The Modern British Interior Designer - Syrie Maugham

"Cut the furniture down and paint it white." These words spoken by Syrie Maugham give an idea of the focus of her style as a famed British interior designer of the modern era – the use of the color white in different forms, to decorate rooms. Responsible for creating the first completely white room that shot her to prominence, Syrie had a style that was both modern and imaginative. It is she who began the trend of using a secret craquelure method to repaint French provincial antiques after stripping them.

Syrie Maugham was born Gwendoline Maud Syrie Barnardo on the 10th of July, 1879. Her father was Thomas John Barnardo who founded the Barnardo’s charity. Syrie’s sense of interior design was quite different from that of the Victorian period. Not for her, the small spaces and dark colors of the Victorian Age; her rooms were rich in light, with mirror screens and white in multiple shades used for furnishing.

Syrie Maugham’s career as an interior designer began in 1922 and continued for three decades, up to her death. The year 1922 was also the year that she set up "Syrie Ltd", an interior decorating firm of her own, at 85 Baker Street at Chelsea in London in 1932. All through her career, Syrie used trademark items like mirrored screens; fur carpets; console tables having plaster palm-frond, dolphin or shell bases; books enveloped with white vellum; cutlery having handles of white porcelain, fringed and upholstered sleigh beds; white leather enwrapped dining chairs; and fur surrounds.

One of the interior design projects for which Syrie Maugham is better known is the music room she designed for her house situated at 213 King's Road, London. This room was the sole room in the house, designed completely in white. The drawing room of the house is revolutionary with its pickled furniture and monochromatic color design. Despite her white decors being responsible for her fame, Syrie chose to give up utilizing white to a great extent in the 1930s, and instead settled for color designs marked by bold reds, bright green or shocking pink.

Syrie Maugham, the interior designer, had some important clients including Mrs. Simpson and the Prince of Wales. As an interior designer, Syrie Maugham demanded high prices for her work, perhaps because she understood well the extent of her talent. She married and divorced twice, her second husband being the noted English playwright, short story writer and novelist – W. Somerset Maugham. Syrie Maugham passed away in 1955.

An array of design services such as residential and commercial interior design, interior architecture remodeling and home staging are provided by this North London Interior Design Company.