I think there's such a kind of focus on looking after yourself,
looking after your health, looking after your mental state,
whether it's a home, whether it's an office, whether it's a
kind of club of some kind. There's very much a kind of a
recovery, There's very much a kind of rest and rehabilitation
element to it. And it's something that's very,
very dear to Austin. And certainly maybe it's an age
thing, maybe it's being a parent and thinking about your own
mortality and things like that. But it's to have such a kind of
focus on that within the luxury sector and even residential
sector, it is really, really important at the moment and it's
really fascinating. You're now listening to Design
Curious, a place where you, Creative one, are here to learn
about what it really is like to be an interior designer.
And I'm your host and mentor, Rebecca Ward.
If you're worried about how to succeed in a creative career, if
you're ready to learn your next steps to become an interior
designer, and if you want the satisfaction of doing something
you love every day, you are in the right place.
Grab a coffee, a notebook, and let's dig into today's episode.
Hello and welcome to episode 178 of Design Curious Podcast.
Today on the podcast, I am privileged to be able to
interview designer Elliot James. His journey from furniture
design to establishing a multi award-winning international
studio is a testament to his dedication to creating spaces
that transcend mirror aesthetics.
His philosophy centers on the belief that well designed spaces
can serve as sanctuaries, evoking genuine emotion and
fostering meaningful connections.
I truly enjoyed our conversation talking to him about furniture
design, about international design, and it was just a lot of
fun. So I think you're going to enjoy
the episode, so let's listen in. Hi, Elliot, welcome to Design
Curious Podcast. It's great to have you here
today. Hi, Rebecca.
Thanks so much for having me. I'm, I'm really excited, really
excited about what we can talk about.
Thank you very much. Yeah, I'm very interested in
your story right now. You are currently in Dubai, so
we have very different time zones happening right now.
So I appreciate you coming on and sharing.
Why don't we start where you got into design in the 1st place or
creative outlets at all? What made you think you wanted
to go into this kind of industry?
Yeah, no, fantastic. It's a long story.
It all kind of started when when I was a when I was a boy, I grew
up in a house where my father was an engineer, was always
working on our home and extensions and things like that.
So my brother and I would help him do those kind of things.
So structural elements and technical elements.
And at the same time, my mother was a huge interior design
enthusiast. So I was always surrounded by
kind of paint samples, fabric swatches.
My grandmother was a huge antique collector.
So we were always kind of surrounded by antiques and
understanding kind of the beauty in these beautiful old objects
and things like that. So it was really ingrained in in
my brother and I from a young age.
And my brother went off to do a completely different career.
But for me, I just always had this burning desire to do
something creative. I, I loved drawing, I loved
building things. And I, and I had a particular
fascination with, with building 3 dimensional objects and seeing
these things come to life. So when I then sort of
specialized at a certain age, you know, a college or
university, I then knew I wanted to go into kind of product and
furniture design where I could use and and create something
sort of very tactile and, and look at a different material
hills and things. When I finished and I was kind
of making my furniture and I had a sort of small company that was
doing a few installations and bespoke pieces.
But I would go into a space and I would look at it and think I
could do so much more with this space if I had the freedom to do
that or if this if I could do the entire entire thing.
So I went back and retrained an interior architecture and then
from there decided, OK, now I'm going to control everything
within that space. And then really that's where
kind of Eliot James interiors began and then then grown into
an interior architectural studio where we do everything from what
we call kind of shelling core. So just the bare bones of a
building and we build everything right down to the accessories,
curate the artwork, bespoke furniture.
And that's how this journey or, or, or my kind of career
evolved, I guess. OK, so when you went to get your
interior architecture degree, did you have to intern for
other? People while you were.
Doing that or was that not part of it?
And then I just curious about how you like if you worked for
anybody before you started Elliot James Interiors.
I didn't. I just would have finished my my
qualifications. I was actually working in
branding and in in graphic design for a big national
newspaper in London. And from there that also taught
me another set of skills about how to sort of market myself,
brand and myself what I wanted my brand to look like and
everything. So that was very, very useful.
But I was kind of doing the other the other thing on the
side. And then it got to a point where
the two were starting to compete and I just had to make a
decision. I'm either going to do one
career and, and be in branding and graphic design and
everything forever, or I'm going to do what really, you know, is
calling to me to do and follow my passion, go and take care,
take on the interior architecture full full time.
So the at the time, my business partner was living in Singapore
and was saying to me, you know, come out and see me come to
Singapore. I've been going to Asia for a
couple of years anyway due to my brother living out there and I
loved it. And then when I came to
Singapore, I was just like, you know, let's just take the
plunge. So I said to my wife, who was my
girlfriend at the time, should we go have an adventure?
And we said yeah. So we completely just to say
Casey's a laptop and a website arrived in Singapore and said
OK, we're now full interior design studio who wants our
services. You know, it's pretty much
tumbleweed for about 6 months. There's a lot of knocking on
doors and and trying to drum up some this where we could.
Yeah, wow. So I admire that adventurous
spirit, which I think is needed for any entrepreneur because you
have to take a risk and just get out there and do it.
But to move and not have any kind of like groundwork set up
for getting clients right off the bat.
I imagine it was in the little tumbleweed, but only six months.
So that's not bad I think actually.
Yeah, yeah, I think we were lucky enough.
Singapore was a small place. It was still very competitive,
but I think we we were lucky enough to we were in a kind of
an expat community. So it was a lot of knocking on
doors, a lot of going to kind of events and things like that and
just making friendships and, and kind of word of mouth.
And it was then a case of as soon as the first opportunity
presented itself, we, you know, naturally I jumped on it and
then sort of did the best, best I could with that project in
order to kind of be a sort of stepping stone on to the to the
next thing really. So as far as the services that
you offered right off was was it mostly just design work or did
you do like installation procurement for the clients as
well? Because I think it would be hard
to learn where your resources are once you move to a new
place. Yeah, that's right, that's
right. Now we do.
I did the full thing. I did the full project, like
from start to finish. It was a sort of duplex
apartment, the three beds, very nice with a beautiful roof
terrace and everything. But yeah, we did the full thing,
the procurement and everything, but.
But what I did is in the time whilst I was leading up to
getting that first project, I spent a lot of time researching
into suppliers and, and contractors and viewing their
work and making sure that I felt that I was happy to then work
with those people and, and sort of for them to kind of represent
my brand. I guess I think where I'd, I'd
sort of always had that history in furniture design and sort of
my education in the UKI always felt I had a very, very good
understanding of what good quality was.
So I spent that time sourcing for that.
And then fortunately, I mean it, it didn't go so smoothly.
But like all these things, you know, you kind of cut your teeth
on the first project and you learn so much and, and then you
learn every time, you know, I think I, I think I'm still
learning on every project, you know, so.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. So being a furniture designer,
do you also do a lot of custom furniture for your clients?
I would think. We do, we do, we do a lot of
custom furniture for our clients.
It's, it's one of our, and sort of USPS as well.
Like a lot of what we now focus on is about client experience.
It's about sort of the experience of the home.
And how can we enrich that? How can we create a sort of not
simplicity, but how can we enrich and make our clients
lives easier and more convenient and, and everything sort of be
very intuitive. And that comes down to that
bespoke furniture as well, whether it's a, a piece of
joinery or, or a piece of cabinetry or whether it's
something like a beautiful armchair that ergonomically
formed for the client. It all of those kind of ideas
and, and sort of research of our client goes into that product.
And so we, we really, really value doing that.
And for us as well, it allows us to give something truly unique
to our clients as well, something that somebody hasn't
seen before, I guess. Yeah.
So then as you have developed your brand and everything, what
is really your ideal type of project and what really is are
you passionate about when you approach a project?
It's a really tough question, actually a tough question.
I should I should know this off off the tip?
Of my tongue. But I think it's so hard because
we we do a broad range of residential commercial
hospitality and that's kind of been a sort of natural
progression over the years. But I think one of the things
that really excites me is when we do a residential project for
a client that it has a good understanding of, of design and
an appreciation for detail. Because what we try and do is we
try and add these little kind of beautiful elements that to the
naked eye or to somebody that maybe just walks into somebody's
home, may not notice these things.
But to a client that can sit down and notice the detail,
that's, that's a real sort of beautiful moment for us to be
able to do that. And if we can capture a client's
personality and capture that in an environment or in an
interior, and that's, that's very special.
So for us, we've been very lucky over the years to to carve
ourselves and niche into luxury. And within that, obviously we
get to work with some amazing materials.
We get to work with some fun, fascinating clients as well that
are so well travelled and interesting stories and have
interesting either likes or dislikes and you know, family
heirlooms and things like that. All of that we kind of put into
this sort of mixing part to create this beautiful project
for them. Very nice.
Yeah, Yeah. So how large is your firm that
you have now? Is it based in Singapore or is
it in Dubai? Where you're at?
So we're in. So I'm, I'm based in Dubai.
I moved here in August of 2025 and and previously I was in
Singapore for 13 years. So in Singapore we still have
our office there. So we have three of our
designers sitting in Singapore and then in Dubai we have 6 and
in in London we have two. We just found where we started
in, in Singapore, our clients would be predominantly
residential clients. And then they may have family
wealth offices, they may have other ventures and they would
ask us to, to look at different projects.
It might be a restaurant, it might be a Wellness facility or
something that they've invested in.
So then it sort of grew and then they were then we would have
inquiries to say, are you guys in Dubai?
We're buying property in Dubai. Dubai is obviously a kind of
booming the economy at the moment.
And so we said no at the time we didn't.
But we have something that we always wanted to do.
And with me being in Dubai, it allows me to cater for the
Singapore market. And I'm up early and I work with
Singapore. And then obviously later on in
the afternoon, London comes on board and, and comes online and
then I'm I'm ready to work with them as well.
So so strategically, Dubai works very well.
Nice. OK.
And so I think it'd be really interesting to adapt to a new
culture then as you're you're living there and setting up shop
again. Of course, your brands can be
very international. Do you like them having
international brand and having to deal with all the different
countries economies and you know how is the how is the current
market for you? Yeah, I love the different
cultures. I love sort of understanding how
how business is done in different places.
And I found that sort of Singapore and Asia, our clients
would be very, very detailed orientated.
There's been a lot of time mulling over kind of details and
sort of the intricacies of the design.
And then here in Dubai, I find people at very, very face value.
They want to see you in front of them.
They want want to have that eye to eye contact.
They want to kind of have that trust there as as well.
And I find all these kind of things really, really
interesting and sort of how you do business, but also how that
then translates into people's environments and what makes them
comfortable and what people are looking for.
And so I think learning all those things are really great.
I think some of the challenges of those things are trying to
spread yourself maybe too thin across one of the regions.
I think exactly as you said, sort of get into grips with
those new markets and trying to get up to speed and making sure
that one market is not suffering whilst whilst you're focusing on
another and and that certainly takes takes some balance.
Balancing. So yeah, I.
Think it's challenges? Yeah, well, if we don't know
anything about you, we know you're always up for an
adventure, right? So.
So let's take on Dubai now. Yeah, That's great, though.
I love that, that spirit. So I imagine you're dealing a
lot with luxury design, residential, probably
hospitality as well. Where do you see it going right
now? As I know, there's been a lot of
incorporation of Wellness into luxury design, but what does it
look like for you with your projects?
Yeah, we've been fortunate enough as well to be brought in
by a number of developers as well and sort of assist on
analysing what luxury looks like and what that luxury clientele
is looking for as a buyer when they come to a new home, What
what is it that they want? It's not necessarily just a case
of a number of bedrooms and study or even to say, OK, you
know, I'm going to have a wine cellar.
It goes far beyond that. Now people want to have kind of
a sanctuary and it's something that we proud of ourselves goes
on about motor. Our ethos is, is is sanctuary
created? We want to create somebody
sanctuary. And that kind of looks like
we're very different to lots of different people.
But now I think there's such a kind of focus on looking after
yourself, looking after your health, looking after your
mental state, whether it's a home, whether it's an office,
whether it's a kind of club of some kind.
There's very much a kind of a recovery, There's very much a
kind of rest and rehabilitation element to it.
And it's something that's very, very dear to us.
And then certainly maybe it's an age thing, maybe it's being a
parent and thinking about your own mortality and things like
that. But it's to have such a kind of
focus on that within the luxury sector and even residential
sector, it is really, really important at the moment and it
and it's really fascinating. We're doing a huge amount from a
contrast therapies, hyperbaric chambers, oxygen chambers,
looking at how kind of oxygen chambers can actually rejuvenate
brain cells and and help stem cell growth, all these kind of
things. Naturally, where there's so much
wealth in these locations are people have worked very, very
hard to accumulate. Now they want their life to be
prolonged and they want that quality of life to be so much
better. So we're seeing a huge amount of
input and a huge amount of focus on that in the residential with
the home setting and things like that.
So which is really, really fascinating.
Really fascinating. Yeah.
So a lot of people are opting to have those saunas and coal
plunge and, I don't know, hyperbaric oxygen within their
homes so they don't have to go out for it.
That's right. They're looking for that kind of
thing at the home, but it even goes beyond to looking at
certain things like circadian rhythms.
So those kind of lighting effects that when we wake up in
the morning, the lighting is a lot more kind of is a little bit
cooler, but it's a lot brighter and our cells absorb that and it
kind of gives us energy. And then at the end of the day,
it's a lot more kind of subtle, more yellow and allows us to
kind of start to relax and things like that.
So even down to how we kind of inject circadian lighting into
the home has a massive effect, even down to things like people
now want almost and a non tech environment as well.
So is there an area where people go to just completely detached
from technology within the house?
Is it somewhere that people meditate?
All of these kind of facilities that can really help our own
mental state as well as physical.
So go is the kind of the the stereotypical gym and maybe a
sauna. And now in comes a kind of
recovery suite and recovery facility and then that can also
include obviously sort of massage facilities as well.
Yeah, because I think a lot of the recovery that has to be done
is not only just from going out in the world, but it's also just
the constant exposure to our devices.
And so having a device free area, a non tech area definitely
makes sense, But also incorporating tech in a useful
way for your Wellness, like you said with programming, circadian
rhythm with the lighting. And I'm sure there's other, you
know, tech that could be more discreet and hidden, but it
still is beneficial for Wellness.
That's right. Absolutely.
Yeah. And what's amazing is how that
is now seamlessly find its way in integrating into our homes is
I just see that increasing more and more and becoming more
common on a day-to-day because I think everybody's moving that
way. I think everybody's aware of how
kind of plugged in they are that, you know, they're aware
that all of this needs to start sort of giving back and helping
us and giving us the health benefits as well.
Yeah, and a lot of people also just work from home.
So they're they're needing respite from that their Home
Office or you know, what else is going on there?
OK, so really interesting trends there.
So have you worked on some hotels in Singapore?
And you know any place that if we were traveling, we'd want to
go to? Absolutely.
I mean, we, we've been really fortunate with, we're working on
actually a Wellness hotel at the moment in, in Bali, in
Indonesia, which is really fun. They started off doing a
Wellness facility. We started off as a, as a
gymnasium. Then it grew out to be in sort
of Wellness and things like that.
And now they're creating a kind of Wellness hotel as well.
So, so very much all the things that we've just spoken about
kind of finding its way into the rooms themselves and things, but
a beautiful spot. You, you, you kind of come off
from surfing on the beach and then you come up to the hotel
and then you've got this beautiful Wellness environment
and yeah, really, really special.
So that, that's really exciting. Other places that we've
designed, we've designed roof top bars on top of Marina Bay
Sands. So you see the, the huge Marina
Bay Sands Casino hotel in the middle of the Singapore skyline
that looks like it's got a boat on top.
We've designed the the, the bar on top of there.
We've done work at Raffles. So we've been very fortunate to
work on some amazing projects over the years.
Well, that's great. Yeah.
Well, do you have any advice for those who are listening, who are
probably starting out in their career or thinking about
becoming a designer, but are really intrigued by maybe the
international aspect or just blending Wellness or even just
getting into luxury and hospitality commercial design?
Do you have any advice you'd like to share?
Maybe lessons learned from when you started out or or anything
just to to help them go in with their career.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I think when it was myself
starting out, I think I had a huge amount of naivety, probably
a good sprinkling of ambition and and kind of all headedness,
like I'm going to make this happen kind of thing.
And that's kind of stood me in good stead.
But I think ultimately it was a case of like following my
passion. I loved travelling and, and I
loved everything to design. And anybody that would stop and
talk about design, I would have a conversation with.
And, and through that and through networking, then
opportunities presented themselves.
And I think for anybody that's maybe being held back by the
fear of that, I knew I could always go back to my previous
life if it all, if it all came crashing down, if it all fell
apart. And, and for me, the risk of
waking up and never having done it versus doing it and failure
was far, far more traumatic in terms of like the, I, the idea
of the outcome or whatever. Apologies because I haven't
really kind of articulated that that well.
But the fear of failure wasn't as bad as the fear of fear of
not starting at all. So.
I, I think my advice would be get out there, try it, network,
and if you're passionate enough about it, I think that will
shine through and you'll find your way in.
I would have interned, I would have shadowed, I would have done
the junior roles for as long as it took me to learn what I
needed to and get my first in. And I think that's the same
thing for anybody is, you know, whatever it kind of takes.
If you love what you do, then you never work a day in your
life. As they say.
The dream, really. Yeah, yeah.
Always be ready for that adventure too.
I love that. Well, thank you, Elliot.
Where can people find you so they can check out your
portfolio and any projects that you might be working on right
now? Absolutely, yes.
So our website is www.elliotjames.com and
alternatively, we're on Instagram as well, which is
Elliot James Interiors. So you can find us on Instagram.
We have a huge amount of kind of reels.
We're always shown behind the scenes of projects we're working
on. And we we do a lot of we have an
amazing in house team as well of of animators and renderers as
well. So you can kind of see how the
projects are evolving. And then obviously we do the
beautiful reveals at the end. So yeah, please come and check
us out there. Wonderful.
Definitely will and we'll be sure and put those links in the
show notes so people can easily find you.
Well, thank you again for coming on the podcast today.
It's been a pleasure to talk with you.
Thank you so much, Rebecca. It's it's been fantastic.
Yeah, we'll talk soon. So if you'd like to reach out to
Elliot or follow him on social media, his contact information
is in the show notes. Go ahead and reach out to him
there and then. Don't forget all the great
things we have for you and my design mentor.
Is available. To you, if you're looking for
mentorship in the interior design industry or some
beginning coaching level, there's some learning modules in
the program. I'd love to have you in there
and you can find more information on my website,
ourworddesign.com. All right, that's all I have for
you this week. Next week we'll have another
great episode and until then, stay creative.
Thanks for listening if. You love this episode.
Please leave a rating and a review.
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