Sibella Court Doesn’t Know Me

Dear Jessica Brennan,

I was introduced to Sibella Court’s book Gypsy, one lazy day as I browsed the design section of a bookstore.  When I saw it I immediately bought it for a friend, then went home and within seconds of opening it up and looking further, I knew I simply had to have a copy for myself. I went on Amazon and bought it that day.

Until then, I had never heard of Sibella Court or her Australian retail business The Society Inc., and yet Gypsy sits on my coffee table to this day, not because it matches my decor (although it does) but because her passion for the perfect and imperfect aspects found in natural beauty moved me.

Often design books are just pretty, or industrial, or a how-to on scale and presentation, but when I see the work of Sibella I feel like I am experiencing a place she’s visited, rather than just looking at a picture she’s created. I don’t mean I feel like I am sitting in a hotel lobby or restaurant she’s frequented, I mean I feel like with a glance, I am meeting an entire country and a people. Through her books I have felt the texture of the coats of animals and tasted the berries hanging from the vines covered in dew, down a remote bridle path.

In addition to the beauty she pulls together on every page and in every interior, I am drawn to her work I think, because I too collect ideas as I travel.  If I am in a forest or on a beach, I slip acorns, flowers and stones into my pockets for inspiration, later popping them into pockets in a makeup case in order to claim them as part of my world.  I make drawings and jot down notes; press my cheek against a tree or a wall and take it all in. It is like the objects themselves and the words they inspire, have their own memory and the energy comes with them back to the little oasis we call home.

Sibella’s love of travel is evident, and I don’t mean her love of tourist destinations. The palette of the people and locations that have inspired passion within her come from the landscape and the food, the colours of an experience. It can be seen on the walls and furnishings she chooses to honour those places. Sea and sky, pebbles and sand, moss and stone and bird feathers, fill not only her books and spaces but the language she uses to describe her work. The words sound like the smell of heavy rain and the burn of sun on clay.

As with a beautiful life, her design is not about model suite perfection. The work she does says family, comfort, joy and friendship.  Like life it can be distressed and sun faded. The colours resonate with peace, celebration, tears and emotion. This is why I love Gypsy the most. The cracks and rumples and everyday objects return me to my own front door.

As a restless wanderer myself, if I could write a caption for the palette of my own home that describes what I feel after hours with cups of tea and Sibella’s books, it would be:

“Whatever colours appear in your wildest dreams, you are welcome here”.

Thank you Sibella.

Love,

Mum xo