Tales From the Drawing Room

ASTRID TEMPLIER

Tales from the Drawing Room: Astrid Templier

Originally from France, Astrid is a London-based interior and portrait photographer who we adore and who shoots for the English Home magazine, among others. Her approach is a clean and vibrant take on classical photography, with a penchant for romanticism. She lives in North London with her husband and two small children.

You’re an incredible photographer and we love your wonderful interior portraits. Tell us how you began your journey in photography, and how it expanded to the world of interiors.

I’ve always loved taking pictures, but it’s really when I moved to London 15 years ago and my grandfather bought me my first camera that I started taking it seriously. While it had always been a great passion of mine, I never really thought I could make a career out of it. Then a conversation with a photographer friend of mine opened my eyes. I decided to quit my job and became a photography assistant. I worked with many wonderful people who each taught me loads, and when I met a brilliant photographer who specializes in interiors, I became fully immersed in this world.

I’m originally from Paris and my family has always had a keen interest in decoration, my mother especially, who I think should have been an interior designer! Our family has been collecting antiques and quite a lot of art over the years, so it definitely impacted me growing up. And when I started working in that world, something really clicked.

What do you love the most about your job?

For me, it’s a combination of two things. On the one hand, carefully crafting beautiful images by bringing them as close as possible to the vision I have in my head, that's what really brings me joy.

And on the other hand, it’s about the people I work with. I get to meet such talented people from lots of different backgrounds and getting to know them is a privilege. What I enjoy the most on shoots is when you have a real creative conversation flowing, where everyone strives towards the same goal - that’s really fun and stimulating.

You renovated your Victorian London home. Do you feel that your work has influenced your own interior design aesthetic? If so, how?

Oh absolutely! Seeing so many of my clients’ gorgeous designs and products, I am spoilt for inspiration. From materials and paint colours to certain items of furniture, there are always so many things that attract my eye. I was very lucky to discover some exciting brands that I absolutely had to introduce in the house.

A favourite of mine is the wallpaper we chose for our bedroom, it’s Limerence Fern from House of Hackney. I discovered the brand in a project I photographed and became a huge fan of their designs. And very often it’s my own clients’ creations I’m inspired to buy for myself! As was the case after a shoot with Alfred Newall, where I simply had to get one of their lovely lacquer bamboo lamps, which now sits perfectly in our living room.

My French family always teases me by saying how British my interior style is. I think in France we can be a bit more tame in our approach to colour… but I love it! When I decided to paint my shaker kitchen a deep shade of Emerald green, or when I chose a small sofa in a blazing orange velvet as the centre point of our living room, it certainly raised a few eyebrows.

What is your favourite room in your home and why?

I would say our living room. It is strictly “grownups only” as we have a play area for our boys on the lower ground floor, next to the kitchen. It is so nice to have a space that really feels like our own.

It is the front room of the classic Victorian double reception rooms and has lovely proportions with high ceilings, a large bow window and a fireplace. But it’s not overly large either, so it still feels cosy. I wanted the space to feel inviting and comfortable but also fresh. So I chose a peachy shade of pink for the walls, which works really well as a backdrop for artwork.

We created a little gallery wall on the main wall with an assortment of artworks: some pieces that we bought, some given by our families and a few of my own photographs. Apart from the orange loveseat in the bow window, I chose a classical-shaped sofa in a deep navy blue fabric, the Bluebell from sofa.com, directly inspired by one I saw on a shoot! It is incredibly comfortable. But what most people remark upon when discovering the room for the first time is the coffee table: it’s a large Moroccan round table with inlaid bone all over the surface. Finally, to give the room warmth and comfort, I recently found a cream Gabbeh rug which is wonderfully thick and soft.

Is there anything you collect?

I don’t know if you can call that collecting, but I love reading and so does my husband. So we are constantly buying books, the more the merrier! We have filled a couple of bookshelves already and need to get some new joinery to house our growing library… I also think that books are such beautiful objects and make a fab decor.

Tell us something about you that people don’t know.

I’m really good at cutting people’s hair. I had my first dabble at it during COVID because of course we couldn’t go to the hairdressers, and found out I was pretty good with a pair of scissors…

Your three favourite Sharland England items

Oh, it’s so hard to choose only three, everything is so beautiful! I love rattan furniture, so it would have to be the Adeline side table. It has such lovely proportions. (Unfortunately, my entrance is not big enough for the console!)

I also really love the Piolo Bamboo chair in brick red. I feel like it can work in any room.

I absolutely adore your collection of ceramics too, and I have my eye on the Splatter Verona Vase in yellow and verde.

What are you currently reading?

I’ve just finished reading a great collection of short stories by Argentinian author Mariana Enriquez called Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego (Things we lost in the fire). These are 12 supernatural stories in the horror genre that explore the country’s political turmoil, social inequalities and gender violence in a dark and often violent way. The atmosphere is so bizarre and the author writes with such brilliance and clarity, that the result is completely haunting.

I’ve also recently been reading a classic of Norwegian literature, Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun while travelling in Norway before Christmas. I find it always fun reading literature from the places I visit! And this pastoral tale of pioneering settlers in the great wilderness of Norway was utterly fascinating. They had to adapt to nature, learn how to make it flourish so that it could sustain them, but also how they had to rely on each other despite personal likes or dislikes, just because there were so few people that they didn’t have a choice. And finally how the settlers were inspired by the beauty and poetry of the landscape, living at the rhythm of each season, felt enthralling.