Interior design is Thorsten van Elten’s passion and he puts his money where his mouth is by championing young talent

If you’re a fan of unconventional design, chances are you will already be aware of his trendsetting, edgy style.

Originally a buyer for furniture store SCP in London, Thorsten set up his own company in 2002 after following up a rather unconventional idea for a light. The wall-mounted Pigeon Light, designed by Ed Carpenter, proved hugely popular and can now be seen adorning the walls of everyone from stylists to pop stars.

New products include the Primary Clock, made from Douglas Fir with a screenpainted face, the cage-like Von Amburgh side table, named after the famous lion-tamer Isaac Von Amburgh, and hemDing, a platter/fruit bowl with a spade handle made from solid ash. “I go around antique and vintage fairs looking for old tools. Basically, what I love to do is see brilliant ideas through. I try and get as many of the products made in the UK as possible, but if not they are made in Europe,” Thorsten explains.

Working with a team of talented designers, many of whom he discovered at art school degree shows, Thorsten clearly has an unusual take on what works in interiors.

Originally from a small town in a rural area of Germany called Niederrhein, close to the Dutch border, Thorsten left to study architecture in Milan, aged 19. “I was keen to leave Germany and see the wider world. For a while it was fun living in Milan, but it’s a very industrial city.”

He then moved to the UK and studied interior design at the London Metropolitan University, living at first in the northern suburb of Cricklewood in a tiny bedsit. “It was hideous. I had no idea how to get around or where anything was. I soon moved closer to town and have lived in various parts of Fitzrovia for the last 18 years,” he says.

Thorsten’s home now is a two-bedroom apartment sandwiched between Euston and Warren Street stations, and a more central spot would be harder to find.

When he first moved in, he made a few changes, ripping up all the old carpets to reveal wooden floorboards and painting the wall that faces an exposed expanse of brick black. “I had been doing a lot of trade shows and noticed how most things look good against black. I also like to have the contrast of brick,” he explains. The apartment is full of pieces from the designers he works with and above the fireplace hangs a favourite possession, a portrait of his great-grandfather.

In the kitchen, he did little to change the style he had inherited. “I have the most amazing canary yellow cabinets. I decided to paint a kind of Frida Kahlo blue as a background, and I think it works in a bright and simple way,” he says.

For someone who knows exactly what works well in design terms, Thorsten himself is rather undecided about what he likes and dislikes. He can’t decide which city he likes most, preferring, he says, all cities; he has no favourite writer, preferring the immediacy of magazines. He does, however, know he loves the home he bought 15 years ago.

“I don’t know what it was that I liked most about it. I just fell in love with it immediately,” he says.

No doubt the location plays a big part in his affection. “I love this part of London. Another of the things I love about the city is that so many of the museums are free, and you can wander in and out any time.”

Thorsten recently returned from the trade show Maisons et Objets in Paris. “I adore Paris for all of the wonderful, glamorous things there. Even the smallest thing can be a beautiful work of art; having a coffee, buying a baguette, having a beer in a boulevard cafe.”

Future plans include pop-up stores around London before Christmas and growing the range online – a definite one-stop-shop for unique, one-off design gifts.