Preston Schroeder by Bruce Hemming

Preston Schroeder

Pictures Bruce Hemming

Preston Schroeder is South African with Malaysian parents, and came to the UK 20 years ago as a dancer. After an injury, he gave up dance to work in fashion for Gucci, Selfridges and Brown¹s, and then became the retail buyer for One & Only resorts – re-shaping the way luxury hotels present and sell goods (from tacky souvenirs to beautifully crafted, one-off pieces with a sense of place). Now, he¹s the buyer for Mexican resort chain Vidanta, and still works in fashion, designing a resort range of womenswear that sells in luxury hotels around the world.

The house: A four-bedroom Edwardian home in Kew, south-west London. Preston renovated the property and enlarged it with a kitchen-diner extension and a loft extension.

The interiors: Playful, colourful and eclectic, reflecting Preston¹s frequent travels and eye for the unusual. He mixes antiques from Bali with hand-made woven bowls from South Africa, with lots of British design too, including Tom Dixon lighting throughout. This is an interior that doesn¹t take itself too seriously – from the Tretchikoff mural in the kitchen-dining-living space to the huge brass egg-shaped lamp, the hot-pink walls in the side courtyard garden and the leopard upholstery – yet it¹s also full of beautifully crafted one-off decorative objects and art. Rugs are by  ABC Carpet & Home in New York, butterfly art by Les Couilles de Chien, photographs in the living room, Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott