A light touch

Nels Crosthwaite Eyre's Hampshire house demonstrates her innate ability to create smart, but relaxed interiors that reflect the tastes and needs of a new generation

- Eleanor Doughty

SOMETIMES,’ says Nels Crosthwaite Eyre, ‘interior design feels like pulling rabbits out of hats.’ Rabbit pulling is something she does with consummate skill, particularly when turning a blank canvas into one that is rich in pattern, colour and soul. As a result, she is, increasingly, the country-house decorator of choice for a new generation leaving London with too little furniture to fill more square footage than they are used to. Miss Crosthwaite Eyre began her career when, having worked for a jewellery company, she found herself at a loose end in 2010 and took a position with the late, great Robert Kime. A friend told her that the designer was opening a new showroom in Bloomsbury and, despite having never considered interiors as a career path, she went along and was offered a job in the shop. Over time, her role expanded and she built up a London client base. Kime’s apprenticeship was ‘a very slow burn,’ she remembers, but she found simply being with him inspiring. ‘He was brilliant, very old school—he never turned on a computer in his life.’ She left to set up her own studio in 2014, taking with her some of Kime’s ways. ‘My approach is very old-fashioned,’ she says. ‘It’s about feeling the space, walking into the room, moving things around. That is really what Robert Kime taught me more than anything else.’