Iconic Australian interior designer Scott James dresses up Hotel Northern Beaches Sydney's Hotel Sands.
Bright and successful interior designer Scott James is comfortable in his own skin and with his aesthetic choices. He’s suffused Sydney’s boutique hotel, Hotel Sands, on the Northern Beaches of Sydney with an iconic Australian style. A love of dynamic relationships, of foreign places entwined with island roots, he’s honed his skills at many levels. An early career in hair design introduced him to clients with the budgets and requirements only stylists with resources and talent can satisfy. Increasingly large custom interior design projects place him in the vanguard of global designers.
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Our Manly: How did you come to work with the Northern Beaches Hotel Sands project?
Scott James: I was referred to Hotel Sands by a client.
O M: What did it look like when you came in?
S J: The architects had done their work and I came in and did all the internal finishes and wall colors, chose tiles and carpets and lighting and all of the furnishings, all of the artwork, designing all the joinery for built in cupboards and fridges, that whole side of it.
O M: Favorite country for style Interior design?
S J: Italy. And Paris. Florence, I always go back to Florence.
O M: What are some aesthetic solutions for projects in Australia?
S J: The majority of accommodation these days, both commercial and residential, wants a contemporary feel. At hotel sands we just wanted to do something that was still cool and casual but have a smart up-market feel to it. Lots of colour. I would just call it a casual contemporary feel.
O M: Favorite trends in Australia?
S J: The trend of the moment, as far as furnishing, as far as decorating, is that sophisticated mix of putting quite modern contemporary pieces together with French, Japanese, Chinese antiques. An eclectic feel as if you’d traveled the world and picked up all your favorite pieces and put them in a space and made them work. There is an art to being able to do that.
O M: That reflects the Australian penchant for travel; that’s almost our national identity?
S J: That makes sense, but when I go to New York and look at my favorite apartments, even in Paris I find that mix of old and new, the combination of quite, quite modern with quite classic. It’s a really nice way of doing interiors.
O M: Why are you an interior designer?
S J: For 25 years I owned big salons in Sydney and Double Bay. I was sort of a celebrity hairdresser to the upper echelon plus I did all the tours- Madonna, Barbara Streisand, Kylie, most international acts that came through. Anyway, I did that and a lot of clients would come into the salon, they were grand spaces, and they loved the décor. So I just started out on the side helping clients, doing their apartments and houses. And then one day I literally went, “This is all too hard”. I sold the salon overnight and started doing interior design. It’s been six years and I haven’t stopped. It was like a mid-life career change.
O M: How do you choose a fabric?
S J: It comes down to deciding what materials you want to use for things, what colours are available in your choices for fabrics then tying those choices back into appropriate artwork. Once you make a decision on a colour base everything stems out from that. With a base you can add your colour with artwork, sofas and bedheads.
O M: How do you resource all those things?
S J: After seven years I have a lot of catalogs, a list of wholesalers. I know which direction to go if I’m looking for a certain product. A lot of it is sourcing it through the Net these days.
O M: Ever had a humbling failure?
S J: No. (Laughs!) So far so good (Laughs more).
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