Words Billie Brand
Photography French + Tye

Sam Buckley holds a hand-sized piece of lime-green silicone up to the screen. “This is a big part of what I do,” he says, speaking over Zoom from his Edinburgh apartment, which has just come on the market. The interior designer has been using the sealant to make household objects such as cushions. Next, he grabs some blue and orange pool noodles that he’s turning into a chair. “I’m really interested in doing things differently,” he adds. Experimentation, particularly involving colour, is what Sam does best. We are somewhat surprised (and admittedly a little disappointed), then, to find his backdrop on our call is a simple white wall. “There’s usually artwork behind me,” he promises, sitting in his home studio. “It’s not normally a blank canvas.”

The rest of Sam’s flat, however, is a riot of patterns and bright pigments. This will come as no surprise to those familiar with his work or his Instagram account, @studiosambuckley, which has amassed more than 155k followers. Scroll through his Technicolor feed and you’ll whizz past pictures of wildly colourful interiors and furniture the shades of fizzy sweets. His most distinguished (and daring) IRL project involved a brief from a client who wanted him to design a room that would make people say: “Wow”. The finished scheme – a psychedelic concoction of graphic shapes and eye-catching hues – has been reported on around the world. He describes his own home as somewhat “toned-down” in comparison, though it’s anything but boring. “It’s been six years since I completed this project,” he says. “I’m ready for something new. And next time, I’m prepared to really push the boat out.”

Sam: “I have always been interested in colour. I grew up in the 1980s when it was very much a thing. My mum was big on art and interiors and there was a lot of colour around the house: our living space was deep red; our smaller sitting room was peach… She wasn’t afraid to get involved and play with it. From an early age, my sister and I were given free reign over our bedrooms. We were allowed to pick our paints from Dulux and choose our own carpets. That was a big part of our childhood. Now my sister is also an interior designer – she does colour too, but in a much more traditional style. Maybe it’s a Buckley thing…

“When I came to buy this place in 2013, I was already living in Edinburgh. The city has long been part of my family. It’s where my parents met and, even though they later moved to Leeds, we were forever taking trips to Scotland when I was younger. My grandma lived in Speyside, near Aberlour, and we’d often stop in Edinburgh on our way. Then later I moved there for university and stayed, for all my sins. And here I am, 23 years later.

“This used to be a student house. The living room was dingy with brown sofas and dark wood, the shutters had been given a horrendous paint job and the fireplace in the living room was covered in fibreglass and resin. It was absolutely horrible! But the original floorplan hadn’t been touched. Sometimes, in these old Edinburgh flats, unscrupulous landlords chop the insanely living big rooms in half to make an extra bedroom. But not this one.

“I lived here with flatmates for three years before they left and I began renovating. How was the process? Talk about difficult client! I mean, this one couldn’t stop changing his mind, couldn’t decide on a budget… I was a nightmare! It was difficult because it was my first apartment, my first time living alone – or the first time living with just my cats – and I didn’t know what I wanted.

“At the time, I was struggling to find out what I was really interested in. I liked a lot of Scandinavian design, for example, but the colours weren’t moody enough – I found the palette a little commercial. But then I got a book about 1960s-70s Italian radicalism and saw dark spaces punctuated with colour via furniture by the likes of Vico Magistretti – I now have one of his green Vicario chairs in my hallway – and that resonated with me.

“There were a couple more things I knew I wanted. One of them was the wallpaper that’s now in my bedroom, which I’d first seen on a stand at Milan design fair. It’s by Arte, a Belgian brand. I don’t often find wallpapers restful, but this one is more about the texture than the pattern and it reflects light, which I like. Secondly, I wanted to create spaces where I could hang my artwork, which I’d been collecting for a number of years.

“I’m very keen on Damien Hirst and his take on colour, particularly his ‘Spot’ paintings – I have one in my living room. He named them all after drugs – recreational or pharmaceutical – because he likened the experience to that of interacting with colour. I really enjoy seeing different colours play together. In my hallway, for instance, I have a painting by Parra, in which the mix of red and blue is so vivid it messes with my eyes. That has inspired me to investigate colours that create strange interactions. In fact, I picked out colours for my flat based on that painting.

“I also wanted to make sure the renovation work was being done to a high quality. I introduced double-glazed windows and I rewired the flat so I could have five-amp circuits. It feels a bit like a hotel, but I really like having bedside light switches by my bed and all that stuff. Once you banish a main light in favour of sidelights and accents, you can really play with the atmosphere of a room.

“I spend a lot of time in my studio. As a designer working by themselves, I have a lot to do. I’ve been getting better at discovering what my best routine is. Right now, I do admin in the mornings and focus on design work in the afternoons. Most of what I do is done here, but I would like more space to experiment. If I had a garage, for instance, I know I wouldn’t keep a car there. It would be used for pouring resin and playing with materials.

“My interiors style has developed quite since doing this place up. Now I think this is quite conservative. That said, I haven’t outgrown it – I’ve not turned my back on this aesthetic. I just don’t like repeating myself. I’m going to be bolder with colour in my next home.

“I don’t really feel sentimental about the move. At first, the idea of it was mildly daunting but I’m excited now. I prefer to look forward, not back. I’ve always loved new. I don’t think there’s anything to miss, really. It’s just another adventure.”