characterful clients and the combination of those equate to our perfect projects and we have been incredibly lucky working with amazing, talented, inspiring clients in buildings which are bursting with history.

Our recent project designing the boutique hotel Number One Bruton and adjoining restaurant Osip was one such example. It was such an inspiring project with some many creative threads to pull on. The listed building is an old ironmongery and forge with history seeping out of every scuffed floorboard and cracked wall. A combination of 3 separates buildings – an old ironmongery shop, Georgian home, workshops and the original Forge. Every room is different and designed in sympathy with the heritage and style of the building they inhabit.

Our clients on this project are as characterful as the building they own and we shared a joint vision of creating a luxuriously comfortable, unique and striking home from home environment which honoured the buildings heritage and location whilst simultaneously reflecting their own story. The town of Bruton, Somerset is awash with talented creatives many of whom we collaborated with and the beautifully idiosyncratic space has personality in abundance.

Throw in a Michelin starred chef who wanted his first space to feel honest, down to earth and to reflect his farm to table cooking… his desires mirrored ours perfectly. What’s not to love?

It was a hugely collaborative project, such a personal undertaking for our clients, they put their heart and soul into it and it’s fair to say we did too. We take a holistic approach and think about our client’s and their client’s experience. What do they see, touch, smell when they journey through a space? This is particularly important in a hotel so it really suited the way we work, and we would love to do more hotel projects.

“Our clients on this project are as characterful as the building they own and we shared a joint vision of creating a luxuriously comfortable, unique and striking home from home“
Photography: @emmalewisphotographer

DESIGNING YOUR CLIENTS IDEAL LIVING ROOM…
The starting process for all our projects is the same, there is always a significant research phase, we invest a lot of time and energy getting to know and understand our clients or their brands and getting to the heart of their values and aspirations from an aesthetic and practical perspective.

Living rooms are often reserved for more evening focussed activities – entertaining friends, reading, film watching with the family. Less subject to the rigours of day-to-day life they lend themselves to a more glamorous aesthetic with a materiality and palette which is cossetting, elegant and luxurious whilst remaining cosy and inherently comfortable.

Texture and softness are critical, we love to use long drapes on windows alongside soft rugs, textured lamp shades and plenty of cushions which layer colour and pattern on pattern to ensure an overall softness, inviting comfort as well as a striking overall aesthetic.

Less subject to the rigours of day-to-day life they lend themselves to a more glamorous aesthetic with a materiality and palette which is cosseting, elegant and luxurious…
Photography: @paullmcraig

ADDING WARMTH, CHARACTER AND DEPTH…
We are not wedded to one approach when it comes to colour and pattern as long as the scheme has warmth, character and depth. A predominantly neutral scheme with beautiful natural materials and layered textures can be the perfect solution for a certain type of architecture and location and be absolutely stunning in its simplicity. At the same time we simultaneously love schemes with a bold mix of strong colours and layered patterns. Choice of colour and pattern are informed by the client and brand’s personality, the building and the natural light available. We are lucky enough to work across a range of tastes and styles and actively enjoy that.

We also embrace the bold which could mean using a single hue consistently across all surfaces creating a simple but bold aesthetic or an intense mix of pattern on pattern with intentionally clashing colours. Wherever possible we love to ground a scheme with a classic pattern – stripes being a firm favourite, they have a timeless quality and happily bridge the traditional and contemporary.

As always inspiration comes from nature and as Autumn takes hold we are drawn to the earthy, autumnal shades – burned oranges, deep olive greens and the love of the perfect dirty pink withstands.