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

Summary

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

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

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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.

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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.

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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])

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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.

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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.

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For Further Exploration

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

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✦ 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])

Transcript

[Max Rollitt]

If you're sourcing from stuff that you love, then you're actually putting that love into a home. It's very embedded in the chalk, which is what we live in. Chalk is really important to me. Just the feel of it. There's something about it. I feel very at home within it. 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.

[Matt]

Hello and welcome to a new episode of Homing. Today's guest is the esteemed interior decorator and antique dealer, Max Rollitt. I've come to see Max at his farmhouse near Winchester, which he shares with his wife Jane and a pair of flatulent dogs. Max is a friend of mine and I can say with certainty that he's a family man with a very big heart. What's amazing is that he's got museum quality art and antiques going through his hands every day. But he lives in a humble way with things that have little monetary value. Every object in his home has a fascinating story to tell. Max doesn't usually talk about this, but he reveals the importance of spirituality in his life. He and Jane meditate together every morning, and during the summer they sleep in a yurt in the garden where they can be closer to the earth and the air. His home is set low down in a chalk valley, and he tells me how he feels more at home on that patch of land than anywhere else. We filmed a house tour to go alongside this podcast, which is, as always, available on Patreon to subscribers, and I really can't recommend it enough. But Max gets very emotional as he shows me the objects people have made for him or given to him over the years. And I think it's the best one we've done so far. So, as always, you'll find [e-mail] homingwithmat in the meantime, here's the podcast and I really hope you enjoy it. Hi, Max.

[Max Rollitt]

Hi.

[Matt]

Don't look so scared. We should probably set the scene of where we are first of all. So in your lovely kitchen in your old farmhouse, which we're in the South Downs national park here, are we?

[Max Rollitt]

We are just.

[Matt]

Yeah, just about on the street.

[Max Rollitt]

So we've just got the River Itchen running right. Just at the bottom. Yeah.

[Matt]

So we're on a kind of very level ground close to the river, quite close to Winchester, which is about an hour south of London on the train.

[Max Rollitt]

That's right.

[Matt]

And I think the bulk of the podcast. I'd love to talk to you about this house and your kind of current life, but it's always really instructive to go. So tell me about where you grew up.

[Max Rollitt]

So I. As far as I can remember, I've grown up in Winchester. So I think we moved. I moved here when I was 4 and went to primary school, prep school and next school after that, all in Winchester.

[Matt]

And so was it the same house through your whole childhood?

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, my parents bought it in 1959 and I think we sold it in 2009, so it was 50 years they owned it.

[Matt]

Wow. That's astonishing. That's quite rare, isn't it?

[Max Rollitt]

It is rare. So my mum, when we moved there, she was freelancing as a fashion designer. She'd grown. She'd basically been in fashion since she finally managed to leave home at age 28. She was brought up in Leek in Staffordshire and her mum had a dress shop and milliners. And my mum was sort of Left school at 13, as you did then, and she went to night school at Burslem School of Art, which was set up in the potteries for basically people to train to paint the ceramics that all came out of Stoke. And she went to Burslem School of Art to do fashion and she was really good. And she ran away at 22 to London and her mum went down to London and brought her back to work in the shop. And eventually she ran away again age 28, and that time she managed to make a full escape. And it was. It was rare for a woman to be that forthright and independent, I think, at that time, and especially to find a place in the. In the fashion world. And she became. Her thing was blouses. That's what she became notorious for. So I grew up with her pattern cutting and sewing and she would basically freelance for these and sell her designs. Age 7, she decided she needed to do something more centered in Winchester and so she took on a shop and she didn't know what she was going to do with the shop. She just knew she was a good shopkeeper.

[Matt]

You mean when you were seven?

[Max Rollitt]

When I was seven, yeah. Yeah. And she knew. She knew about fabrics and she knew about antiques because with her father she'd gone to auctions. And also Winchester was a great hub for the antiques market. So she basically got the Colfax account, which was a significant thing. I think she was the first person in Hampshire to have a Colfax and Fowler account for fabrics.

[Matt]

What does that mean to people that wouldn't know?

[Max Rollitt]

What does that mean?

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Max Rollitt]

Okay. So Colfax and Varra, I think at that time, which was the early 70s, were the house of chintz, essentially. That's what they were really fantastic at. So she was able to sort of bring that to the ladies of Winchester. And so consequently I grew up showing the ladies of Winchester which fabric could go which witch. Showing them through the books. We had vast collection of different swatches. And also I was taken every day through this antique shop in Winchester. This is in the holidays through Blanshards, which was an enormous antiques emporium essentially in the center of Winchester. And it was an institution. Anything good from the south of England went through Blanshards. So it was a different age of antique dealing. But essentially my mom would go source there and the stuff would be shipped down to her, you know, 200 yards down to her shop. And then she would sell it from her shop onto somebody else. And just going back to the home. I think she was. She was furnishing it with the things that she really loved. So I remember we had a gold damask wallpaper going all the way up the staircase, which looking back on it, was quite bold for a terraced house. And the bathroom was similarly wallpapered. You know, why would you wallpaper a bathroom? It was. And carpeted. You know, everything was carpeted. It was a different feel. But it's also had a great sort of comfort to it as well. And you needed that comfort because, you know, a bath would only be 3 inches deep if you were lucky. Cause the immersion heater wasn't big enough. And we had tuff growing up. No, it was a night. Storage heaters. I don't know. It was pre central heating. It felt like. Yeah, yeah. So we lit a fire every night. And Winchester was a much quieter place.

[Matt]

So what do you think of, in terms of that home, in terms of what it sort of meant to you emotionally? If you think back to it now.

[Max Rollitt]

It was a place of freedom. I think my parents were always. They were encouraging. And I was an only child and they. There was. There was a lot of opportunity to just do what I wanted. You know, I didn't really feel in any way tied. So I could rearrange my bedroom or I could, you know, have a band practice in the kitchen or, you know, whatever. It was all. It was all it was. And the garden was long. It was long and deep. And there was an old air raid shelter in the bottom of it. So it was like another quiet space in that, you know, there was lots of room for. So it was a bit just William. Exploration. Yeah, you know. Yeah. That sort of thing. And neighbors who you could chat to. Yeah. Over the wall. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Matt]

That's nice. What about your dad?

[Max Rollitt]

My dad. My dad was in the Navy until I was. Again, until I was about seven. He was. He was a big man like me, but sort of broader. And he was a very much a gentleman and very, very loving. I think in some ways he played second fiddle to my mum because she was very much the personality. She was the salesperson. She was. She was. She was the front of the household, really, and a strong force. They were both from working class backgrounds and both aspirational to be into another realm, I think. Not in a sort of clingy way, but they just saw that the few. That life was sweeter, I think, in that. And safer in that environment. Having grown up with parents who'd been in the First World War, living through the Second World War. It's a very different. Different time.

[Matt]

Yeah. Yeah. And what kind of parents were they to you?

[Max Rollitt]

They were very empowering. I. You know, I went to Winchester College, which wasn't great pastorally, and I probably came out quite damaged from that and. But when I got my A level results, I got two E's and an O, which, for those that don't know, is really bad.

[Matt]

It's not correct.

[Max Rollitt]

For somewhere that is meant to be the most academic private school in the country, that is appalling. But I went up. I remember my parents were at that time, they were in twin beds for some reason and it was a bit like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It feels like looking back at it and anyway, I went and told them my mum's face sort of dropped and my father turned around and said, well done, son. You've got two A levels. That's really good.

[Matt]

That's amazing. Yeah, that's really amazing.

[Max Rollitt]

So that's, you know, that's. That's. And I was a. You know, I dropped out after that. I went to university for a year, Wanted to be a Buddhist monk. Dropped out of university.

[Matt]

I didn't know this.

[Max Rollitt]

Lived. Lived with a bunch of freaks in an old ale house in Wales. Fixed cars. Hang on. What?

[Matt]

Tell us about that.

[Max Rollitt]

It was a Drover's pub outside Newtown in Paris. And Newtown is lovely, but not that pretty. And this pub, I think, cost us five pounds a month. And we could sign on from there so we could scavenge off the state. And we got postal signing, which meant that we didn't actually have to go and sign on because we were so remotely Positioned. So it basically gave me enormous freedom to actually do what I wanted. And whilst I was there, I used to go over and fix this Austin Hereford car with a mate, Kevin May. And he basically, he called himself a barn dancer. So what his job was was actually taking down old barns and then rebuilding them in the Home Counties or whatever for people's party barns or garages or whatever. And from the off cuts, he used to make these copies of medieval furniture that he looked at in the V and A, and he would make copies. And I just thought this was inspiring to see this machinery and see these things being, you know, crafted for one thing and turned into another. And I just thought, actually, that's probably where. Where I'm at, where my home is, is probably is actually in making. Making things. So fixing cars was really difficult. And. And. And also, I don't like metal. It's. It, you know, you. You go to tighten your tappets and the nut slips and you rip all your finger, you know, the top of your knuckles off and everything rusts and goes hard and. And metal splinters are horrible. You know, they go in, but they don't come out as a piece. Like a piece of wood does. Very important part. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, so I. So I thought, okay, I want to be a woodworker.

[Matt]

Okay, well, let's come on to that. But I just want to just rewind a sec. No, it's okay. Because you said something really interesting because you just trying to picture you at this venerable academic institution, which is Winchester College, and you. You said that the pastoral care wasn't great.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

And you came out with, you know, not great results.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matt]

What was going on there?

[Max Rollitt]

I think basically I'm. I think nowadays I'll be diagnosed as dyslexic. But, you know, essentially the teaching was going over my head.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Max Rollitt]

Whereas at prep school, I could be thoroughly involved and absolutely loved it.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Max Rollitt]

The teaching really suited me. It was probably quite efficious or something, but, you know, I learned my French, I learned my Latin, I really enjoyed my maths. And then I went to a school which was teaching, and the teaching literally just went straight over my head. So I just dropped like a stone. I didn't get. I think looking back at it, what I needed was, what I'm good at is I'm very visual. And an art education would have been really fantastic. But the art lecturer was suspiciously predatorial, so I sort of stayed away from that.

[Matt]

Oh, wow.

[Max Rollitt]

The woodworking teacher was amazing, Mr. Proctor. But I didn't really I didn't take my opportunity there to sort of get involved. The facilities were amazing, but I just. I was always trying to catch up. I was always sort of, you know, one step behind.

[Matt]

You're not the first person that I've spoken to on the podcast to say that they are or probably are dyslexic. Which, which I. And I. I mentioned that because I talk to a lot of creative people.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

Let's just say that academically you found things challenging because of the way you process information.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

On the flip side, what does that give you, though, as a positive? Because I think it does have a real positive as well, that doesn't it? I mean, can you just describe how it makes you think in a certain way?

[Max Rollitt]

I think visually, I think everything is visual. I can remember everything visually.

[Matt]

Okay.

[Max Rollitt]

And everything I look at is my job. I look at as painting, my creative work. I look at as painting. And I can, you know, I've reached an age where I forget everybody's name, but I can remember what they look like. And I. I think when I read, I think I take 75% of it in. But there's another part of it that doesn't quite, quite work. I remember reading. We had to read Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy, and I remember sat on the steps in my mum's shop trying to read it, and I had to read. I read the first page seven times because I just couldn't. Couldn't understand it. And then it clicked and I was away. But it took me. And I really loved it. I really just loved the imagery of the writing. But it took that long to sort of engage in it.

[Matt]

Yeah. So you're an only child and that comes with it. Certain conditions, certain characteristics sometimes. Did, did that feed into how you got on with other people at school or.

[Max Rollitt]

Probably. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's. It, It. It's quite isolating.

[Matt]

Did you feel isolated?

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, I think I. But I. And it's isolated, but also there's this contentment because you're quite contented within your. With yourself. I actually enjoyed school, but I'm just saying it wasn't very good as far as the pastoral care was concerned.

[Matt]

They didn't get their money's worth. Let's say your parents.

[Max Rollitt]

No. No. Okay.

[Matt]

So let's have a look at your path to becoming who you are professionally.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

So you mentioned Kevin May there.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

So let's just continue that story. So kind of what. What happened from there. So you, You. You sort of. You didn't have a university Education? No, you decided that you were gonna do something hands on.

[Max Rollitt]

Well, Kevin May taught me. Where there's a May, there's a way. Oh, yeah, you see?

[Matt]

Oh, well done, Kevin.

[Max Rollitt]

And basically so what I did, once I decided that's what I wanted to do, I thought, how am I gonna get into this? And I got a deep. I had no experience, no reason why any college would take me. So I thought, okay, I'll learn. What trade can I learn? And there was a guy who was doing French polishing up in Hartley Whitney and he agreed to take me on. Paid me a pittance. But I basically, for nine months, he taught me how to French polish. So I was there in a workshop with five other people ruining bits of furniture because we were stripping all of the beautiful old patina off and then polishing it up to a high shine, which French polish is. It's a technique of reusing shellac where you basically fill the grain and create this high finish. It taught me one trade and I carried on to do that and I set up my own workshop for nine months. And then I got into a furniture college, which is Rycote Wood, which was then in tame, it's now in ox. Historically it was an arts and crafts college. So it taught woodwork and agricultural engineering. And I was lucky enough to get onto a mature students course because I was all of 20 then. But what was great about it was it was full of these mature people who were all passionate. So they came with quite a lot of knowledge already and they were trying to sort of just change their career. So they were often sort of in their mid-40s or late-30s. Mid-40s. So it was. So they were desperate to learn, but they also were incredibly earnest as well. So we're able to all learn from each other. The lecturers were there, but essentially we were there in the workshop from 9 till 7 at night making these things. I mean, looking back at it, very amateur, but, you know, some of us were lucky enough to sort of get real benefit from it. And I left there and went and worked as trained as I got a job as an apprentice antique restorer. I was lucky enough to be in this workshop with just one other bloke who'd trained at Blanchards, the shop in Winchester. But he was, he had great wit and got these fantastic jobs from some top end dealers. So we worked on wonderful things and had to reinvent other people's mistakes or sort of, you know, not reinvent them, but sort of correct historic mistakes or old repairs and consequently you learn an Awful lot about form and patination. So then my mum said, do you want to take over the shop?

[Matt]

Ah.

[Max Rollitt]

And she wanted to retire. And I said, yeah, okay. And I needed more room. So we bought the shop over the road, which was a pet shop, but it was a four story Georgian shop. And I dug out the cellar, made it another foot taller inside so I could stand up, and I turned that into the workshop. So I had a workshop in the basement and then I had three. I had two stories of showroom and then I had the top floor was where I lived.

[Matt]

Oh, okay. And then I read that you got a stand at the Olympia Art and Antiques.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, I. Yeah, my mum didn't retire. She said she was going to.

[Matt]

So she just hung around, shooting in the way.

[Max Rollitt]

She just hung around. But I dealt with it. I had lots of therapy and sort of worked my way through that and we ended up on very good terms until I booted her out. You know, I'd grown up, as I said, with this sort of high end furniture and that's what I was interested in. And so I started exhibiting at the antiques fair at Olympia, which at the time was thriving, and started to meet some really interesting dealers and decorators. And I think it was the decorators that really sort of engaged and sparked my curiosity about that whole world and also the American market. And the American market was strong and has remained sort of stable within my business. And I. Over the years. So I did that from 96 until 2008, I think so for 12 years. And that started once a year, then it became three, up to three times a year I was doing that and that was really my source of income. But, you know, I was meeting some really good people and I used to sell to Michael Smith, Axel Vervoort, Colfax and Fowler, who had a big decorating department and some very good other decorators as well. Veer Grenny, Chester Jones and on. Yeah, Guy Goodfellow.

[Matt]

Okay, so you were reaching a certain echelon there.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

And then what's interesting is that now you yourself are a decorator in that mold.

[Max Rollitt]

Yes.

[Matt]

So you've gone from selling, dealing in antiques to now obviously clearly being asked to create whole spaces for people. How did that come about?

[Max Rollitt]

That was just a lovely man came into the shop and said, I want to buy a house locally and I like the way you do your home.

[Matt]

Okay.

[Max Rollitt]

And I said, are you sure? And I took him upstairs and he went, yes, that's absolutely what, what, what, what I want.

[Matt]

When you say I like your Home. Do you mean that the shop.

[Max Rollitt]

He liked the shop and the feel of the shop and everything that was in it. And then, you know, he asked to see around my house and, and I showed him and he really just liked the feel of it. And I think that's what he, he felt really comfortable in. And so we did his house that was In, I think, 2006. And, and, and it got into house and garden and it sort of went on from there.

[Matt]

Okay.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

So now nowadays, if, if someone's listening to this and they're not familiar with what you do, how would you describe the Max Rollitt interior? And you're grinning because what, because you've had to have. You had to like storyboard this or something recently.

[Max Rollitt]

The Max Roller interior. Currently, my work is threefold. I still have a very strong antiques business, which is my joy. And we also, we manufacture furniture as well. But that's sort of very much that originated from sort of filling in the gaps that I couldn't. Of things that I couldn't find. Okay. And drawing on my knowledge as a restorer, etc, to give things some sort of richness and patination in this sort of. So that's to make them special within that whole furniture market. But a Max Roller interior is, is. Well, I have this enormous resource. I have basically the, the barn that I have. I buy what I like. So I just, I don't buy specifically for any projects. I just buy things that I feel are special that have some. That say something to me. And as a consequence, I have an enormous resource. You know, I have a 5,000 square foot barn, actually. I've got more storage now as well. And as a consequence, I think the way I decorate is. Well, I always equate it to painting a picture. I actually start with the furniture. So I start with how things are going to work and the scale and how things are going to work, both in plan, but also the movement in height around the room. That's really, really important. Just so that it's not all working on one plane. So there's sort of. There's definitely some range. And then I start thinking about color and texture and how all of that's going to work. And once I've got some idea of that, then I can start to furnish it. And I don't know, it's hard to really sort of outline it, but essentially it's a layering effect where I'm sort of building up this like painting and oil painting. You're sort of building up these different layers of color but then adding to them with more texture and there's highlights and pops and richness, so. And humor. There has to be sort of something sort of left field or something that doesn't really. There's nothing. I mean, I don't know. It's formulaic to me, but I don't think it's obviously formulaic in its approach because there's a sort of random nature to it. To it. And I think if you're sourcing from stuff that you love, then you're actually putting that love into a. Into a. Into a home.

[Matt]

Yeah, yeah, I totally get that.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

But I think that where you may differ, I think from other decorators is that you're starting from your barn of incredible stuff.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

And using that as the first layer, which I think is really interesting. Are you just. Are you buying all the time and where are you buying from and how do you go about that process?

[Max Rollitt]

So I think it's about between 30 and 50 things a month that I buy. I buy from other dealers, I buy from antique fairs and I also buy from auctions. So there's a lot of sifting that goes on. There's an awful lot of choice out there. You know, everything is now available to you. So it's really. It's a sort of massive sifting job. And I have Lucy who helps me and is a great help basically at sourcing. And she will present some things to me and often it sets me off on another direction or basically I can look at this auction and then. Oh, yes. So I'll look at that. Yes. But what else is there, there? And then like all of these things, if you have those people who are giving you inspiration or presenting things that you wouldn't necessarily look at, that also brings in another element which is really important. So there's this whole sifting and there's this sort of input as well, which is really valuable. Yeah.

[Matt]

Okay, let's talk about this place.

[Max Rollitt]

Yes.

[Matt]

So your home.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

You've been here how many years now?

[Max Rollitt]

I think since 2009.

[Matt]

Okay.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

Just tell me about the genesis of this. Why did you buy this place and how did you come about it?

[Max Rollitt]

I wanted to. Always wanted to live in the countryside. The first house that I rented was a council flat and it had a. It was a first floor, first floor maisonette in a village and it had a garden that you had to walk down a long path to get to. And you got to this garden and it had. I basically grew vegetables very badly. You know, I. I can always still smell the coriander seeds where they'd bolted and, you know, gone mad. But I just thought, yeah, I'm very, very much at home in the countryside. And so 2009, my parents passed away and so Jane and I thought, okay, let's look for a slightly larger home. And we basically went on one of those websites and went through farmhouses at this price and we. This was the second one down. Anyway, we came across this one, it was under offer and I thought, let's go and look at it anyway. Let's have a go. And it was. It was smaller than we expected as a home, but actually it had all of these extra outbuildings which have just proved, you know, I could see were going to be just invaluable, really.

[Matt]

So that was that the real draw, then, the outbuildings? I mean, obviously the house as well, but.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, but the house. No, the house is actually, I think people say that you're always going to be as happy as the house. House that you grew up in, you know, the same sort of scale. And actually, that's funny enough. I think this is about the same. You know, it's. It's very embedded in the chalk, you know, of. Of which is what we live in. Chalk is really important to me. Just as for just the feel of it, there's something about it. I feel very at home within it.

[Matt]

How interesting. Why is that?

[Max Rollitt]

I don't know. I always think of going to the New Forest and it's like. That's acid soil and it's just like poison to me. It's really weird and I'm very affected. Yeah, I think it's just that environment. I feel really sort of at home here in this sort of. On this chalk bed that we're on with the river running below it.

[Matt]

I love that. I really love that. Max. No, the idea that we have a sort of terroir that we kind of belong to.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, yeah. Really important. Yeah, yeah.

[Matt]

So describe the landscape here, then, and why you like it.

[Max Rollitt]

So here we're just on. We're basically in the valley, in the Itchen Valley, and we're just about 4 foot above the river currently. But we're on chalk, so we're safe because it'll all drain into the chalk when the flood comes. And in the field that is next to the river, in our field, there used to be a priory which was part of the. Associated with the nunnaminster in Winchester, and that was dissolved by Henry viii. And then, I assume. Well, there certainly is parts of that nunementster have been reused. So the coinstones on the back of the house are all cornstones. And then there's various elements in the kitchen. There's a corner figure sort of in tude, no earlier than Tudor medieval dress, sort of holding up the corner of the kitchen. And then on the outside of the kitchen wall, there's some three gargoyles that were obviously taken from. Or figures that were taken from there up the stairs. And in the house, there are various oak beams that have been reused from that priory. So. Yeah. So the house is built. Basically. There's a big estate here and this was the dairy for the estate. So the front of the house is brick and flint? No, it's just brick to sort of make it look good from the road. And the rest is all stone and flint. Yeah, yeah.

[Matt]

I live not very far from here.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

And sometimes to be found marauding past your front door.

[Max Rollitt]

Yes.

[Matt]

In my running kit.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

Give you a wave. But I. I love the context of this house because it's sort of got quite a steep hill coming down to it. So you definitely feel very sort of settled here.

[Max Rollitt]

Yes, yeah.

[Matt]

As you say, you're close to the river. I don't know, it's got. It feels very English. It feels quite ancient to me. How do you feel about that sort of sense of belonging that we all strive for in our home? Because the home is the bricks and mortar of the place, but it's also the area we're in, the context that we're in. So how do you feel about how you kind of belong to this piece of the earth, if you see what I mean?

[Max Rollitt]

I feel totally content within it, to be honest. I think we also have a yurt that we put in the garden and we often sleep in that during the summer. And that, again, is sort of part of feeling grounded. It's important just to feel that every now and then, just to feel the air and the earth. And it feels very, very good. And so I think here 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.

[Matt]

Oh, yes. That's such a nice feeling to have.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, it is, yeah.

[Matt]

Do you think you'll be here forever, then?

[Max Rollitt]

I suspect so, yeah. My wife is not keen to move under any circumstances.

[Matt]

She doesn't want to move?

[Max Rollitt]

No, she doesn't want to move. And I think I totally understand that. I think it might get a little lonely in my old age, but I think we might have a returning child. Maybe.

[Matt]

I bet you're wishing for that, aren't you?

[Max Rollitt]

Probably.

[Matt]

But actually, the house is a really good scale, isn't it? Cause I can see that this.

[Max Rollitt]

It's a great scale because when we came here, we had three boys who were like 12, 11 and 7, I think. And when we lived in Winchester, our garden was actually a yard, which was probably 7 meters by 5 meters or something, and that was it. And so we moved here and they've got land, but also in one of the barns, I created a sort of sports hall for them. We called it the Sports Hall. So we set it up, we put a wooden floor down so they could play hockey indoors in there. And then we built a skate park for them, like with a half pipe. And that was actually a great attraction for all of their mates. So when it was raining, it was skater heaven, basically.

[Matt]

That's amazing.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah. So it was good fun. So they've all grown up in it and, you know, the house was big enough, but not too big. So it's intimate, the whole house, you know, the house is actually a very intimate space. So when we've got friends here who either sat around the kitchen table or all nestled into the sitting room. And that's. And it's cozy. Yeah.

[Matt]

A quick interlude to remind you that you can see a really intimate house tour with Max Rollitt over on Patreon. Max gets very emotional as he shows me all the objects he's been given and the amazing treasures he's unearthed over the years. And it's a really touching look at his life behind the scenes. So head to patreon.com homing with Matt to take a look. You're a very cool dad, Max. You know that. You are, though. I mean, you know what. What kid wouldn't want all that kind of set up?

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, but that's what they need, isn't it? That's what they need, yeah.

[Matt]

To just stay with your boys a moment.

[Max Rollitt]

What.

[Matt]

What amazes me about you and Jane is that your. Your. Your sons are still, it seems to me, very, very happy to be here to. They don't live here, but they come back a lot. Don't they hang out with you? They, like. They seem to enjoy your company. Right.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

That's very aspirational for me. I mean, I've got girls that were younger, but I love that idea that you can still be a bit of a magnetic presence for them in their lives. How do you. How do you explain that?

[Max Rollitt]

I think it's about enabling, isn't it? I think Jane and I are both very sort of interested in our spirituality, and I think that's really important to us. So I think Jane's a Feldenkrais practitioner and psychotherapist, so there's a lot of awareness about physicality and about one's mental state and being open. And we're both. I think we call ourselves Buddhists. We both do Buddhist meditation on a regular. I try and do it every day. Jane does do it every day. I'm always slightly lagging behind, but still, you know, it's important. That's really important to us. And I think that's. That's always been there. So I think just bringing that into the. You know, having that in the home is good. I mean, that's come to us latterly, I suppose, when one's consumed with raising children. It's not quite as calm as that. It's a lot more frenetic. But I think, yeah, creating a home and creating warmth has always been really important. Jane has been amazing at that.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

So you're sort of describing that they. They feel. It sounds like you're very open with them and vice versa and they can genuinely be themselves around you.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, absolutely. It's. Yeah. Sometimes it would become a bit sickening the. For them, the amount of drugs talks we did. And I never did any big sex talks, but I'm sort of quite pleased about that.

[Matt]

There's time.

[Max Rollitt]

No, it's too late now.

[Matt]

But I think it's really, really amazing the way you've told me that you both get up quite early and you go across the road to the studio. Don't you meditate together as a couple? That's magical, I think. What do you, like, how is that important to you and why do you do that?

[Max Rollitt]

Well, I was thinking about one of your pointers pre. This was basically, where is your home? And I think actually home basically starts in your. You know, there's your mind and there's your body.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Max Rollitt]

And I think your body is really your home and how you set everything else around it is just. Maybe it's inspiration for your home.

[Matt]

That's so interesting.

[Max Rollitt]

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 sort of trying to wrestle. Wrestle with it. That's not always easy at all. But, you know, it's just basically understanding these things come when they go and we're in transit. You know, our body is here and then it's gone. No, but I feel I feel like just. Just the meditation and I'm pretty crap at it. But basically, you know, it's a constant learning. Every day there's a learning and sometimes you sit there and you just think, get really frustrated. Sometimes you just laugh at yourself because of what's going on. You know, your thoughts just disappearing into sort of nonsense. And sometimes there's real moments of calm and depth. Yeah. And light. Yeah.

[Matt]

What else do you do specifically for your well being in that kind of way?

[Max Rollitt]

I do a bit of yoga. Yeah. So I normally follow the meditation with some yoga. I cycle. That's my sort of main form of exercise and I love it. I've always cycled. I've used to go on holidays as a kid. That was basically my freedom. I'd go off and we'd go pack everything to our panniers and go around youth hostels basically around Scotland, Wales, south of England. It was basically complete freedom and you learn independence from. I started when I was 13 and my parents were quite. They let me do it, you know, I don't know that parents would nowadays, but you know, that was part of it. So you got to see things and cook and do things that, you know, be in all that stuff.

[Matt]

Do you cycle on your own or do you go with other people?

[Max Rollitt]

So I cycle on my own just during the week. Sometimes there's a club locally that I go with on a Sunday, but every year I cycle with a friend and we go on these long adventures. So we cycle to Rome, but in weekly stages. And now we're cycling to Lisbon. So we've got as far. So we cycled to La Rochelle, then the next stage was to Biarritz. And now the next stage is to Santiago, I think.

[Matt]

So you'll have to go out to Biarritz and then go from there to Santiago. I see, that's great.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, that's really great.

[Matt]

Well, while we're on the cycling, you had an accident, didn't you?

[Max Rollitt]

I did.

[Matt]

Tell us about that.

[Max Rollitt]

So that was 2009, I think. I was basically training for some very adventurous, sort of demanding cycle race. And I was super fit and I was cycling up the road here and the lorry that empties our septic tank was following me up the hill in first gear, going really, really slowly. I don't know if anybody wants to hear this, but basically I let the lorry pass. As it passed, I fell over and went between the front wheel and the back wheel and he stopped very abruptly, thank God. But in doing so just crushed my Pelvis. So my heart stopped. The air ambulance came, they resuscitated me and flew me to Portsmouth. And I'm very fortunate. No organ damage, just structural. And I've recovered pretty much. Yeah.

[Matt]

I mean, that's. So that's a near death experience.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

So. So what did that change for you, if anything?

[Max Rollitt]

I just think it's just awareness of mortality and. And I could have been in a wheelchair from then on. I could have, you know, I used to do hydrotherapy and everybody else in the hydrotherapy pool were men who'd had strokes. And I just thought, I'm so lucky. All I've got is basically structural damage that has been repaired as best they can. But I'm not suffering anything like these other people. And so I just felt really lucky. And also I felt a lot of love from everybody. Everybody was so supportive and caring. I think long term, I think it's just the trauma's still there somewhere. That's not worked out, but it's made me feel very sort of precious about life.

[Matt]

So your more recent interest in spirituality and so on, does that come from that time? No, no, it's not related.

[Max Rollitt]

That's always been there. So that's always been there since. At school we were forced to go to church every day. But actually I didn't see that as a burden. And Christianity is not my thing. But there was certainly an awful lot that I got out of the ritual and the spiritual aspect of it that I really felt very special. And looking back at it, my father had that nature to him as well. He was very much. There was something very special in his nature that I don't know if it's rubbed off, but that was there and it was present for me.

[Matt]

And have you done any other forms of therapy and things like that in recent years?

[Max Rollitt]

Not in recent years. I did it mainly in my twenties with my mother. Well, not with my mother, about my mother.

[Matt]

Oh, did you?

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matt]

Oh, God.

[Max Rollitt]

We all have our mothers that we have to work out, especially only children where there's a sort of tight bond.

[Matt]

Well, yeah, that's so interesting. I was going to ask you that, really, because when, whenever I meet an only child, they invariably, they say that they spent a lot of time with adults growing up.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

And that. That was quite formative.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

What. What's that like in your case then?

[Max Rollitt]

Well, actually, I think actually made me very quiet. I was, you know, I didn't. I always say to people, I didn't talk until I was 28.

[Matt]

Yeah. I think I was similar to be fair.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, I was. I was very quiet. I sort of couldn't stand small talk. I just thought that was just ridiculous. Why would you, you know, have all this chatter? Totally unnecessary if you're going to say something had to be valuable. I can't say I'm like that now.

[Matt]

So you really fascinatingly talked about the human body being a home of sorts, which I totally agree with.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

Is it your view, then, that you could actually feel at home anywhere as long as you're.

[Max Rollitt]

Oh, I'd like to think so.

[Matt]

Matt, do you think you would, though?

[Max Rollitt]

No, no, no, I don't feel like I'm. No, not at that level.

[Matt]

Not at that level. Yeah. Not many of us are.

[Max Rollitt]

No, no, no. I think that's why, you know, surround yourself with stuff that reinforces your. Your sense of self, I think.

[Matt]

Okay.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

Well, that's interesting. So is that what you feel the objects here do in some way, or do you mean the house itself?

[Max Rollitt]

No, I think the objects do, definitely. Yeah. I'd carry the objects with me.

[Matt]

Okay.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

So if.

[Max Rollitt]

And I like to know they're there.

[Matt]

Okay.

[Max Rollitt]

So if the house is burning down, I'd go and pick objects over money or not over people, but over.

[Matt]

Hopefully not.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, no, no. But there's some things that are very special and I just want to keep.

[Matt]

Okay, well, let's do the burning fire question then.

[Max Rollitt]

Okay.

[Matt]

Come on. What are you picking? What are you taking?

[Max Rollitt]

Oh, my God. Okay. Windsor chair.

[Matt]

Okay. The old Windsor chair.

[Max Rollitt]

The old Windsor chair, yeah. The chest of drawers that my dad gave me when I first started an apprenticeship. It was a pile of sticks, but basically it's a wonder. Full walnut chest of drawers that I put back together and sort of loved. And then it's gonna be stuff that my children have made, basically, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Pictures that they've drawn or sculptures that.

[Matt]

They'Ve made of, which there are a lot in here. There are, but you're very loved, aren't you? There's just a huge amount of things in here that have been given to you by your family.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, Family and friends, I think.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Max Rollitt]

But. Yeah, I suppose so.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

I mean, it probably seems normal to you, but I think, actually, you know, I visit a lot of people in a lot of different homes. I don't see this level of. This level of sort of love exchange, if I can put it like that. And through objects.

[Max Rollitt]

Right. I think it's just. Yeah. But then, I mean, what do you give you. What do you give your parents? It's really you know, if you can create something, you know, I suppose that's, that's the point, isn't it? That's what I hold valuable. I don't. You know, a piece of clothing is great, but it's not got the same as anything personal. So I think something personal is always just so much more touching. Even if it's just a card that's hand drawn. It's so much more touching than any, Any gift or bought. Bought thing. Any bought item. Yeah, yeah.

[Matt]

And it's worth saying at this point as well that we, we did a walk around of the house beforehand and people should definitely watch that. But there is a story behind everything that you have in here and it's really touching and really poignant. It's one of the best tools that I've done. I have to say that even the Secret Santas that you get, get given are handmade at Christmas. Right. By your employees and stuff. Yeah. But as you say, it means a lot to you.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

And people know that it means a lot to you, so I guess that's why they do it.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's very, very touching.

[Matt]

So do you think that if we moved you somewhere else, but we took some of those important objects with you, you would feel at home?

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I think it wouldn't take much. How far are you transporting me?

[Matt]

Well, even into that. Yeah. Well, that's a good question.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

But I suppose you're not taking me.

[Max Rollitt]

To the New Forest, are you?

[Matt]

That might be a step too far. All those ponies. I mean, I guess I'm trying to get to the bottom of the. The extent to which the architecture of the thing.

[Max Rollitt]

Okay.

[Matt]

Is important or whether it's all the layers inside. And I think you're saying it's all the stuff inside.

[Max Rollitt]

It's the stuff inside, yes. That makes a home.

[Matt]

Yeah. There's a psychotherapist called Michael Ballint, or there was.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

I've been writing about this recently for my book. And he wrote a book called Thrills and regression. Okay. In 1959. And he came up with two words, all right. One's ocnophil and the other one is phyllobat. Okay. So the ocnophil, he reckons, gets comfort from being around physical objects or people. They generally prefer sort of quite familiar experiences to very thrill seeking ones. And they don't always like being alone that much. They like being surrounded by things, people. And then the filobat, conversely, prefers not to attach to people and things very much.

[Max Rollitt]

Is that A six legged animal.

[Matt]

That's a six legged animal. Yeah. So this is not you. They really like thrill seeking stuff. So you might find them doing like, you know, skiing and high wire acts.

[Max Rollitt]

And stuff like that.

[Matt]

And they can be a bit emotionally absent sometimes.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

You can see where I'm going with this, I think. But you know, it seems to me that you are someone more than most people I know who really needs those.

[Max Rollitt]

Objects around them, who starts tearing up when I start talking about them.

[Matt]

Well, yeah, but this is it.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah. I don't know. I'd like to think that I could live without them. I'm sure I could live without them for a while, but I think I'd soon sort of acquire other stuff that would replace it.

[Matt]

Yeah, yeah.

[Max Rollitt]

I think it's, it's just the, it's the story that's associated with the item as, as much as the item in itself. Although the items I suppose that I choose to display are I consider beautiful. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Matt]

So I, I find it, I find it so interesting, I mean, with, with, with your collecting.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

Can you describe what you're looking for or what it is that you see? Because there's, there's a whole massive range of different things in here. But if I could ask you to find a thread that runs through everything, what would it be?

[Max Rollitt]

I'm touched by the story.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Max Rollitt]

Basically that's what, that's what it comes down to is the story of whether it's. I'm looking at. There's a bit of carving that's on that overmantle there. And you can just see that that's, that's obviously the hand of somebody. It's done in about 1700. And just like the skill involved in it is amazing. And it's a fragment and nobody will probably notice it, but to me it's just that point of discovery where you find something and you're just like, that's, that's amazing. And so that's something that's not done by me. And then you get something like this. Hold on. So this is the thing I always pull out. Sorry, this is it. So this is, this is, this is Max's story in one piece here.

[Matt]

Okay. So it's a cutlery tray.

[Max Rollitt]

It's a cutlery tray. Okay. And it's got, it's got different animals down the. Carved down the side. Yeah. And it's got. Keep your steel always bright on that end. Okay.

[Matt]

Carved into it.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, yeah. So that, that could apply to your knife or it could apply to a woodworker you know, as far as I see. Yeah. And here, what does it say?

[Matt]

Where there's a will, there's a way.

[Max Rollitt]

Okay, well, where there's a May, there's a way as well, you see?

[Matt]

So it's going back to that.

[Max Rollitt]

Let's go back to that. So this is made by. It turns out it's stamped on the bottom, which is really rare, but it turns out that it's carved by a lamplighter. He was a wood carver, but also a lamp lighter in Bristol. So obviously he would be wood whittling during the day and lighting lamps at night. And I bought this from Olympia Antiques Fair from Robert Hirshhorn, who was a fantastic dealer in sort of folk. Folk art and wonderful oak furniture. And I just cried when I bought it because. Because of the association with Kevin and. And just this whole feeling of. Of that being my story. Okay, so my. My grandfather was a wood carver. I forgot to mention that bit.

[Matt]

Okay.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

So you looked at this object and you thought that is in some way autobiographical or. It represents a part of my life.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

That's so interesting. Even though no one, you know, had anything to do with making it or owning it or giving it or anything.

[Max Rollitt]

No, yeah, exactly that.

[Matt]

Yeah. Because that's. That's another thing entirely, isn't it? I mean, when. If someone that you know and love like a son gives you something that they've made.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Matt]

It's a very, very clear, emotional transaction.

[Max Rollitt]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Matt]

But that. This is something very different to that. It is something that you've bought. Yeah, but it's still. Does it mean. Does it.

[Max Rollitt]

I mean, if it's different, mean different emotion. But there's something about how it's sort of the. The sort of natural beauty of it, the sort of. The writing on both ends and. And the sort of. The sort of naivety of it as well, which is. Which is charming.

[Matt]

Love that.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah. I mean.

[Matt]

How do you know, Max, if it's not hoarding? How do you know? Like, what's the line between collecting and hoarding?

[Max Rollitt]

I don't need to hoard. I've got. I've basically. I can sell, you know, I. I basically sell anything that I don't. And there's very little stuff that actually makes it from over the road to here.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Max Rollitt]

So over the road is where my store is. And that is basically stuff that I really love, but I don't need any of it. There's very little that actually comes over into the house now. You know, I have everything that I need. I might replace a cushion or. No, I don't need. I don't. I don't. There's nothing that's. That's needed. And most of what I feel like I own is actually there's very little furniture in here. It's mainly. It's mainly objects that have a story behind them. I think the only thing I have collected are Delft plates.

[Matt]

When I did a podcast with Beth and Laura Wood, she said. Well, she likened objects to sound, which I thought was really interesting.

[Max Rollitt]

Wow.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

And I really like that. And she talked about how. So she's got a show at the Design Museum, and that meant she had to take some of the things out of her flat and give them to the show. And she said that that made her space a bit too noisy, and so she had to find the right things to fill those spaces again. And I was reflecting on that, and I was thinking about how actually John Cage, of course, made a whole thing about how empty spaces have a resonance or a sound or a noise to them. So actually, we're living with things all the time which reverberate in some way. Do you identify with that?

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, I think it's all color, isn't it? To me, it's all color.

[Matt]

But colors are. But do you say color as, like, a visual thing, or do you think it also has a sort of frequency, like a sonic frequency as well?

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, yeah, it's a texture. It's a. You know, and yes, it's a texture. So we're building the layers and layers and layers going through house and different portals to look through.

[Matt]

How do you know if this place is not too noisy? Like, how do you stop it getting too noisy? I mean, what's too much? You know, clearly, if you had, like, piles of rubbish in the corner and flies everywhere, that would be too much. That would be. That. Would you. You'd gone too far.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Matt]

But. But as a collector of things, which you are, and someone who love objects, how do you know where to set that frequency or set that.

[Max Rollitt]

Well, that's when I tidy up for you, when I. When you come around.

[Matt]

That's so touching. Okay, so this is.

[Max Rollitt]

No, this is. No, but basically, I don't like. I like things. I don't mind clutter, but I don't like dust. And what's dust? Dust is just. Just not. Not literally dust. I mean, stuff that is. Is impairing your vision, which may sound a bit odd, but there's some. So, you know, it's easy to just Let things lie or let things scatter about. So actually there is order and there's placement within the way things are put down. I don't know. So I talked on our tour about my friend Edward Marnier, who I used to travel around with. And his wife always used to say, Edward is so clever. He was a film editor, he became an antique dealer, but he just knows how to place something. He puts something down, it's just perfect. And I don't know what, you know, and I feel like that's, that's an intuition and, and, and I don't know where that comes from at all. I mean I'm very lucky because I have my showroom and I basically setting out a shop is playtime, you know, it's, you know, we're moving stuff all around all the time, trying to make it look good. So there's a constant, that process of adjusting. Maybe it's learned, I don't know. Or maybe it's instinctive, I'm not sure.

[Matt]

Do things move around in here much?

[Max Rollitt]

Not a lot, no. No.

[Matt]

So it sounds like you're kind of. You've reached the point where you're content with what you've got in here and the way that it's set. Yeah, yeah. And you have, but to the extent on your fridge over there.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

It's something that one of your sons gave you probably 20 years ago.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, I think that's probably dug out when we were sort of looking through some stuff. Yeah. But it hasn't stuck on the fridge for 20 years.

[Matt]

Okay.

[Max Rollitt]

Yes, exactly.

[Matt]

Give it time. I just love to ask you about family for a moment.

[Max Rollitt]

Yes.

[Matt]

How did you and Jane meet?

[Max Rollitt]

We met in the pub in the Eclipse pub in Winchester. Mutual friend introduced us. Jane was visiting her mum in Winchester and I was pissed off because my housemate told me that she didn't want to go on holiday with me. And so my trip, I basically as an apprentice had not taken any holiday. I was self employed and so I was bemoaning this fact this is my first big holiday. Anyway, Jane, who was in theater, had a space in her diary and she said, well, where do you want to go? And I said I really want to go to Nepal. That's, you know, that's really where I want to go. She said, well, I've got this space. When can you, can you do between this day and that day? And I went, yeah, okay. So I hadn't met her before, but we just thought we sort of choose souls who had a very good mutual friend. So we sort of trusted in it and.

[Matt]

Wait, hang on. So you went in the pool together, haven't you?

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, we went in the pool together for a month. Yeah. Her boyfriend dropped her off at the airport.

[Matt]

I love that. Wow. He's very trustful.

[Max Rollitt]

I don't think he was that happy.

[Matt]

No.

[Max Rollitt]

Anyway, yeah, it worked out.

[Matt]

So by the time you came back from Nepal.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

Does she have to have the awkward conversation with the boy?

[Max Rollitt]

Well, we got a wedding. We got. We got. Congratulations on our. On our honeymoon. On the. From the air hostess on our way back in. A piece of cake and glass of champagne.

[Matt]

That's really lovely.

[Max Rollitt]

But he did pick her up from the airport, but it didn't last long.

[Matt]

Why does it work between the two of you?

[Max Rollitt]

We're very different.

[Matt]

Okay.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

Why are you different? How are you different?

[Max Rollitt]

I don't know. I think it's just a very different energy. But we share this sort of same. I think it's essentially the same sort of spiritual grounding. And we have a similar ground in our. Sort of. The way we see things in that sort of. In our physicality, in the way we see. You know, she comes from dance and physical theater, and I've come into it. So it's sort of our lives, you know, we're both creative and everyone goes, we've got such creative children. But actually, that's largely down to Jane, who's Basically has enlivened me and enabled my sort of more theatrical side to be present. It's definitely down to her that my. My creative side has come out. You know, she showed me what was possible, you know, how we can just put flowers in things and create. Create a wonderful kitchen environment, you know, hosting environment, how to have a party and how to enjoy life. And that's really down to her. Without her, I'd still be probably. You know, I'd still probably be at the Bench, you know, so that's my. So her. Her influences on all of us is phenomenal.

[Matt]

So it sounds like it's very much a social influence bringing you out of yourself.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah. But no, it's also. It's just a creative influence as well, because it's enabled me. It's enabled me to. To free myself into that world, which beforehand I don't think I knew I had or trusted. Yeah. Yeah.

[Matt]

And then with your boys, how do you feel like this home has shaped them and who they've become?

[Max Rollitt]

I think what shaped them is basically there's been both. There's a lot of visual input. There's a lot of enabling. But there's also the other people who come into the home who are other creatives who we've had in our lives, and also some of the craziness as well, that we've had in our friends and introduced, which sort of enables them to sort of express themselves and not feel shy about expressing themselves within our arts world and within our sort of business world. It's full of mavericks. There's not a lot of conventionally straight people, so it's really shown them the possibility and enabled them to do that. Sometimes I worry that that is a bit too much pressure.

[Matt]

Okay.

[Max Rollitt]

To be an individual. Sometimes. I think, actually, you know, why do they. They don't necessarily need that.

[Matt]

Well, it's okay to be.

[Max Rollitt]

I think it sometimes makes it harder to sort of, you know, put that pressure. It's probably easier to. Is it easier to come from. You know, there's the. The opposite would be to come from a very normal household into something more creative. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.

[Matt]

So they were never going to be bank managers, were they?

[Max Rollitt]

No.

[Matt]

Last thing is the future.

[Max Rollitt]

Yes.

[Matt]

What. What are your. Just tell me about the future quickly. If you didn't live here.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah.

[Matt]

And you had another chapter.

[Max Rollitt]

Yes.

[Matt]

Like, draw a picture for me about what that would be. What. What would your home look like? You could. Because I saw you not long ago and you. You thrust this picture in front of me, which was like a. An old van. Oh, yeah, there's an old van that you'd found online. And I can see that there's part of you that's thinking, oh, I could live in a van, just like, you know, driving around the place.

[Max Rollitt]

Well, I think there's. There is the caravan thing, you know, which is. Which is very, very attractive, basically. It's a very uncluttered life.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Max Rollitt]

Very, very simple life where there is no. No, there's nothing to manage.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Max Rollitt]

You know, as my children would go on, you know, although you're always talking about maintenance, you know, because there's so many different aspects to think about, and I think. I would like to think that in another chapter of my late, you know, the next. Then probably the next chapter of my life, I'd like less maintenance.

[Matt]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get that.

[Max Rollitt]

And I'd basically just like to have a simpler life where basically I can have my spiritual life, I can have my bicycle and visit my family, rather than I have to sort of entertain my family and. Yeah. Just have a simpler, simpler life.

[Matt]

Do you think you'll get there? You're going to be here forever, aren't you? Thanks so much, Max.

[Max Rollitt]

That's great.

[Matt]

No, but thank you for having us here. I mean, it's very. It's really, it's. It means a lot to me. It's very intimate to talk to someone in their kitchen about their life in that way. It's, it's. I found it so interesting and. Yeah, just you showing me around earlier and talking me through your things.

[Max Rollitt]

Yeah, that was weird. That was weird. It was quite emotional experience to sort of. I don't think I've ever shown anybody, you know, the personal nature of it all.

[Matt]

Yeah, it was emotional for you, but that's why you're amazing. Because you. No, because you do. You have that. I suppose you're happy to share yourself in that way. And I think that's an amazing thing. So thank you so much.

[Max Rollitt]

Thank you, Matt. Fantastic.

[Matt]

Thank you very much, folks, for listening along today. If you're someone who likes to watch podcasts, you'll find the video version of this conversation on our YouTube channel, which is YouTube.com homingwithmat. A reminder that you can also watch my house tour with Max over on Patreon. Subscribers get access to all of our previous home tours as well, so you'll find Chris Packham and Polly Morgan on there. Do head over to patreon.com homingwithmat to take a look and of course, you can keep up to date with the show on Instagram homingwithmat. If you can spare a second to give us a quick review, we'd be very, very grateful. Homing is an independent podcast produced by Pod Shop, with music by Simeon Walker. Thanks very much for being here and talk to you on the next one. Bye for now.