The conversation
For designer Jo leGleud of Maddux Creative, it’s the little flourishes that make a room picture perfect – and a few other things, which she reveals to our editor Pip Rich
Interior designer Jo leGleud is one half of the London-based design duo Maddux Creative, alongside her business partner Scott Maddux. They met while clubbing 20 years ago, and while their rooms have a refined elegance there is also a sense of joyful abandon –acleverly edited take on modern maximalism.
PIP RICH Having experienced the wonderful, ebullient sensory overload that was your room at the design installation WOW!house last summer, I get the sense that your creativity – if you were to let it –would run an absolute riot. Yet the rooms you create are so totally refined. How do you edit all your ideas into one scheme?
JO LEGLEUD Ha! Well, in order to let a beautiful piece of furniture sing you have to give it some room. I am a maximalist at heart, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like space around the pieces I decorate with – that’s where you find the peace among all the loud colours and bold shapes. With any room, know when to stop. Keep taking a step back, look at the vignettes you’re putting together. I always advise anyone to take a photo on their phone as it gives you a frame and helps you isolate pockets within a room, helping you to understand why each corner works – or why it doesn’t. They may well be enough just as they are.
PR Yes – I of ten think it’s the shape of the air bet ween any objets I’ve grouped on a shelf that ’s the most interesting bit – seeing how a curve interacts with an angle of the piece next to it. As a maximalist, what kind of ‘stuff ’ are you into at the moment?
JL You know, I’m abit of adreamer, and I love touching things. I get captivated by the details in a room – materialit y is my thing. With any space, I like to contrast wood with ceramic, shiny metal with matte, create a dialogue. There should never be one hero piece in a room but several that talk to each other. I just did a space with a Queen Anne cabinet – we put some Kate Malone vases on it whose form echoed its turned wood legs, their colours picking up the hues in its marquetry. That connection makes you look closer at both things. Find the complements and work them.
THE RIGHT TRIM CAN BE THE DECOR EQUIVALENT OF PUTTING YOUR EYELINER ON
PR This unexpected curation is why no two Maddux projects are the same. But one through line Inotice is the incredible f loors – sometimes wood, sometimes tiles, sometimes awonderful rug.
JL Well, f loors are more permanent than furniture. It’s the thing most worth spending money on. Add some detail and already the room stops being a blank canvas – you have some character. Currently, Scott is really into marble
