Laurence Collyer: Production design for stage & screen as inspiration for interior design

Laurence Collyer's COMPLETE PAINTING & DECORATING SERVICE

Laurence Collyer's Complete Painting & Decorating Service provides value for money in achieving high technical and professional standards. Our approach is to be responsive to the client requirements and objectives and together with very competitive rates, jobs are completed on time.

No job is too simple or too small... to request a quote see business card at the foot of the page.

Laurence provides an interior design service and works alongside customers to help them design and enhance the quality, beauty and functionality of their home or commerical space. Projects are well managed with the emphasis on attention to detail and the ability to deliver individual interpretations for each clients style and taste.

Laurence's ideas respond to the relevent social and environmental context in order to make a house a home or the perfect setting for a business enterprise.

"For me Interior Design and Decorating allows me to combine all of my skills, interests and ideas into one discipline. I believe I’m a better designer for having trained and worked in a whole range of creative and practical fields already. I am able to draw upon knowledge and experience of Fine art, Art History, Production Design for both stage and screen which includes managing budgets, Technical Drawing and the building trade.

It’s your imagination together with your research which fuels the ideas but the designer has to be able to think ahead and try and foresee potential obstacles and work with the existing architecture. My practical experience and technical knowhow (as a production assistant in the theatre industry I’ve seen 25 opera’s leave the drawing board and be constructed on a stage in addition to a number of years working as a decorator) allows me to have courage in my convictions and commit to detail and most importantly achieve a coherent visual concept for a room or entire building. This involves handling light and shade and creating a palette of colours, patterns and textures to build an appropriate atmosphere.

My imagination fused with an appetite to consume as much of the arts and culture as possible which, no doubt sparks most of my inspiration has enabled me to develop an authentic style but equally important here is the ability to communicate. It’s absolutely paramount to understand what the customer is after, it’s got to function and be liveable. Simultaneously, my work is tailored to a budget and schedule.

My role is to conjure up a design to act as a frame for the people who inhabit the space. Interior design is an exciting process because you can incorporate and appropriate so many different things into a room to embolden its style i.e. Hunting-out and mixing decorative objects and furnishings (referring to styles and periods) with the definite placement of everyday items so they play off each other. For me it’s almost like setting-up the background to your own little film, having a sense of mise en scene. The film director Jean-Luc Godard said: It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to. And as specialist painter I can offer Trompe L’oeil and murals as part of the service to add theatrical elements and a sense of illusion to a space.

I enjoy shopping at antiques fairs, junk shops and eBay, I have an eclectic taste and my work in the studio reflects this. I make collages and sketches taking elements from different times and different places. Aiming to reinvent various period styles and adding touches of modernity. I guess I am concerned with making designs which are beautiful yet idiosyncratic. It’s vital to have an attention to detail and to really know what materials are available on the market and at what price. Again my experience in set design has given me the opportunity to thoroughly research the buying of materials and props. For example, certain fabrics and certain floors reflect light while others catch it.

As an art consultant, I have an extensive network of contemporary fine art and crafts contacts to draw upon as well as an up to date knowledge of the art scene both from a modern and traditional perspective. I have currated an international group exhibition at the 42 New Briggate Gallery, Yorks, featuring almost 60 artists from UK, Belgium, Canada, Finland and Spain. I also studied art history at degree level, my final year dissertation was entitled rather pretentiously: The Dissemination of Mediocrity".