Tigger Hall Design is known as one of Australia’s most eclectic and interesting textile agencies. Stocking everyone from marquee names like Martyn Lawrence Bullard and Allegra Hicks to emerging designers and community artisans, her Sydney and Melbourne showrooms are meccas for those searching for beautiful fabrics with meaning.
Before launching her eponymous agency in 2008, Tigger worked as an Interior Designer for over twenty years, with work featured in Country Style, Vogue Living and Inside Out.
She now travels the globe to bring the most exquisite pieces to an Australian audience.
Underpinning Tigger’s vision is the belief that beautiful textiles allow us to connect with the Global Village in which we live. She will be speaking for the first time in 2019 as part of the Australian House & Garden International Seminar Series at Decor + Design, in conversation with Luciana Wallis of Warwick Fabrics and Tanya Buchanan, Editor-in-Chief of Australian House & Garden.
We took five minutes with Tigger before the event to unpick her style inspirations…
How would you define your own design style/aesthetic?
My aesthetic is classical, playful, artistic and carries with it a sense of travel. Mixing and layering textures, patterns and colour, overlaid with detailing and finishing.
Image: Tigger Hall Design
I ensure my interiors feel as if they have evolved and have not been ‘just done’. I seek to incorporate the history of a space and tell my client’s story, without leaving any trace of myself. It is their dreams which are brought to life.
You launched Tigger Hall Design in 2008 and since then it has become one of Australia’s most renowned textiles studios. You were an interior designer before that. Who are your own favourite interior designers?
I do love the way Martyn Lawrence Bullard works individually with his clients, expressing some interiors with flamboyance, others with a quiet reality.
Kit Kemp’s interiors inspire us with the bold and unencumbered style she has created which still stands alone.
Image: Tigger Hall Design
Nina Campbell, Paolo Moschino, Allegra Hicks, Mark D Sikes, plus our very own Thomas Hamel and Adelaide Bragg are a constant source of inspiration to me.
What’s the most-read book on your shelf?
Victoria Finlay’s Colour: Travels through the Paintbox, I take it everywhere with me, it focuses on the origin of colours, giving insight into how and where to use colour.
I also have a well-thumbed Textile Designs by Josef Frank, Rooms by Katie Ridder and Rooms to Inspire by Annie Kelly.
If pressed, what piece of your furniture or home would define you?
My old paint studio sofa covered in an antique Suzani which I purchased in Istanbul, artfully placed on the sofa by my upholsterer Lily. It is a joy to look at and to live with, it evokes a sense of history and expresses my love of textiles, colour and travel.
Tigger in her studio with the Suzani sofa in the background. Image by Sean Fennessy
If you could live in anyone’s house, whose would it be?
I have always loved “Charleston”, the home of the Bloomsbury group. It is such an artful expression of freedom and of a space created without the need for another’s affirmation. It shows such passion, humour, a love of colour and of collecting.
Tony Duquette’s home in LA, Dawnridge, also has a sense of place and a style of one’s own. It delights and surprises.
The sun room at Tony Duquette’s house ‘Dawnridge’ in LA. Image: Tigger Hall
You’ll be speaking at the 2019 Decor + Design show in July this year, in conversation with Luciana Willis of Warwick Fabrics. What will you be discussing?
We will be discussing the stories behind textiles!
At Tigger Hall Design we have so many creatives. We don’t just sell textiles, it is the stories behind the textiles…who created and produced them, the authenticity and the benefit to the community that is important to us. In today’s world it is inspiring to work with artists such as Seema Krish, who produces textiles in a Women’s Refuge in India and A Rum Fellow, fully supporting a community in Guatemala.
Tigger Hall Design will also be exhibiting at Decor + Design this year. What can visitors expect to see?
Ah ha, wait and see! We will surprise and delight with textiles from around the globe, a tapestry of colour and story lines! Visitors will be able to explore ranges from Nine Muses, A Rum Fellow, Seema Krish, Decobel, Maison de vacances et al. Plus we’ll also be exhibiting our lighting and Chelsea Textiles furniture.
Don’t miss seeing these incredible textile artists on display at Stand J42 of the Decor + Design show, Australia’s No.1 Interiors Trade Event at Melbourne Exhibition Centre, 18 – 21 July 2019.
Register now for trade entry to the exhibition, then book a spot to hear Tigger and Luciana Wallis from Warwick Fabrics speak on Friday 19th July as part of the Australian House & Garden International Seminar Series.