About me
Emma Farquharson
Interior Design
Emma trained at Chelsea College of Art in three-dimensional design – specialising in interior design. Before that, Emma studied at Bournemouth School of Art. She’s been helping clients for over 30 years.
About
Emma has excellent spatial awareness, is highly organised, and has won widespread respect for keeping within agreed time frames and budgets in a market renowned for difficulties. She is a member of the Chartered Society of Designers.
Emma is based in Fulham, with her family, a cat, and a dog. Creativity and design have been her driving passion for as long as she can remember: from admiring the varied shape and form of shells as a child to dressmaking using elaborate fabrics. She is a keen watercolour artist with a sharp eye for colour. Emma loves walking in the Dorset hills, playing the piano, and tennis.
Emma has worked in Canada, London and the Home Counties as a freelance associate for a leading London interior designer and for her own practice. Projects range from the avant-garde to conservative, from large budgets to small, and include the following services:
- A full consultation process to understand the client’s tastes and requirements
- Detailed costings, budgets and options for maintaining or increasing the value or appeal of a property
- Managing, planning and overseeing building work or redecoration for buy-to-let owners and overseas or domestic clients
- Advising on alternative room layouts, new furniture, storage solutions and cupboards to maximise space
- Reconfiguring the layout of a house or flat to fit the owner’s needs
- Recommending colour schemes, fabrics and finishes, and providing designs for soft furnishings and window treatments
- Kitchens and bathrooms tailored to their owners, whatever the budget, and designed to fit family needs or a bachelor’s wildest dreams
- Specifying lighting fittings and proposing audio visual installations
Work
I have worked in Canada, London, and the Home Counties as a freelance associate for a leading London architectural designer, and for her own practice. Projects range from the avant-garde to conservative, from large budgets to small, and she offers a variety of services. These include a full consultation process to understand the client’s tastes and requirements, detailed costings, budgets and options for maintaining or increasing the value and appeal of a property and the managing, planning, and overseeing of building work or redecoration for buy-to-let owners and overseas or domestic clients.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
Kind Words
“Emma managed the 3 year project to completely restore and refresh a Georgian former farmhouse together with pool pavilion and tied Cottage. This included changes to the layout including the creation of a family room adjoining the kitchen which has been a great success. She has a great ability to grasp a brief and assiduously back this up with technical drawings. Her personal skills are considerable: we were consulted at every stage on colours, finishes and extra furniture and fittings. Importantly this extends to dealing with the team at every level. All decisions were reflected in proper minutes. The result is stylish and elegant, totally in line with our expectations and appropriate to the house.”
“Emma did an amazing job transforming our apartment. She understood exactly what we wanted and made it ‘wow’. All the worry of having the builders in was taken away, deadlines stuck to, and even came in under budget. And if you are a bit OCD about finishing touches like me, I met my match in Emma”.
“Emma did a wonderful job in designing and project managing our conversion from two flats into one large apartment. She has great eye for detail and is always very thorough in making sure that everything is as it should be. This was a relatively complicated project and Emma gave us great confidence that all would work out well – which it has. Emma sincerely cares, and she hopes and expects for only the best results for her clients. We love our new home and thank her for it!”
“We wanted to find a designer for our new kitchen dining room and as luck would have it we came across Emma Farquharson in 'Elmbridge', local lifestyle magazine. The creative process that Emma helped us with, was to initially present us with several drawings/designs. After long protracted talks we eventually decided on two designs and like the practical artist Emma is, she could visualise what it would look like when completed.
After the initial creative process, we were introduced to a team of builders organised by Emma. They proceeded to reduce our original kitchen to rubble within a day. At that point, we knew there was no turning back and trust was paramount. Under Emma's expert guidance and attention to detail we felt secure. It was transformed from a shell to a practical and stunning kitchen dining room just as we had imagined. Emma's forte was the ability to direct us in practical and creative ways, which we would never have thought of.”
“If you are having building or redecoration work done, then you need Emma. She is the most efficient person on earth with an amazing eye for detail. Nothing is allowed to escape her eagle eye for even the smallest example of shoddy work. She was a joy to work with, creative and but also open to different ideas. We shall miss her.”
“Emma, once described herself to me as a fairy and she truly is one! I rely on her to sort out all the big and small stuff around the apartment. She is not only an excellent interior designer, but she also manages our apartment with her personal touch. She is always one step ahead and foresees our needs. She is resourceful and accommodating to any requests. She has become a friend, one that I trust and rely on.”
I would like to state that I am extremely pleased with Emma’s work. She not only understood what our needs were immediately from our very first meeting but also kept within the budget stipulated. Her greatest forte is the enthusiasm and sincerity she has for her job. She quickly established good relationships with all parties concerned, especially the management of the apartment, the contractors even with the concierge. Her interior decorating skills are excellent and she furnished our apartment both tastefully and practically. We could not be happier. She goes far beyond her normal duties as an interior decorator to ensure all issues are sorted out even those that are not in her immediate scope of work.
“It was a pleasure kitting out our two-bedroom unit with Emma's invaluable assistance in spite of it being carried out long-distance as we are not resident in the UK. She understood our brief from the start, feedback was timely and the project was completed on schedule. Emma also added value by proactively assisting to rectify finishing and fitting issues with the developers and respective vendors. I would not hesitate to on-recommend Emma and her services.”
“Emma has transformed my small Central London flat into a very attractive and very comfortable living space. She has done everything from drawing up plans, organising tradesmen, designing kitchen, bathrooms and fitted furniture to sourcing fixtures, fittings and soft furnishings but always seeking my opinion and approval as the project progressed. Her attention to detail and creativity in maximising use of space are outstanding. She is extremely efficient - the project was completed on time and within budget. I am absolutely delighted with the end result.”
“Emma transformed my 1980s flat, full of awkward angles and unusable space, into a unique 21st century bachelor pad. Fantastically cool under pressure, she did it with the minimum of fuss and to a realistic budget - despite me throwing her various challenges, including specifying green credentials and state of the art technology.”
“Emma Farquharson has undertaken complete refurbishment of our London house, including the kitchen design, and the rebuild of a country cottage for us in the past 6 years. She is a delight to work with, completely dedicated to every task until accomplished to the highest standard, and has excellent qualifications for all processes of building works, together with the ability to see the potential in a building and, in our case, completely transform our cottage into a perfect home. She is as good at the interior design as in the structural work, and the outcome has always been a happy one for us”.
“Emma designed and oversaw an extensive re-fit of our terraced house in Fulham. She is wonderful at re-thinking room lay-outs, maximising space and making areas functional but beautiful. She looks carefully at how you live rather than imposing any pre-conceived notions and brings knowledge, experience, impeccable taste and a wealth of useful contacts and suppliers. She is passionately attentive to detail and manages to achieve a wonderful result from numerous trades balancing good humour and charm with getting the job done to her very high standards”.
“Emma was great at pulling together all of my half- baked ideas and taste and creating a beautiful living space”.
“Emma assisted us on the major renovation of our daughter's new flat in Kensington. From the outset we were impressed with Emma's manners. She spent a great deal of time with us at the start to understand our daughter's needs, tastes and ideas for her new home. With our daughter having a very busy life and working long hours and having no time to liaise with the builder, Emma's assistance was invaluable. She took over the management of the project, making regular sight visits to the flat to check the progress of the works and was in daily contact with the builders. She was always reliable as to timings and kept us up to date regularly; she was able to make the whole renovation process stress-free and enjoyable.
Emma showed amazing attention to detail, she has a wonderful eye for design and colour and was able to source many great fabrics and materials. Emma was a pleasure to work with and we would not hesitate to recommend her to friends and colleagues.”
“Emma recently helped me with the interior of a new flat I recently bought. She has a great attention to detail and also a real eye for practicality and what really works (and what doesn't), and what's needed to make something into a home. Her input was invaluable and I'd recommend her services to anyone if, as I say, you want a house to be a home and to work”.
“My husband and I were so happy when we bought a small mews house in London, but as the house was old and in great need of renovation we panicked. We were lucky to be introduced to Emma Farquharson who with enthusiasm and energy took over. As I was spending a lot of time abroad, we communicated through the internet, choosing bath taps to floor boards etc. Emma respected my taste but at times she would also very tactfully give her own opinion. The result was a success, I still live in this house and enjoy it. I highly recommend Emma Farquharson who works hard, has a kind disposition and gets on well with the builders.”
CREATIVITY & CHOICES
My style is drawn from my love of colour and nature, of natural finishes and tailored to suit that of my clients. Generally, it is contemporary rather than modern, with traditional elements.