I am Sarah Twigg Doyle, an interior & visual stylist and colour consultant. My services range from straightforward colour consultations to full room refreshes and restyling projects. I work with clients on everything from choosing colour, room layout, helping to choose furniture and lighting; through to helping them display and style the finishing touches of a scheme. I offer a mood board service with a click-link shopping list so clients can visualise the scheme and shop the look to keep on budget.
Other services for private clients include product sourcing, home staging a property to be ready for sale. As well as a full decluttering service, offering clients’ strategies and solutions for lasting and successful home organisation.
As a visual stylist and content creator, I work with commercial clients and companies to style their brands and products, enabling them to create online content for their websites and social media, as well as sharing it to my own.
I’m a strong advocate for biophilic interiors - the process of incorporating as many elements of nature as possible into the home. I always look for ways to connect a client’s interior to the natural world. A biophilic home has a positive and proven scientific impact on our mental health and wellbeing, creating a haven for us to feel relaxed and comfortable in. Principles I adopt in my own home.
A calm and sophisticated bedroom designed by Sarah that displays her unique maximal styling.
2. Do you have a signature style? How would you describe it?
Ha! A question I always find tricky to answer. My own personal interior style I would surmise as a bit of a cocktail of vintage heritage style, with a dash of scandi-bohemian. I’m loving the ‘dark academia aesthetic’ and feel the look applies to a lot of our home. As a nature lover, the palette I go for uses greens, mixed with earthy, soft tones, and of course lots of plants and botanicals. My husband and I both love vintage and art so our home reflects our love of collecting unusual pieces. Plus, he is a part-time artist @artistgmd on Instagram, so I am very fortunate his beautiful work adorns our walls and I get to cherry pick the pieces of his work I love most.
Sarah's stunning dining room in her signature shades and biophilic style
3. When did you first become interested in design? Tell our readers a little about your career.
After many years being unfulfilled in the corporate sector, in executive search and recruitment. I vowed I didn’t want to return to that career after I had our kids. So, I decided to pursue my passion for interiors and began selling upcycled furniture and home accessories. That soon led to customers asking if I would consider working with them to style their homes, and so ReTwiggd Interiors was born. I also began showcasing and sharing my home styling tips on Instagram, which has led to over 30k followers and a growing number of opportunities in the industry.
Interestingly, I also have a life coaching diploma, something I often find comes in handy when I am working with clients, coaching them through the home styling process to be a step braver with their choices.
4. What does a typical day look like for you?
In my experience, no two days are ever the same and it very much depends on how my diary falls in any given week. Some days I might be out at client appointments or sourcing product; to others where I’m desk bound working on clients’ styling plans or researching and putting together mood boards. If I’m being disciplined, I try to set aside a day of the week for content creating and styling ready for social media posts. One of my goals this year has been to get back to writing my blog, I love the writing process but a little like exercise it’s easy to fall off the regime wagon.
5. And to help our readers get to know you a bit better...What's your favourite food? Your favourite place to go on a day off? And your favourite piece of furniture and why?
Mmm, favourite food – all the food! But seriously if I had to pick, nothing beats a good roast dinner or a scoop of authentic Italian ice cream.
Sarah's Green Kitchen, Visit Retwiggd's Instagram to see more here!
On days off if the weather is good, a woodland bath is my happy place. I grew up opposite woodlands and spent so much of my childhood wandering through it, listening to the birds, picking wild flowers and looking for treasure for the school nature table. It probably explains why I am so passionate about natural interiors. If the weather isn’t playing the game, then I love a mooch around vintage and flea markets or antique shops with my husband. We always vow to one another we won't buy anything, but rarely manage to come home without something we just couldn't leave behind!
Favourite furniture, now that’s like asking me to choose a favourite child! With a gun to my head, my favourite vintage pieces are a beautiful black cabinet from House McGrath and a brass and wooden carved leg tourist table which came from my parents-in-law. They had it in the attic and weren’t using it so I politely asked if we could have it. Favourite new piece – the beautiful French style cane bed we’ve just bought for the bedroom, an investment piece I know we’ll have for life.
6. Can you please give us an insight into your design process or how you work?
I studied colour psychology a couple of years ago and I find the insights it gave me invaluable when I’m working with clients. Colour is so personal and everyone sees and responds to it so differently. The four colour personality types will all have a specific style, so it makes sense to use the guiding principles of the psychology to inform my design. As a jumping off point, I always ask a client to visualise themselves in the finished space, how do they use it and how do they want to feel in the room; what will a successful scheme mean to them.
Asking the right questions is paramount, along with looking for visual clues to the person’s style and what might work for them in their interior. I get them to tell me about favourite things in the house, things they really don’t like, things they feel work or don’t work. Armed with all that information I can begin to show colour and discuss a scheme.
I am passionate about the role of sustainability in interiors and the need for conscious consumption, I encourage clients to incorporate and reimagine pieces they already have into the new look. Or shop second-hand and vintage where possible, as a great way of adding character and interest to their space, whilst supporting the circular economy. Shopping local too, so trying to source from Irish brands and companies where possible.
7. What has been the highlight of your career so far?
At the risk of sounding corny, everything I’ve achieved so far! To have managed to grow a business, albeit still fledgling, from the ground up, learning as I go. To be honest, getting to do a job I truly love every day is a privilege and never feels like work. The excitement of seeing a finished project and knowing how much the client loves it; to the people I’ve meet along the way, some of whom I know consider friends; to the amazing companies and brands who’ve chosen to collaborate with me.
Our home has featured in magazines such as House & Home, Homestyle and RSVP, which is always such a thrill and an honour. Plus getting asked to contribute to various interiors blogs and articles over the years in publications such as The Sunday Times, Irish Country and Your Home to name a few.
8. Any exciting plans for the future you can tell us about?
I had the privilege of being asked to give some talks at Grand Designs Live in Birmingham last year, on colour and creating a sustainable and characterful home. I even got to meet Kevin McCloud! The organisers have asked me back for the London leg of the show this Spring which is very exciting! We are looking at the possibility of running some colour and mood board workshops alongside the talks which attendees to the show can book a slot for.
Colourful and bright scheme for this living room space!
We are doing quite a lot of work to our own house currently which is diverting my attention somewhat. Having thought we were moving a year ago, we’d put any necessary improvements to this house on hold to save money. But when the purchase fell through, coupled with the current economic uncertainty, it seemed sensible to stay put. As well as tackling some of the projects we’d put off, to try and fall back in love with it.
Visit Retwiggd on Instagram @retwiggdstylist or Sarah's website here!
