From rebellious beginnings in interiors to becoming the longest-running presenter on Scotland’s Home of the Year, Anna Campbell-Jones is all about bold choices, collaboration and homes with soul. We caught up with her mid-filming to talk colour courage, sustainable style and why your house should tell your story.

Let’s start at the beginning. How did interiors come calling?

I’m from London originally. My dad, my grandpa and my great grandpa were all architects. I kind of resisted that path, went to art school and did a foundation course, but then just found myself drawn back towards the built environment. I applied in 1998 to Glasgow School of Art and got in to study interior design. I always say it was a bit of an act of rebellion, because back then, architects were not fans of interior designers. A micro rebellion, but my dad was quite disappointed that I didn’t do architecture. When I graduated, I went back to London for a bit and worked in commercial interiors, doing shops and offices and department stores, airports.

What brought you to Glasgow?

About nine years’ after I graduated, my then husband and I moved back to Glasgow with our first child, Frank, and I’ve been here ever since. Same flat, in fact. Just me and the cat these days!

When we moved, Frank was just a baby. A friend asked me to design his house. I hadn’t ever done residential interiors before, apart from design in my own flat, but really that was just painting walls on a budget. He had a much better budget. So I did his house. It was a very steep learning curve – residential interiors are very different to commercial ones.

He recommended me to people and I gradually built up a reputation as a residential interior designer that would bring something a little bit different – a bit of collaboration, a bit of eclecticism – not the kind of style of Glasgow interiors that people were seeing at that time. I’m not really blingy, not really minimal, not really neutral. I’m everything those things aren’t, I suppose.

How would you describe your design style?

I’d say it’s evolved. When you’ve been an interior designer – or any kind of designer – for a few years, you become less interested in banging a drum for design ideas that you want to try. I became more interested in the idea of collaborating with my clients and seeing what would happen if I kind of got into character, if you like, designing in the way that my client would design if they had my knowledge and experience.

The Nook ACJ — The Nook, Scotland’s first ever network of walk-in mental health support hubs, designed by Anna. Photograph: @cursetheseeyes

What does that look like in practice?

I’ve always pursued a collaborative approach with my clients, so that they’re invested in the process and feel a sense of ownership and pride in their homes, rather than it being something they’ve outsourced and then live in. I’ve embraced colour more and more as I’ve got older and I like to encourage people to be brave. I also like to encourage people to be sustainable, to work with what they have, whether it’s re-upholstering an old piece or repositioning something they already have and using it in a way they might not have expected.

Your home should tell a story, your home should be your autobiography. That’s where a richness comes from and that’s why, if you look at my Habitus design site, the projects there look very diverse. They are reflecting what my clients wanted, as opposed to me having a design style that people come to me for.

How did you end up on telly?

With co-presenters on Scottish Home of the Year Banjo Beale and Danny Campbell. Photograph: Paul Hansen

Nine years ago I was phoned up randomly by the production company that had got the commission to make Scotland’s Home of the Year for the, as yet unlaunched at that point, BBC Scotland channel. I’d been lecturing part time at Glasgow School of Art, back in the department that I learned in, and although it was only two days a week, it’s still a contract so I couldn’t take off a month to go filming.

Then the second fire happened at the Mac. The campus was closed and I thought, “Well, we’re not doing any teaching, so go for it. I thought it would be an adventure for one summer. But then the following year, it was recommissioned and I had to then make a bit of a decision about whether I would stay in my lovely job teaching or experiment with a career in TV. I decided to go for the less secure, more risky option and continued doing Scotland’s Home of the Year.

You’re the show’s constant – the thread running through every series…

I didn’t know how I was going to come across, or how people would perceive me, you know, as an English person with the accent that I have and the look that I have, which is just purely to please myself. I’m not a conventional interior designer and I’m very obviously not Scottish, and I wasn’t sure whether people would be into that. But I can honestly say I have never had, apart from one journalist commenting on my appearance and the occasional weird man on social media, any anger about my appearance. I think that’s the great thing about living in Glasgow – how accepting people are. If you’re authentic and you don’t get notions, then you’re alright.

The homes on the show are so individual – but lots of people are scared of colour. What do you say to them?

I would say it’s your home, you do whatever you like. When it comes to colour, paint colour. What’s the worst that can happen? If you don’t like it, you can paint over it. I always suggest that if people do choose a colour, that they go a shade bolder or a shade darker, just as an experiment.

On Scotland’s Home of the Year I’m looking out for people who aren’t trying to impress the neighbours. You know, it’s not about keeping up with the Joneses. It’s about making yourself happy and creating a sanctuary in a place where you feel yourself.

Where do you get your ideas?

Everywhere. I get ideas everywhere. My children used to get really embarrassed. We’d be out and about in a cafe or something and suddenly I’d be on the floor on my hands and knees, trying to find a label to see where the table’s from.

It might be like a weird object that I’ve found or that a client has. When I work with my clients, I ask them to collaborate with me creating a mood board using Pinterest. I’ll say to them, “It’s not an interiors mood board. It’s a ‘what you love’ mood board. A pair of shoes or their favourite film or a car they love, or really anything. It’s about getting a sensibility.

ACJ cushions — Cushions designed by Anna. Photograph: @cursetheseeyes

I feel that every human has their own kind of palette of shapes and styles, colours, textures and patterns. I’m trying to find out, in a kind of quite organic way, what that is. Rather than saying, “Here’s three wallpapers. Which one do you want?”

So you don’t follow any trends?

Trend is a very broad term, isn’t it? I mean, if there’s a trend towards expressing yourself, doing what you want, then I’m all for it. But trends, for trends sake… it’s not a sustainable approach and it’s not a personal approach. Doing something because it’s fashionable could be the opposite of expressing yourself and being true to what you like.

Anna’s Lucky Swallows are a collab with Ocean Kitchen Scotland made with 100% recycled ocean plastic, sourced from the shipping zones of Forth, Lundy and Malin. Photograph: Reuben Paris

People talk about fast fashion a lot when it comes to clothes, but fast fashion interiors, in a way, are much worse, because people buy a new place and they’re like, I need a new kitchen. That’s a whole kitchen going to landfill, not just a sparkly top! I think homes should, should evolve as we do, as our lives change, rather than because of fashion or trends.

Speaking of sustainability – does it have to be expensive?

There are ways of being sustainable that don’t actually cost lots and lots of money. I’ve done things like buying old curtains on eBay, you know, picking them, washing the fabric, giving them to my curtain maker, and saying “make a blind out of this, make cushions out of that.” It’s an incredibly inexpensive way to get really high quality fabric that’s really original.

Any hot tips on where to shop for interiors?

I’m always very keen to try and specify products made in Scotland and made from natural materials. There’s two companies that I frequently go to first when I’m looking for a woolen fabric – The Isle Mill, which is in Perthshire, and Bute Fabrics on the Isle of Bute.

I did a collaboration with No Rules Wallpaper, a wallpaper and fabric company based in Glasgow. The way their designs work is the pattern is continuous across the whole 10 metres. there’s no repeat. You put it up without matching, which means you have very little wastage.

Where are your Glasgow go-tos?

Very near to where I live is the Cottonrake café. That’s become the place where I meet friends and have meetings or get lunch in from if people are working in my house. Naked Soup is great and so is Papercup Coffee.

In the evening, it’s fun to go into town. Crabshakk is always fun and I think the best cocktails are best at Hazel.

I’m an ambassador at the Social Hub and SiSi, the top floor bar and restaurant, is absolutely brilliant. Social Hub is also a really good place to meet downstairs for coffee especially if I’m meeting somebody that’s coming in on a train.

Sebbs cocktail bar where to drink in Glasgow — Photograph: Naomi Vance

And I love going to Sebb’s, because the tunes are fantastic, especially if Shaka Loves You are playing.

The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice shop in Queen Street is absolutely fantastic. It’s set up like a proper boutique, everything organised by size and colour and style. I’ve not bought any clothes new for the last two and a half years, apart from a pair of jeans for the current filming, because I just couldn’t find the exact kind of ones I wanted secondhand. I’ve been having massive guilt!

I go charity shopping and online Vinted is good. I love swapping with friends, because I burn through a lot of looks, as you can imagine, my weird life the way it is. So if I’m going to wear something only a couple of times, then I would rather not buy it at all. A dress can look completely different on one person to the next.

Scotland’s Home of the Year is on BBC Scotland and BBC iPlayer. See more of Anna’s work at annacampbelljones.com

Muddy meets: Anna Campbell-Jones

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