A House Tour with Orla Kiely

The textile designer who is responsible for one of the most recognisable designs in recent years invited us into her south London home for the podcast last week. You can listen here if you want to have audio as well as visual.

orla kiely vintage stem print sofa at her home

Waiting on the pavement outside her tall Victorian terrace house, I was intrigued as to what we would find inside. I remember clearly from my days on The Independent, one of the feature writers returning from a visit to Delia Smith’s house where the plan was that he would interview her over lunch. The famous tv cook welcomed him into her kitchen and opened a cupboard to find the things for coffee. It was filled with ready meals.

Would Orla’s house be the same I wondered. Would the creator of the ubiquitous stem design live in a riot of chintz and be dressed in black like the late Jean Muir?