Interning At Catalog

Catalog Interiors, Edinburgh, is a showroom and personal interior design service, established by Dixie and Ralf in 2012, with Katherine and Leanne completing the amazing team. The showroom boasts accessible, high-end, fresh and contemporary collections of interior furnishings and products that provide ample inspiration for your next projects. I applied for an internship here because I was drawn to the Nordic style with its celebration of the materials that make these beautiful items.

Lets start with the sample books in back of house, my heaven! I began my internship by sorting through all the fabric samples used for upholstery. Catalog holds a huge collection for domestic and commercial use, with ranges from the likes of De Ploeg. Kvadrat, Weymss, Houles and Romo. I have picked out a couple of my favourite touchy- feely fabrics that caught my attention, as seen in the visuals. Coming from a textile design background and with a keen interest in the sensation of touch in design, I am instantly drawn to the tactile qualities of the material samples and products in the showroom. I was also fortunate to meet Charles, the fabric consultant from Weymss, who explained the details of the new fabric collections available this year.

Whilst on the internship, I have learnt the importance of lighting. Within the showroom there are floor lamps tall and small, table lamps, ceiling lights, wall lights and portable lamps galore! Leanne advised me that no space is complete without a light! Light fittings first and foremost illuminate the interior, but alongside this create varied heights and shapes within the space. For example, the Petite Friture vertigo pendant ceiling light, a statement piece that provides enough shape interest to fill a room alone. Or my personal favourite, the Marset portable and rechargeable FollowMe lamp designed by Imma Bermude, sporting an oak handle and white polycarbonate tilting lampshade creating a soft and fresh dimmable glow anywhere you want.

Some of my other furniture favourites include the Hay J110 Chair in soaped solid beech, designed by Poul M.Volter and the Colony chair by Miniforms made with Viennese straw. Both displayed in the Catalog showroom, I instantly saw the appeal of these natural materials paired with tactile textile cushion pads. The Verde Mirror hangs pride of place by the showroom entrance, a perfect unison of sleek contemporary design with Hygge style cosiness; adorned with foliage in the hidden top shelf and a soft grey textured throw over the dropped rail.

I also accompanie Katherine to Jeffery’s’ interior design showroom to attend their summer soirée. It was an interesting contrast in styles; Catalog showcases a Nordic, Scandinavian style with clean crisp aesthetics, whilst Jeffery’s showcases a printed pattern and embellishment heavy collection of accessories and interior styling. I enjoyed meeting other designers and exploring the differences between the two interior design showrooms.

Over the week I was tasked with organising, price checking and referencing the sample books, as well as packaging Trouva orders, posting brochures to clients, finding suitable wallpaper samples for client projects and email correspondence with fabric stockists. My main missions were to produce visualisation boards of the current Catalog products to accompany this blog post, reorganise the Chilewich dining accessories display and assist with rearrangement of the showroom products and displays. I enjoyed the creative responsibilities I had been given, as this allowed me to use my strengths in Adobe InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop to produce conceptual digest boards and to use my knowledge of colour to help with display arrangements.

Friday presented my favourite assignment of the week, which was to assist Leanne with styling and dressing the window displays and backroom; we chose colour schemes, light fittings, furniture and accessories to showcase. I felt very happy that I was given this responsibility and the outcome was super satisfying! A great way to end the week!

I have had a super insightful week in to the interior design industry whilst working with Leanne, Katherine, Dixie and Ralf at Catalog. I am truly grateful for the opportunity for this work experience, as it has opened my eyes to the many possibilities of interior design and styling.

I hope to stay in contact with all the team and wish them luck for the future!

Lucy

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