Designed In The Highlands
Caroline Inchyra is the woman behind Inchyra Designs: an interior designs company based in the Scottish Highlands. She has created a range of unique and timeless fabrics and accessories, using linens and pure Scottish wools. Here, we find out a little about Caroline herself.
What made you start working with textiles?
A fortuitous meeting with the owner of a linen mill that resulted in a mad quest to find a way to make new ‘old’ linens. It sounds trite but is absolutely true – if I had known anything about the industry I was getting into I really would not have done it. There are so many possible pitfalls and it is incredibly competitive. I was completely unaware and very naïve. I have learned so much along the way and found my way through a minefield of production issues. Happily, the end result is a collection that I am very proud of and one that, to my astonishment, has been amazingly well received by the industry.
What’s your favourite part of the creative process?
When I first see a new design printed on to linen – it’s only then that you can really gauge how well it is going to work. It’s very exciting when new print samples arrive and sometimes it will have taken many months of working with a design to get to that stage. Opening the package is nerve-wracking and then absolutely wonderful if everything has come together.
Where do you live and why?
I live with my husband James near Perth in Scotland in a beautiful Regency house that we inherited in 2001. We moved here from London in 2003. I would never move back – Scotland does something to people, it certainly has to me.
What’s your ideal Sunday?
We have a little cottage on the coast in Argyll. To my mind, it is the most unspoilt, most beautiful and wonderfully empty part of the country. I’m tempted to keep quiet about it so no one else finds it! Whenever we can we escape there, on our own for a bit of solitude, or with family or friends. There is absolutely nothing better than a walk down the beach to the pub and then back for Sunday lunch, a roaring fire and the papers. Just the best.
If you could fly anywhere in the world tomorrow where would you
go and why?
India. Probably Jaipur. I discovered India far too late in life and now I want to make up for it.