Homing – Max Rollitt on Interior Decorating, Sentimentality & the Home as Autobiography

Host: Matt Gibberd
Guest: Max Rollitt
Date: November 27, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode of Homing features interior designer, antique dealer, and restorer Max Rollitt, recorded in his farmhouse in the South Downs near Winchester. The conversation explores the concept of home as an extension of the self, the emotional significance of objects, Max’s roots in family and making, and the entwining of spirituality with everyday living. With warmth and candor, Max shares how his upbringing, career path, and family life shape his philosophy of home, memory, and creativity.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Roots of Home and Family Influence

• Upbringing in Winchester: Max grew up in Winchester in a single family home owned by his parents for 50 years ([03:12]).
• Mother’s Influence:
  • Mother was a pioneering fashion designer and entrepreneur.
  • She introduced Max to fabrics and antiques, running a prominent shop in Winchester ([05:16]).
  • "[...] she was furnishing it with the things that she really loved. [...] had a gold damask wallpaper going all the way up the staircase [...] quite bold for a terraced house." – Max ([05:45])
• Father’s Role:
  • Former Navy man, loving and supportive but often in the background due to his wife’s strong character.
  • "[...] my father turned around and said, well done, son. You've got two A levels. That's really good." – Max recalling his grades ([11:05])

2. Childhood, Education, and Finding a Path

• Only Child Experience: Freedom to explore, but a sense of isolation at times ([07:59], [17:28]).
• Academic Struggles:
  • Difficulties at Winchester College, likely due to undiagnosed dyslexia ([14:00]).
  • Visual memory became a strength: "I think visually. I think everything is visual. I can remember everything visually." – Max ([15:53])
• First Forays Into Craft: Hands-on learning in restoration, inspired by a friend making oak furniture from barn wood ([11:33]).
• Apprenticeships & Training:
  • French polishing, furniture restoration, and studies at Rycote Wood led to deep respect for materials and history ([18:11]–[21:15]).

3. Career in Antiques and Interior Decorating

• Taking Over the Family Business: Expanded mother’s shop, set up his own workshop, and lived above the store ([21:15]).
• Olympia Art and Antiques Fair:
  • Grew reputation, supplied major decorators, transitioned from dealer to decorator ([22:05]–[23:47]).
• Design Process:
  • Always starts with furniture and objects he loves before layering in color and texture – treats a room as a painting ([25:14], [28:14]).
  • "If you're sourcing from stuff that you love, then you're actually putting that love into a home." – Max ([28:14])

4. Philosophy of Objects & Home as Autobiography

• Attachment to Objects:
  • Objects as memory keepers and vessels of sentiment ([49:42]).
  • "I’d carry the objects with me. I like to know they’re there." – Max ([49:47])
  • Prefers objects made or given by loved ones over possessions of monetary value ([50:13]).
• Not Hoarding, But Storytelling:
  • Selects objects with meaningful stories: “I’m touched by the story” ([55:38]).
  • Example: an antique cutlery tray symbolizing multiple layers of his own history, encompassing craft, mentorship, and memory ([56:38]).

5. Home and Landscape – A Sense of Place

• Farmhouse in the South Downs:
  • Chose current home for its connection to land, outbuildings, and chalk valley ([30:16]–[34:27]).
  • "[...] I feel really at home within it. I feel totally at home. I don't want to be anywhere else." – Max ([35:18])
  • Deep sensory connection to the chalk landscape and river valley.
• Family and Hospitality:
  • Home as an enabler for family and creativity: "the house is actually a very intimate space [...] It's cozy" ([37:25]).

6. Spiritual and Emotional Life at Home

• Spiritual Practice:
  • Daily meditation with wife Jane; both identify as Buddhists ([38:53], [40:50]).
  • "Home basically starts in your. You know, there’s your mind and there’s your body." – Max ([41:08])
• Impact of Near-Death Experience:
  • Survived a major cycling accident (2009), left with a heightened sense of life’s fragility and gratitude ([44:28]).
  • "I just felt really lucky. And also I felt a lot of love from everybody." – Max ([45:39])

7. Creativity, Family, and Enabling Others

• Creative Upbringing and Influence:
  • Max and Jane’s home is a nurturing ground for creative expression, both for their three sons and their wider social group ([38:24], [68:34]).
  • Jane’s influence: “Without her, I'd still be at the Bench, you know, so that's my [...] her influences on all of us is phenomenal.” – Max ([68:00])

8. The Future and Simplicity

• Looking Forward:
  • Envisions a more minimal future, “uncluttered life,” perhaps living in a van or caravan, focusing on spirituality, cycling, and family ([70:39]).
  • Still, likely rooted in the present home for years to come.

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On sentimentality and memory:

  • "I think it's just the story that's associated with the item as much as the item itself." – Max ([55:01])

• On creativity and 'feeling at home':

  • "It’s just about being in yourself, isn’t it? Understanding what’s going on, seeing what’s going on, letting it be, and not trying to wrestle with it." – Max ([41:39])

• On objects and autobiography:

  • "This is Max's story in one piece here." – Max, showing an antique cutlery tray ([56:38])

• On belonging to place:

  • "I feel totally at home. I don’t want to be anywhere else. There’s other places that bring me great, great joy. But this is definitely home." – Max ([35:18])

• On knowing when to stop collecting:

  • "There is order and there’s placement within the way things are put down. I don’t know [...] I feel like that’s, that’s an intuition and I don’t know where that comes from." – Max ([62:28])

• On the difference between collecting and hoarding:

  • "I don’t need to hoard. [...] There’s very little stuff that actually makes it from over the road to here. [...] I basically sell anything that I don’t [need]." – Max ([59:28])

Notable Timestamps

• 00:02: Max speaks about embedding love in the home and feeling a deep connection to the chalk valley.
• 05:16: Detailed backstory on Max’s mother and her influence on his passion for design and antiques.
• 11:05: Supportive family response to academic underachievement.
• 13:33 – 18:00: Max’s journey from car repair to craft, French polishing, and restoration.
• 22:00 – 23:47: Breakthrough at Olympia Art & Antiques Fair and relationships with leading decorators.
• 25:14 – 28:26: Philosophy on decorating: starting with beloved furniture and layering like a painting.
• 30:16 – 35:18: Coming to the farmhouse, the unique qualities of the landscape, and what makes it ‘home’.
• 38:53 – 41:39: Family, spirituality, and daily meditation with Jane.
• 44:28 – 47:40: Cycling accident, recovery, and its impact on perspective.
• 49:42 – 52:41: The profound emotional resonance of objects and their stories.
• 55:38 – 58:49: Displaying an autobiographical object; how objects can hold meaning independent of origin or gifting.
• 62:28 – 62:53: The art of placement and maintaining order vs. clutter.
• 68:00: The transformative influence of Jane on Max’s creativity.

Conclusion

This episode is a poetic conversation about the intersection of craftsmanship, memory, and domesticity. Max Rollitt poignantly illustrates how a home, its objects, and the land itself together form a personal autobiography—one shaped as much by love, sentiment, and loss as by artistry and aspiration. The result is a nuanced portrait of a creative life, gently anchored by the things, people, and rituals that matter most.

For Further Exploration

• Video tour & visual companion: Patreon.com/homingwithmat
• Other conversations: Chris Packham, Polly Morgan, and more on the Homing Patreon archives.

✦ Produced by Podshop, with music by Simeon Walker.

“If you’re sourcing from stuff that you love, then you’re actually putting that love into a home.” – Max Rollitt ([28:14])