Restore,then reimagine.
I am Claire Simpson. For thirty years I have made rooms that settle you, each one built around one well chosen thing. Homes, heritage buildings and places to stay, in Rutland and beyond.
Work with me
One well chosen thing, and the room grows from it.
Multum in parvo, much in little. Find the thing worth building around, and give it the space to lead.
Interiors.
Each room began with one thing.
How I work.
I trained at the KLC School of Design in London. For thirty years since I have made rooms for people to live in and places for them to stay, from a Grade II listed ironstone house in Rutland to a masseria in Puglia, built by local craftsmen from stone, lime and timber drawn from within twenty miles of it.
Some of what I find stays exactly as it is, worn and untouched. Some of it goes. And some of it becomes something it was never meant to be. Restore, then reimagine.
My way is simple. I begin each room with one well chosen thing and let everything gather around it. In the masseria kitchen it was an old door from the Pyrenees, its planks and iron strapping kept whole and made into the table. In the Rutland house it was a carpenter's bench, put to work as a kitchen prep table. Find the right thing first and the rest stops being a hundred separate decisions.
The Old School House
It is my new home and studio, and where the philosophy stops being something I describe and becomes something I teach. The wonder in an old building, and the character it gives up as the work goes on. The journey to one well chosen thing, the path I tread to find it, and the makers and the dealers I meet along the way, shared with you.
Most designers keep their sources to themselves. I share mine. The makers, dealers and craftsmen I rely on go into Much in Little, my little black book, because knowing where to look is only half of it. The other half is the eye that knows which piece to choose, and what to leave out.
Your house, and where to begin.
Sometimes it’s finding the one thing. Sometimes it’s everything that grows from it.
A visit, or a commission seen through from start to finish.
Write to me and we can talk about your project.
hello@studiomultum.comCover feature, the Puglian masseria
The Nevill Arms, named in the Best 250 Hotels in the UK
A Grade II listed hall in Leicestershire
Six pages on a Grade II listed farmhouse in Rutland
A letter from The Old School House.
Once a month, from the school house. Slow design in the quiet corners of a home and a studio. How I keep the character of a room. Why a table a century old sits where it does. What I change with the seasons.