The minimal look beloved of her husband Phil has been transformed by designer Fi Douglas with shades of blue and her own soft furnishings

It is just over two years since Fi and Phil moved in together into the two-bedroom, garden and ground-floor flat in Glasgow’s West End. Fi was just launching her business Bluebellgray and Phil was working as an accountant with Ernst & Young, but over those two years there have been a lot of changes.

The flat has been transformed from minimalist, with black leather furnishings, white walls and a prominent TV zone, into a stylish, welcoming and colourful home, while Bluebellgray, which launched from the kitchen table, has moved to a studio and gone global. “The flat was always very liveable, and it was lovely when Phil lived in it on his own. But when I moved in, it soon transpired I owned a lot more stuff,” Fi recalls. “And, ever since, it has been a case of trying to find space for it all. Phil had TVs, books and, I think, one cushion. I came with two cats, two sofas and lots and lots of cushions.

The first thing for Fi was to add colour. “I’m quite lucky as Phil isn’t that interested in interior design so he lets me get on with it, however I do know he loves what I’ve done. The first room we decorated was the lounge upstairs. It took a few attempts to get the colour on the walls right, as I believe the colour you have on the wall is your canvas for the rest of the room. I finally settled on Pitch Blue, my favourite Farrow & Ball colour.

“We had the bookshelves built specially by Reform the Norm, as we wanted them to look like they had always been part of the flat. And, as we now had three sofas, we sold one and re-covered the other two. One is from my parents’ house, which I begged them to keep until I had space for it, and the other is a BoConcept one that has been reupholstered in one of my designs. The curtains are inexpensive cotton muslin edged in real silk, and the tie backs are ones we brought back from a holiday in Morocco.”

The single chair in the room has also been re-covered – using an old tablecloth. “I have an excellent upholsterer who thinks I’m completely mad, but always manages to fulfil my requests,” laughs Fi. Her penchant for reusing fabrics and giving them an alternative function continues downstairs, with another tablecloth being used, this time as a shower curtain. “I couldn’t find one I liked, so I attached plastic to the back of the tablecloth and created my own.”

In the master bedroom, a quilt made by a friend takes pride of place. “My best friend Cait made this as a wedding present for us, and I love it. The bedroom is an unusual room for me because it’s painted white, but I like bedrooms to feel calm, so the colour here comes from cushions and paintings. The furniture is all Phil’s, which I painted in various colours.”

Back to the kitchen and back to colour with another shade of Farrow & Ball – Dix Blue. “My old home was much smaller and I painted everything white. Here I felt I could have colour on the walls. I often prefer to have a darker colour on the walls as I think it makes the furniture stand out more, and it’s certainly been the case in the kitchen. In the lounge we have traditional, Georgian proportions with sash and case windows and lovely cornicing, but downstairs it’s much cosier with its lower ceilings. It’s lovely to sit in the warm kitchen and read the papers, especially in the winter. The linen-covered armchair matches the sofa upstairs, and I found the second one in an antique shop and re-covered it in one of my designs. I love giving old pieces a new lease of life and putting my twist on them.”

It is Fi’s ‘twist’ that is taking Bluebellgray to an international audience. The business she launched with a stock of just eight cushions two years ago has been heralded by Elle Decoration and now lists Liberty of London as one of its stockists. “The first year was spent at the kitchen table, making and sending samples from the house, but now we have a studio and employ two staff. In September, due to customer demand, we launched our first fabric range.

“Our USP is that each design is hand-painted by myself and only then is it printed onto fabric. We use state-of-the-art printer technology, which allows us to replicate the design so it looks like a painting and allows you to see the brush strokes, although technically it is printed. The ethos behind it is that people get a feel for the designer behind the design because it’s not a computer-generated image.

Fi’s designs are a modern take on florals. She says, “I like to play with scale and my colour palette is very instinctive. I love things that make me feel good. perhaps it’s an antidote to living through dark Scottish winters, but I love summer and they are the colours that come out of me. I have plans to create a more autumnal range next year, but I do still intend to be the only one doing the painting.”

Now that the flat is almost finished, Fi can focus her energies on Bluebellgray, although her passion for blue and her collecting instinct do occasionally distract her. “I find it very difficult to drive past an antique shop, especially if they have blue-and-white china. Fortunately, Phil loves blue as well and he’s now more interested in interior decor and will offer his input.”

One gets the impression however, that this property’s days of monochrome minimalism are most definitely in the past, and its future is most definitely blue.