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Sophie Robinson
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18 Jun 19

Designer Spotlight: Sally Denning, Interior Stylist

The very creative interior stylist Sally Denning shares her career journey and inspirations with Sophie Robinson in the Designer Spotlight feature. #homesandgardens #interiorstyling #wallmural #sophierobinson

I’m so excited to bring a designer spotlight onto someone I massively admire and had the pleasure to work alongside. Many of you have asked me about my styling days and how I got started in the industry (which you can read about here) Sally Denning is one of my favourite stylists and massively respected in the industry, so I set out to ask her to share her journey into the world of interior styling and publishing.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background?
I worked out the other day that I’ve been in the industry for about 23 years (since the mid ’90s), when a photographer and I were working out how long we had known each other. Yikes! I started my career at IPC Magazines as it was known back then, after graduating from University, where my first role was as an assistant working at Best magazine on their Interiors pages. I was doing everything from styling houses and makeovers to style and shopping shoots. I then moved to Woman’s Weekly as Deputy Homes Editor and from there I went to Essentials magazine as Deputy Homes Editor where I commissioned, wrote, styled and designed everything for interiors, shopping, sewing and craft pages. Lastly, onto Ideal Home, a big beast of a magazine, firstly as Homes Editor working up to Style Editor where I styled and commissioned all the deco, trend, style, house, and food shoots with my amazing team. I was also lucky enough to edit my own Ideal Home Christmas Special magazine.
I suppose you can say that magazines are in my blood, obsessed with them from an early age, and lucky enough to work on them until I then went freelance in 2007. That sounds like a bit of a CV, but most of my ’training’ was magazine based, and the most brilliant way to get an insight into the interiors industry.
How did you get into the Styling world?
After graduating with a degree in Art History and Archaeology, I moved to London and wrote off to hundreds of magazines to try and get some work experience at an interiors magazine. Tough even back then, but I knew I wanted to get into interior styling but wasn’t really sure how. At that time it wasn’t such an obvious vocation and luckily the editor at Best magazine replied to one of my many letters – it was a great way to get into the magazine world, working on a weekly where deadlines were tight and budgets small, so you had to learn to be quick and resourceful.

The ever colourful Little Greene

What would be your advice to anyone wishing to pursue a career in Interior Styling?
Be prepared to work hard and be up for anything! Styling isn’t for the faint-hearted, and if you don’t like mucking in and getting your hands (and clothes dirty), it may not be the job for you. I think there is a bit of a misunderstanding that it’s a very glamorous job with a lot of wafting in and out of press shows, but I can assure you it’s blooming hard work juggling a million things at once!
The majority of styling is actually the production side of things: everything from booking locations, models, photographers, set builders, organising couriers and transport, checking props have arrived, running and managing a team of people, sorting the catering, flowers, furniture, you name it. You’ve got to be super organised, have a great team around you and remember every contact you ever get as you’ll never know when you might need it. The styling bit is at the beginning and the end, starting from when you have the initial idea or concept and the bit when the photographer captures what you’ve created (with an awful lot of work in between!). It’s my dream job though and I feel blessed that I do what I do.

Prettiness for Country Living magazine

How has the industry changed since you started your styling career?

When I first started styling, my background was all magazine based, but sadly magazines aren’t as popular as they were. I still do style shoots for magazines such as Homes & Gardens and Country Living, but they tend to commission less and don’t always have budgets to do big shoots.  When I started out, there was no propping online, I had to pound the streets of London day in, day out sourcing props, furniture and fabrics to use in shoots, but now, you can do a lot of research from pretty much anywhere. I didn’t even have email when I first started styling, so you had to fax everyone to call in props! Imagine that! The most notable change though is the move from film to digital photography, a major shift in the industry which hit everyone hard with all the interiors photographers having to invest in new cameras and equipment, re-learn their skill, and working with laptops instead of polaroids! There is also a move now to more environmentally friendly and sustainable design which we desperately need in a world where we are so used to fast fashion in a disposable society.

What has been a highlight throughout your career?

When I was young I knew I wanted to work on a magazine and remember seeing a 1980s front cover of Ideal Home thinking it looked amazingly cool and that one day I would like to do THAT! So I guess you could say that my role as Style Editor of said magazine was a highlight. I’ve also achieved my ambition of writing an interiors book which was also pretty amazing for me. I’ve also done a fair bit of travelling and shoots abroad, always a dream if I’m honest. One of the stands that I co-designed for Little Greene won best stand at Decorex 2014 too which was a pretty great achievement. Without sounding corny though, I can honestly say that it’s a massive highlight to be able to work with the amazing teams that I do; with top London interiors photographers, creatives, set builders, assistants, seamstresses, florists is all pretty up there along with having some amazing clients who trust what I can create for them gets me out of bed every day.

Sally has built a strong relationship with Little Greene

Where do you find inspiration for your schemes?

Everywhere to be honest. Anything from the Interiors/trade shows that I go to such as London Design Week, Clerkenwell Design Week, Focus, and heaps more, to travelling. Books and magazines are a constant source of inspiration and I’m a big fan on Pinterest and Instagram too. I love when a new paint chart or fabric collection is launched so I can plan how I can weave them into my next shoot.

Are you inspired/persuaded by trends? 

Yes, I’m constantly inspired by the latest trends and colours, it’s pretty hard not to be! Also, my clients rely on me to know what’s going on in the industry – what is current, what the season’s colours are, what the now micro-trend is, what the furniture designs are, the fabrics, you name it. I try to incorporate these into shoots I do to keep them fresh, it’s important to keep abreast of what’s going on and ahead of the game. I love working with colour and textures and compiling a shoot to work as a cohesive collection of images at the end, still gives me such a buzz.

Another gorgeous collaboration with Little Greene

What inspired you to create your book, Relaxed Coastal Style?

It all came about through my Instagram feed really. We spend a lot of time on the Suffolk coast which is where my Instagram feed was born @blackshorestyle I try to focus it on details, textures, muted tones and interiors, all reminiscent of the coast and modern rustic relaxed living. The publisher Ryland, Peters & Small actually contacted me which was a bit of a dream come true, as I had always wanted to write an interiors book, but just hadn’t quite found the time to get a proposal together.

Do you have any future projects you can share with us? 

I always feel lucky to be re-booked by my clients so various shoots are already on the cards. I have a few personal projects up my sleeve which I am hoping to launch soon and can’t mention quite yet, so watch this space! There may be another book may be in the offing too. The joy of freelance life is that you never know what may happen next.

You follow Sally’s inspirational Instagram feed here instagram.com/blackshorestyle/

Image at top: Homes & Gardens magazine

Photo credits: Polly Wreford & Mark Scott

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