Arent&Pyke's Sarah-Jane Pyke on time travel and designs that foster wellbeing

Domain speaks with Sarah-Jane Pyke of Arent&Pyke to find out how she drives her business and what her own home looks like.

Q. You’ve said your mission is to inspire others to live a beautiful life. What role do beautiful surroundings play in wellbeing and happiness?

A. For us, a beautiful life involves spending time with your loved ones and enjoying the small, simple pleasures in life. It’s the joy in elevating your everyday rituals and taking part in activities that enrich your soul.

Your home environment is the place you can retreat from the world, express yourself and connect with the people you love best.

Q. What do the interiors in your own home look like?

A. I love putting together combinations of colour in art, patterns in furnishing and strong shapes to pull it all together.

My furniture is a mix of vintage and contemporary pieces, including lots of Australian design. I tend to choose individual pieces for their design story.

My whole interiors journey started from a love of textiles, so as you might expect, I also have a lot of cushions!

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Q. Arent&Pyke is celebrating 10 years in business in October. What are some of the big changes since you started out?

A. From the early days of just Juliette [Arent, co-founder and principal] and I, Arent&Pyke has grown to a team of 11 women based at our studio in Surry Hills.

Working with such a talented group of designers is endlessly inspiring. The introduction of our lifestyle website In/Out in 2011 has been a beautiful way to connect with fellow designers and artisans in the industry.

Sourcing art and completing our interiors with beautiful objects has become an integral element in our practice.

Q. How has social media, in particular Instagram and Pinterest, affected your business?

A. Instagram has created an incredible dialogue with the design community and given us a platform to visually communicate ideas. We love using it to discover new talent and it also allows us to showcase our work to a bigger audience, locally as well as internationally.

Both Pinterest and Instagram have exposed clients to a broader range of beautiful design-led solutions.

Q. Time travel question: if you could go back in time to any era, which interiors would you most like to see up close?

A. I would love to go back to Paris, between the wars. I’m always inspired by the early modernists, their frugal use of materials and rigour in design.

I’ve been lucky enough to visit buildings by Le Corbusier and Mies Van der Rohe but the Maison de Verre is still on my bucket list.

See more at arentpyke.com and inoutdesignblog.com