Carrie Symonds and the rise of the 'Soane' ranger

I may not have a Zoom hotline to Downing Street, but I could have guessed that if Carrie Symonds were going to undertake a redecoration programme in the Prime Ministerial quarters, then it would be to Lulu Lytle and the aesthetic she’s honed as co-founder of design label Soane Britain that she’d turn for inspiration.

Why? Because Symonds is the ultimate candidate to be a ‘Soanie’, as I’m calling acolytes of the Soane look, and I’d know, because it’s a tribe I consider myself to be on the fringes of. There is rarely an Instagram scroll that goes by for me and my millennial friends (like Carrie, we’re in our early 30s) which doesn’t leave us ‘liking’ yet another example of Lytle’s distinctive Soane styling.

It might be a genuine set of curtains in the brand’s Scrolling Fern print, or the way someone has emulated the Soanieness by curating a gallery wall of nature sketches and antique oil paintings to co-ordinate with their new chintzy floral wallpaper.

A rattan chair is another hallmark of the Soanie. Lytle has presided over the revival of rattan furniture as a must-have in the home, buying England’s last factory and publishing a book on the weaving technique. The finished effect has all the haphazard charm of an English country home, but made glossy and Instagram-ready.

Fashion and interiors have blurred more than ever in recent years, exemplified by the Soanie attitude to presenting your life. Carrie often dresses in the same way as social media’s Soane devotees – she loves playful floral and gingham blouses by Spanish label La Veste, and the modern prairie look of small British brands like Justine Tabak and Johanna Sands. What all these labels have in common with Soane Britain is their love of traditional, nostalgic style and small-scale craftsmanship coupled with an expertise in pieces that will be catnip on Instagram.

Louise Roe, an author and TV presenter with a 663,000-strong Instagram following, has used Soane Britain throughout the Georgian farmhouse she recently renovated, and epitomises the aspirational Soanie look.

“When we moved back from LA to the English countryside, I had several Soane prints on my decorating wish-list – it is such an elegant brand with such beautiful, signature prints,” she says. “It’s not cheap; I saved up and skirted around telling my husband the cost. But I created a scalloped headboard in Soane’s Fronds fabric, with matching curtains. Every time I walk into that room, it makes me happy.”

According to Tatler, Symonds has painted the open-plan living area of the flat she shares with Johnson in a deep green (maybe Farrow and Ball’s Studio Green, or Edward Bulmer’s eco-conscious Natural Paint in Brunswick Green Deep?), and is using a lot of candles to light the space, probably because this creates an excuse for curating a collection of statement candlesticks (Host Home’s coloured glass collection is highly sought-after).

She is thought to already own some pieces of Soane furniture, too. Which is perhaps just as well, as the £30,000 budget allocated by the Cabinet Office to each new Prime Minister is unlikely to stretch to a full Soane-over, given the brand’s high-end prices; a single chair can cost thousands – hence this week’s news stories about the Johnson-Symonds’ search for alternative ways to fund the works.

This couldn’t be further from the “John Lewis nightmare” that Carrie reportedly called the scheme left behind by Theresa May. While we may have a national soft spot for the department store, it’s really just a step up from Ikea, semaphoring ubiquity and a lack of personal taste and imagination, compared with the way being a Soanie makes you feel like you have the rarefied eye of an aesthete like Lytle – or, presumably, Sir John Soane, the 18th century architect and collector from which the brand takes its name.

The Soane look has a little more in common with the Oka-style renovation that Samantha Cameron gave Downing Street, but her approach was more minimalist and about creating a functional yet stylish environment that could segue from kids homework sessions to a cosy kitchen supper with the Obamas.

Although the Soanie-ness is at its peak among Carrie and her contemporaries, there is plenty about Lytle’s philosophy that no doubt appeals to Boris, too. The designer’s focus has always been on celebrating and reviving British craftsmanship. When she began Soane Britain more than 20 years ago, Lytle travelled around the country in search of cabinet makers, upholsterers and other specialists who could bring her vision to life. Before studying Egyptology at UCL, she grew up in the Worcestershire countryside and has previously said that “ponies ruled our lives”. Now, she is set on imbuing that traditional British sensibility with modern appeal.

Poor old Downing Street, one of Britain’s most famous examples of Georgian architecture, has seen a hodge-podge of design ideas stamped on it over the years. But a Soanie approach could actually end up being the most sympathetic yet. I only hope Symonds starts documenting the whole makeover on Instagram.

GET THE SOANE LOOK: Rattan Venus chair, £5,700, Soane; Marielle velvet chair, £475, Audenza; Rattan-framed mirror, £39.99, H&M Hom; The Carlo trolley, £545, Att Pynta; Scrolling Fern Frond wallpaper, POA, Soane; Pleated silk lampshade, £135, Penny Morrison; Belles Rives tray, £175, The Lacquer Company; Audacious storage cabinet, £699, Umage at Papillon Interiors; Toulouse side table, £195, Ceraudo; Braided pendant shade, £80, Ferm Living at Nordic Nest

Five signs you could be a Soanie...

1. You have a saved search for ‘vintage rattan scallop armchair’ on every second-hand website

2. You’ve had a custom headboard created to co-ordinate with the fabric of your new dress (which you bought from a tiny label that uses deadstock fabrics)

3. You tell your Instagram followers that your cocktail trolley was a steal at a flea market in Bruges, but you actually got it from Zara Home

4. You’ve considered adding a ‘sink skirt’ in your bathroom

5. You have 393 pictures in a Pinterest folder entitled ‘Lampshade ideas’

The evolution of Downing Street interior style

By Eleanor Steafel

Thatcher’s cream damask and matching china

Margaret Thatcher referred to her domestic life at No 10 Downing Street as “living above the shop”. Her childhood had been spent living above her father’s grocer’s in Grantham, but her rooms at No 10 were a rather grander affair. She didn’t like the untidy flat and dullish official rooms when she arrived. By the time she left 11 years later, she had made some improvements.

She brought in the architect Quinlan Terry to make three of the drawing rooms look more stately; her study was decorated with light grey paper and cream-coloured damask furniture; and a large corner room overlooking Horse Guards Parade and St James’s Park was decorated with two sofas covered in a floral red, blue and cream. The cushions, curtains and window seats all matched, and her large collection of Derby and Staffordshire china was on display.

Baroness Thatcher turned down a proposed refurbishment of the No 11 flat next door in 1979, feeling the public wouldn’t be in favour of it. Records show her chancellor Geoffrey Howe is said to have complained that the 1960s-style kitchen was “positively antediluvian, with iron gas rings, antique sinks and sombre décor.”

Major’s artworks

John Major isn’t known to have made any significant changes during his tenure, though he apparently replaced some of the artwork. He liked the works of David Hockney, and hung a portrait of the cricketer W. G. Grace and David Inshaw’s The Badminton Game, both of which were later removed by the Blairs.

Blair’s mirrored workout room

When Tony and Cherie moved into No 11 in 1997, it was still stuck in the past. “I won't sleep in Ken Clarke’s bed,” Blair declared of the former chancellor, who was the most recent tenant. £127,000 was spent on refurbishments between 1999 and 2005. The old bed was replaced with a new one costing £3,500, arranged by Cherie’s close friend and lifestyle adviser Carole Caplin.

There was also an office fitted with custom-made glass-fronted bookcases. There were £70-a-roll wallpapers, new artwork, and a mirrored exercise room.

Brown’s landscapes

Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah are not thought to have made any upgrades after they moved into No 11 in 2007. Brown seems to have been a traditionalist when it came to art, choosing a series of simple landscapes for the walls.

Sam Cam’s £30,000 kitchen

When the Camerons moved in in 2010, it was all change. They opted for an ultra minimalist design, which is said to have cost £30,000 and featured floating shelves, brushed steel fittings, a £3,400 Britannia range cooker and a Gaggia coffee machine. Expensive black corian worktops were installed, as well as an American-style fridge freezer and a £795 marble table.

Elsewhere, old carpets were ripped up and a bathroom renovated, with everything apart from a towel rail removed and a new floor and ceiling installed.

May’s John Lewis ‘nightmare’

According to an article in Tatler, the current residents of Downing Street want to remove traces of Theresa May’s “John Lewis furniture nightmare”. The Mays are not thought to have changed an awful lot when they moved in, content with the Camerons’ fairly significant refurb. A now legendary photograph of the former PM, wearing chocolate brown flared leather trousers in a newspaper photoshoot, revealed classic homeware taste. The living room was furnished with a claret-coloured sofa, dark wood side tables and a glass coffee table decorated with rose-scented Diptyque candles and simple vases filled with white hydrangeas.