There are few greater compliments than when an interior designer chooses your brand for their own property, so we were delighted to learn that the wonderfully creative Celine Da Silva has incorporated several Lusso pieces within her newly remodelled home.

How would you describe your design style?

I draw a lot of my inspiration from travelling, my heritage and from living in different countries. I’ve been fortunate enough to stay in lots of boutique styles of accommodation, especially when I lived in Southeast Asia. I’ve stayed in tiny but cosy wooden huts on stilts, beautifully designed hotels using local craftspeople and materials as well as quirky apartments. I love designing spaces that make me feel like I’m somewhere warm and tropical and this includes using warm colour palettes, natural materials and being brave with patterns. This was definitely my vision for the house renovation and especially our new loft conversion.

Can you give us some background on the project?

As we had worked on a complete renovation of the ground floor and parts of the first floor the year before, we decided to go full steam ahead on the loft conversion. With a growing need to have retired family members spending more time with us, we decided that we wanted to create a space that felt like part of the house, yet also be a little haven away from it all. We have beautiful views from this new floor and I really wanted to take the opportunity to decide on the placement of all of the internal walls myself, and part of that included wanting to have a larger bathroom compared to what we have on the first floor. This is why I decided to create a little nook for the sink and vanity unit, allowing for a clear walkway into the room and the walk-in shower. The toilet is neatly tucked out of view when you walk into the space, so the focus is on the shower when you enter the room, and the next thing you see to your left is our striking Lusso marble sink and matte black tap.

What attracted you to Lusso products? 

As an interior designer, I had initially used Lusso products in some of my clients’ bathroom projects. Seeing and interacting with the quality of the products installed in these spaces helped me decide that I wanted to use these beautiful products in my own home. Our plumbers even commented on how impressed they were with the quality! I love the fact that there is such a varied range of products at Lusso and that they all work well together. For our loft bathroom shower, I wanted the handheld shower to be fixed to an adjustable rail and the Lusso customer service team was really helpful in supplying me with a separate rail from another one of their shower products to help me achieve this. 

Which is your favourite Lusso product?

The basins! We have two marble basins in the house - a Panda marble basin on the first floor and a Carrara marble basin in the loft bathroom. They are my favourite stand-out pieces in both bathrooms. Both basins feel luxurious, and generously sized, yet really durable. It’s the perfect combination. 

How was your experience with deliveries and customer service from Lusso?

We had a great experience. The customer service team kept me well-informed about which products were in stock and which had a longer lead time. Everything was delivered efficiently. During the build, the flush plate for our rimless wall-hung toilet went missing amongst the chaos of the build but Lusso's customer service team managed to get a new one out to me in a matter of days. I was worried I’d have to wait a lot longer, so this really gave me peace of mind during a stressful time!

What advice would you give to anyone renovating their home?

Plan, plan, and plan some more. It will really pay to be as prepared as possible so that you're not rushing decisions or making them under pressure on the spot. Rushed decisions will always be the ones you'll regret. To avoid this, it's important to have constant communication with your contractors. Ask them when items such as tiles and your bathroom suite need to be delivered, so that when the time comes, everything is ready to go. I will say that you can only do as much as you can - most people are juggling various other commitments whilst renovating so be kind to yourself. Renovating is a stressful process but just remember that there is light at the end of the tunnel. If you’re changing the layout of your space and you have the time, try your best to sketch a rough floor plan with as many annotations as possible before the builder starts, even if it’s really basic. If you're struggling with doing that yourself, ask an interior designer for some help. 

What do you consider the most important factor when it comes to interior design?

I think it's important to try to test things out as much as possible to make sure your ideas work in the way you want them to. If part of your renovation includes space planning, try mapping out the space using masking tape. This is especially effective if you're working with a tight space in something like a bathroom where it's useful to walk around the mocked-up space to make sure you have enough room in front of items such as the toilet. If you're at the stage where you're choosing paint colours and fabrics, get as many samples as you can and keep them in the relevant rooms. Lots of paint companies offer peelable paint samples now and those are great to enable you to see how the light changes in your rooms throughout the day. For our bathrooms, I left tile and paint samples in the rooms for the duration of the build so that I was always mindful of how everything looked at all times of the day. This really helped me nail down my final decisions.