Colin and Justin
 The incredible interior design duo that is Colin and Justin give us a lesson in love, life and creating the home you want
Forget self-help books or the Friends box set; if you are looking for something to cheer you up all you need is a trip to the home of interior design duo Colin and Justin. Half an hour of their friendly banter and you’ll feel a weight lifted off your shoulders. And you’ll have picked up some great interior design tips, all delivered in that energetic style that might make you think, if you lapse concentration for a second, that you are on one of their über successful TV shows, be it The Million Pound Property Experiment or Home Heist, their show for HGTV Canada and the venture that has helped launch their career over the pond.
With homes in London, Toronto and Glasgow they have plenty of opportunities to practise their interior design skills. The biggest project being their Glasgow residence, a Victorian townhouse with 21 rooms over five floors. Currently, they have finished just one room and we were lucky enough to be shown around their state-of-the-art kitchen while getting the low down on everything from living and working together to their new range at Matalan.
You bought this house in 2003. Why did you buy it and what have you got planned for it?
Justin: Years and years ago we lived for a long time in the West End and for another period of time we lived in the Merchant City area of Glasgow. When we lived in the Merchant City we were always absolutely skint and had no money for a taxi – or the bus for that matter – so we would walk to the West End and when we got here we thought, ‘If we only lived here, we would be where we were going to,’ and the same when we were going the other way into town. It seems to be quite geographically sound. It’s a project that we have to do stage by stage because there’s a lot of expense involved. As much as I’d like to say we could do the whole thing in one go, we are all in a credit crunch and are thinking how we could manage our money best. We’ve also learned that the best things come when you don’t rush them. We always say, ‘Think twice, buy once’. We are really stoic in that belief: if we want something, we will work really hard to get it.
What inspired this kitchen?
Colin: We had nothing in here at the start apart from this Dalek and we both decided that we wanted the kitchen to look like it. We are always saying to people that the stuff in your home should fire you up. It’s not about how much money you spend, it’s about spending time and having things in your home that are genuinely you. It’s not about painting it all beige and it looking like next door, you want it to be really individual.
Justin: We found a great company in Ayr called Creative Designs after calling about four different companies and whittling it down. For us it’s the perfect solution to what we need from a kitchen because we entertain all the time and have loads of friends round. Our house doesn’t stand on ceremony: if something gets broken it’s not a crisis. As long as a heart’s not broken or a promise isn’t broken – that’s the stuff that counts. Anything else can be replaced. We wanted it to be slick and this kitchen gives us everything we need. It’s a realisation of a simple dream: Somewhere to cook food for our friends.
Colin: What’s nice about having two islands is that you can chase each other around in a figure of eight, which is fantastic!
Do you make design decisions quite easily between you?
Colin: Yeah we do, contrary to popular belief. We have a bit of a design democracy but at the same time I think if you live with someone you have got to take them warts and all. There is no point bringing someone into your house and thinking, ‘Well I’m going to turn you into this’. What’s the point in doing that? If someone likes something, who are you to say it’s wrong? Get them to bring in their collection of whatever and then subtly hide a couple a week! When I got Justin he was a keen paperweight collector! You see any paperweights in here?
You’ve got a new range at Matalan. How did that come about?
Justin: We’ve been trying to bring colour back to Britain because for the longest time, the House Doctor has been telling everyone to paint their homes cream and white. But homes are for living in – it’s about nesting instead of just investing. So we’ve done amazing pin-tucked ribboned multi-coloured bedding and gorgeous florals in response to the white and beige that everybody’s been doing for years.
Colin: We’ve been approached by lots of other stores to do ranges in the past but they haven’t given us the freedom that we wanted and they haven’t been genuinely designing it, they’ve just been buying stuff in. We do ordinary homes and make them extraordinary so I wanted the range to be really applicable to most people.
Have enjoyed the design process?
Colin: Absolutely! You’ve got to be enthusiastic and love what you do. If you’ve got that then you’re so lucky because it’s not the norm. You see so many miserable people and you just think: Do something about it!
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