ABOUT WILLOW & MAINE

Four years ago, Lorraine decided to follow her lifelong passion for everything interiors and started a side hustle.

Her intention was to work on client projects on evenings and weekends, while fulfilling her full-time occupation as Operations Director at a Newcastle based IT company. But Lorraine never expected Willow & Maine to grow quite as exponentially as it has…

Working with clients across the North East, Willow & Maine offer bespoke interior design and styling solutions for every size of project, with packages to suit all budgets.

By Spring 2023, Willow & Maine will have completed more than 30 client projects, including plenty on the quirkier side of the scale – think an old rectory in County Durham, a famous cricketer’s Grade II-listed cottage and a Darras Hall bistro.

Oh, and the name? It’s a combination of ‘the Willows’ – a nature reserve in Lorraine’s home village of Ryton, on the banks of the River Tyne – and ‘Maine’, chosen to reflect the classic, New England décor the business loves to incorporate so much.

Gallery Walls

A relatively easy and inexpensive way to change up a room can be to add a gallery wall. It’s not necessarily a new trend, but it is an evolving one. Whether you go for a wall full of prints or your own photos, these can really personalise a space.

Gallery walls don’t necessarily have to be full of pictures; a collection can be added to a wall, too – plates, for example. More recently, baskets have become popular to group together and these can look quite striking.

There’s also the possibility to mix in prints and decorative items or plants, which we particularly like.

Indoor Plants

Bringing the outside in with rattan and wicker is still extremely popular and, as part of this trend, indoor plants have well and truly staged a comeback.

Whether you’re a faux or a real plant lover, there’s so much choice out there. If you aren’t particularly green fingered (a bit like us!), then the options with faux plants have vastly increased. Lots of high street stores have jumped on this trend, along with higher-end outlets. In most cases, you can’t tell the real from the fake.

Then again, if you are green fingered, then the garden centres and nurseries have lots of great houseplants that you can then accessories further with your choice of plant pots and stands.

Feature Walls

A relatively easy and inexpensive way to change up a room is to create a feature wall.

This could simply be painted, wallpapered, or you could create a very on-trend gallery wall. It’s a quick and easy way to introduce a new pop or colour without redecorating the whole space.

 

Think outside the box with accessories

With sustainability being on everyone’s minds right now, one of things to consider is to ‘shop your home’.

In other words, instead of buying new items, look at what’s already in your other rooms and move pieces around. Changing up accessories from room to room can have a surprisingly big impact.

 

Mix it up

Whenever we’re working on client projects, we always like to mix pieces from bigger brands with those we’ve found in boutique shops.

Not only does this achieve a unique look in any home, but it can also be a lot of fun seeing what one-off accessories you may find in smaller independents. Plus, it means you don’t have break the bank by relying wholly on bigger brands when it comes to adding those finishing touches.