Australian interior designer Tamsin Johnson has long been celebrated for interiors that feel both instinctive and refined – rooms where antique treasures, contemporary art, and relaxed Australian sensibility coexist. Her new book, Tamsin Johnson: Contrast, Space, Harmony, published by Rizzoli surveys her most recent years of work – a follow-on from her acclaimed Spaces for Living book. It reveals a designer increasingly interested in balance: between formality and ease, heritage and modernity, restraint and surprise.
In conversation with RUSSH, Johnson reflects on the influences that shaped her design eye, insights into the process of curating the new book, and the cities she returns to when sourcing exceptional pieces.
1. Aside from the obvious, how did growing up with antique dealers as parents help to shape your own design eye and values?
I think my parents in particular had their own point of view when it came to antiques and design more broadly. Their whole coterie and cohort were in the arts, and so it was much more than an antiques business we experienced. I think they always had a fresher view of their trade, not a dowdy one, which rubbed off on me. I think the playful and uplifting signature in my work has no doubt some roots in my experience with Mum and Dad.
2. Your work as a collector takes you all over the world. What cities are some of your favourite hidden gems for sourcing great antiques, art or collectibles?
There are no secrets about Paris. It has always been the epicentre. Then there are all the medium sized Southern French towns which have a long history in the antiques trade. The Northern Italian cities like Milan too. North America – Miami, LA and NYC throw up incredible modern pieces. Tokyo also has its surprises.
3. When putting together this book, what were some of your guiding principles? How did you curate what went in and what stayed out?
The book hopefully explains my more recent, albeit subtle, shift towards more formal interiors. Many of which are homes that enjoyed a more mature sensibility. I really wanted everything-in since the last book, with the blessing of the client, so most major works entered the book. In essence, I wouldn’t take a job on if I couldn’t do it to the a caliber that meant it would be left out.
4. You’ve been working as an interior designer for a while now, but what still challenges you about the process?
The most challenging moment is when you know you need to push an aesthetic to its brink and challenge the client. That moment where you need to save it from becoming too benign and just edge toward ‘violating’ it a little (as Brett Whitely used to say of his paintings). I think if I were to give a client something that is too much of an agreeable variant of me then I haven’t done my job. So it is about avoiding compromise and nudging the client down the path gently.
5. You also have a background in fashion – you even worked alongside Stella McCartney in London. How does fashion infiltrate your design perspective?
I really sit parallel to my husband Patrick and his business P Johnson, so we rattle along together through our careers sharing ideas and instincts for things across both clothing and interiors and that is rather synergistic. We have the same purview that we can deftly nod to fashions but totally disengage from their transient and short lived sides to create things that have more permanent relevance. All the arts aren’t much different from one another in that way. It is all a passionate movement.
6. What’s one special memory you have from working on a project included in this book?
There is a section in the book, a little black book of sorts, listing my most cherished and-or inspiring places around the world. It was a great process to go through, forcing me to divulge the places that move me in some way. It’s something you don’t often put down on paper but to do it was quite cathartic in a way.
7. Is there a dream project you’re still hoping will manifest for you in the future?
After this little stint in the Swiss Alps, it would have to be a little chalet or alpine hotel, that or a city hotel. After my time with Rae’s (of Wategoes) and the work I am doing on their Bali hotel currently, and with all the travel and hotel-time I do, I have become very fond of attacking the albergo. There is something subtle about making hotels function well and yet feel homely and part of the landscape.
Tamsin Johnson: Contrast, Space, Harmony is now available to purchase online and at all good book stores.
Shouldn’t you be on the list?
Sign up to the RUSSH Club for exclusive offers and invitations.
