An interview with designer Justin Van Breda

Furniture designer, interior designer and lecturer at the prestigious interior design school, KLC, it seems there is nothing Justin Van Breda can’t turn his hand to…

What’s the most important thing to know about you?

I’m very tall! Otherwise very design led and aesthetically driven.

Describe a really good day and a really bad day in the life of the Justin Van Breda?

A really good day is when we hand over a house to a client and they say thank you and are excited. It’s happened a lot recently and its very rewarding; then when the clients come back for more!

What inspires your ideas?

Light, shape, objects, colour, verbal descriptions, history and texture.

Describe the process you go through to turn your ideas into products.

For furniture: I distill all my ideas into a concept, then a sketch, then a design and then a technical drawing of a prototype and piece of furniture.

For interiors: I think about the space – what is says to me from an architectural and a design point of view. I consider the client and what I know about the way they live, I draw up a concept, then sketch the room in perspective, then draw it in plan and design from there.

What advice would you give to an aspiring designer?

Be a sponge and absorb as much as you can. It’s what I tell all my KLC students.

Desert island design; which three items could you not live without?

(Not my designs;) my AGA, Dropbox and dimmer switches

What are you most proud of?

That my interior design clients have come back to me. For one client, we have just completed the third house.

What’s next for you?

A wonderful villa in greece for a client whose house in London we completed last year.

And, finally, what’s your favourite colour?!

At the moment on walls, I am using a lot of green greys together – James White, Pigeon, Hardwick White, Birch White Clunch and Old White. My husband has just vetoed my Chartreuse silk curtains, so I am looking out for something grey and oyster and amazing!

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