Designer outlet: Sally Sneddon of Mojo Interior Design adds colour and fun to homes

Lounge room in Cadzow Castle. ©PatriciaRamaer

She tackles a wide range of projects, from commercial to residential, and says that she has no signature style in her work because it is so important to treat each project as a fresh canvas.

Sally explains: “Every Victorian home doesn’t have to have a Victorian style, they can be modern and eclectic, but sometimes if you are working with original features it will give you a jumping off point.

“I’ve worked on a 1970s home in Dundee recently, and after discussions with the client we agreed that we really wanted to go with some of the styling of the era.

“Working with different styles keeps it fresh, there isn’t an era I don’t like, they all have their place.”

Sally came to interior design through a circuitous route. She has always worked in creative industries and moved from Australia to Northern Ireland in 1994, bringing over a group of Aboriginal artists. From there she became a retail window dresser for companies including Gap, then a move to Scotland allowed her to go to college to study interior design.

She graduated from Adam Smith College in Fife in 2007 and landed a contract to design the interior of a visitor centre for a fibre optic firm. She recalls: “It was a big leap as my first job but it ended up winning awards, which was a huge coup.”

The recession of 2008 saw further work limited, and Sally instead started upcycling furniture and opened an interiors shop, The Cheeky Chair Company, in the Fife town of Newport-on-Tay.

After three years of advising customers on paints and decor, Sally set up Mojo. She says: “Individual projects range hugely. Sometimes clients just need a bit of help with paint colours or it might be a complete home refurbishment using my team of painter and decorators, joiners and electricians.”

Two recent projects show the scope of her work. Sally says: “Over the summer one client was away for three weeks, we’d been working on a whole house design project for six months with them but we were able to go in with the full team and do everything at once. So they walked in from their holiday to a finished house, which was very satisfying.”

A smaller, quirkier space was a caravan, the design of which was born out of her own memories of holidays as a child. She says: “It was a small and rather dreary, but now it is really welcoming. The budget wasn’t huge, it was really about durable paints and funky fabrics.”

The mini-makeover was for a private client, but she also points out that for those wanting to rent out holiday boltholes, photography is important. “Competition is fierce so you have to stand out – and it doesn’t take a huge amount of cash.

The caravan project in Fife. © Simon Jauncey

“In Australia, staging your property for photography to sell or rent is a huge industry. And thought, effort, time and a little cost can have huge returns – whether it is to market or to improve your own surroundings.”