Blending antiques, colours and design to create a beautiful room

published 21 December 2016

Despite being based in rural Hampshire, Max Rollitt has clients all over the world and, although his aesthetic is firmly rooted in the classic English tradition, he uses a mix of bold colour and furniture with striking silhouettes to create a highly distinctive, almost contemporary look.

His style is based on his deep understanding of the antique furniture in which he has been dealing since his early twenties — knowledge he used to design his own range in 2006, which includes upholstered furniture such as this Katzic sofa, based on a 18th-century piece he bought from a Lancashire manor house.

Both the sofa and the stool are upholstered in the same antique French linen he dyed a vibrant yellow.

The pair of chairs is based on originals made for the Earl of Moray in 1808.

This scheme was created for an 18th-century house in Spitalfields. It’s typical of Mr Rollitt’s work in that it combines both new pieces from his own range, as well as rare antique pieces, such as a late-18th-century marquetry chest decorated with a seaweed design, a wrought-iron Liberty lamp from the late 19th century and a lamp base made from a Chinese vase.

The scheme also features the work of the designer Marianna Kennedy, who designed the overmantel above the fireplace and a blind in semi-transparent cloth used to bind books (020– 7375 2757; www.mariannakennedy.com).

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Max Rollitt (www.maxrollitt.com)

Giles Kime is Country Life's Executive and Interiors Editor, an expert in interior design with decades of experience since starting his career at The World of Interiors magazine. Giles joined Country Life in 2016, introducing new weekly interiors features, bridging the gap between our coverage of architecture and gardening. He previously launched a design section in The Telegraph and spent over a decade at Homes & Gardens magazine (launched by Country Life's founder Edward Hudson in 1919). A regular host of events at London Craft Week, Focus, Decorex and the V&A, he has interviewed leading design figures, including Kit Kemp, Tricia Guild, Mary Fox Linton, Chester Jones, Barbara Barry and Lord Snowdon. He has written a number of books on interior design, property and wine, the most recent of which is on the legendary interior designer Nina Campbell who last year celebrated her fiftieth year in business. This Autumn sees the publication of his book on the work of the interior designer, Emma Sims-Hilditch. He has also written widely on wine and at 26, was the youngest ever editor of Decanter Magazine. Having spent ten years restoring an Arts & Crafts house on the banks of the Itchen, he and his wife, Kate, are breathing life into a 16th-century cottage near Alresford that has remained untouched for almost half a century.

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