← The Chairish Podcast
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- [00:00]
Ana Brockway
This is a Cherish podcast and I'm your host, Ana Brockway. Hi, everyone, I'm Ana Brockway, co founder and president of Cherish. And today on the Cherish podcast, I am so thrilled to welcome the inimitable Rita Koenig, a British interior designer whose work is celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic and far, far beyond. With over two decades of experience, Rita has designed everything from charming flats and in Notting Hill to sprawling country homes in upstate New York to one of Los Angeles's most exclusive hideaway, the San Vicente bungalows. Her interiors are instantly recognizable for their relaxed elegance, rich layering of color and texture, and a lived in warmth that feels both luxurious and completely personal. Rita has an incredible talent for space planning, creating floor plans that are not only intuitive and functional, but. But that invite people to truly live in their rooms. Her influence hasn't gone unnoticed. She's a regular on Architectural Digest AD100, Elle Decor's a list, and was just named Conde Nast House and Gardens Designer of the year for 2024. She's also a longtime design journalist, contributing to outlets like British Vogue, the Wall Street Journal, and House and Garden. And for those looking to tap into her design philosophy directly, her Create Academy course has become a go to for design lovers eager to learn from one of the best. Rita brings warmth, wit, and a deep understanding of how people want to live. And I'm so excited to have her with us today. Rita, welcome to the Cherish podcast.
- [01:38]
Rita Koenig
Thank you so much. Lovely to be here.
- [01:40]
Ana Brockway
I know you've recently opened up a new office in Palm beach, so congratulations. Tell us what inspired you to expand to the US and how you're balancing your work across both sides of the Atlantic.
- [01:51]
Rita Koenig
Well, it was really one of those, which I'm sure, Anna, you will appreciate when a member of your most valued team comes and says, do you have time for a chat or can I have a coffee?
- [02:02]
Ana Brockway
And you think, no, da na na na.
- [02:05]
Rita Koenig
No, you cannot. And my heart sank. She was like, no, no, it's all good. Anyway, we were due the next morning and she was telling me that her boyfriend, who was living in Chile, was moving to Florida and had asked her to go with him. And I was like, oh, God. And she'd been so sad, and she'd been thinking about it over Christmas and was torn and all that, blah, blah. And I was like, look, what are you gonna do there? We have so much work in the States and you can't follow your boyfriend and not have a job. You'll have split up Within a minute. So I think you ought to stay working for me. So that was why we did it. So it was sort of one of those things where I don't quite know what that's called, but I just thought, I don't want to lose you. And we have so much work in the States and it was like, this seems like Florida would be a great place to be. In fact, why not? And it's really worked out and it's really a bonus for us. We do have a lot of work in the States and it's wonderful to be able to have my most senior person there who really knows the business. And for jobs in the States, it means really my top person is going, they're not getting somebody who we've employed there that don't know very well or something like that. It's been terrific. And it's so lovely for us when we've got jobs there, to be able to send somebody stateside to do the smallest things. It's like meeting the curtain maker or going to just check the site and the wallpaper hangers and the painters, you know, that's a lot to go transatlantic for. And it seems like a heavy lifting, but when we're on the ground, it's really making those jobs much easier.
- [03:47]
Ana Brockway
And what percentage of your business would you say now is done in the us?
- [03:51]
Rita Koenig
It fluctuates a bit, but it's pretty much always half at least. And at the moment it's just tipped into the majority, which is really nice.
- [04:01]
Ana Brockway
Wow, great. So super helpful to hover there. You've become known for seamlessly working on both residential and commercial projects globally, sort of a combination of both. I was wondering if you can talk a little bit about how your design process changes when you're working on residential versus commercial.
- [04:17]
Rita Koenig
It was funny when I looked at that question, I thought, oh, so interesting. I never think of it need that being a thing. And I think the reason it isn't is because for every client I do that. So for every person, it's always a new approach. It's always a new family, a new personality, a new way of living, a new way of. All of those questions always what I want to know. So being whether they're English or American doesn't seem to me really to be so much the difference, if that makes sense. Although there are different personalities, of course, between national characteristics, between the two countries. And the thing I love about Americans is rather like me, how much they like shopping. They're much. You're much more consuming nation than we are in England, so that's always fun. And I think the Americans, you know, so used to working with designers, it's so hard for Americans to get in. In fact, Cherish is rather amazing because they can go on their own a bit. But the most of the interior design world is pretty locked up for the industry.
- [05:25]
Ana Brockway
Yeah, it's more gated over here for sure. Yeah. And do you think that Americans are as open to using vintage and antiques as your British and European clients?
- [05:35]
Rita Koenig
Yeah, I've always found that they are. All of my clients have been and certainly a lot of what we do is buy a lot of antiques here and send them. And those are always the shopping trips I really enjoy with clients. Is going to buy antiques.
- [05:51]
Ana Brockway
Do you take your clients with you when you go on shopping trips or do you go and kind of shoot them back pictures and things?
- [05:56]
Rita Koenig
I do both. I love going shopping with them because it's such a fast track way to get a steer on the things that they like and don't like. So it's always really useful, but it's not always possible, especially when so many clients are in the States and I'm in England and we buy quite a bit here.
- [06:12]
Ana Brockway
I don't know. I think a shopping trip with you in England sounds like a great trip.
- [06:16]
Rita Koenig
It's really fun and they do come, we do it. It's really great because also, you know, when you spend a day shopping with somebody, you learn so much about them because you're chatting and it's instead of sitting across from a table going, well, what style do you like? Or what do you think? You're just naturally chatting and revealing and picking something up that you like or I'm picking up something that they don't like. So you're. It's so rich in terms of information gathering. Yeah.
- [06:45]
Ana Brockway
It probably saves you a lot of time on the back end because once you kind of have a shorthand for each other and start to know each other.
- [06:51]
Rita Koenig
Exactly. You get that. And also it means that the stuff you buy together is stuff that they've bought, essentially. So in the house they're starting to build a narrative and having things that they feel invested in rather than just, you know, it isn't really the way we work so much. But just moving into a house where their designers bought everything and they've arrived and didn't know about much of it until they got there. You want to have that personal feeling with the things in your house.
- [07:17]
Ana Brockway
So one of the things that's so amazing about your spaces, I wanted to ask you about is the way they feel, just how you just described, which is collected and so personal and not from a catalog by any stretch. Like it just feels like a natural outpouring of someone's own style and how they live. And I guess I was wondering, when you work with a client, how much is like, ta da, it's install day and everything's here. And how much of it is sort of like a long term thing that happens surely at install, but also post install that you're always working on it together because it does have that feeling of kind of a lifelong journey together. I mean, in the most beautiful way.
- [07:57]
Rita Koenig
Yeah, I'm so glad. Cause that's what I like. And I think that it's both things. It's both a journey and it's a ta da moment. And funnily enough, I've just been talking to two clients of mine in England who wanted to move in sort of halfway through the install because it's happening around Christmas, which is always complicated and, ugh, always hard. They wanted to move in and then the rest of it be done after Christmas. And I was like, are you sure that you want to do that? I said, we've all been on this journey. You know, we've worked really hard to get this moment. So you walk through the door and it's just like Christmas. But I said, you have too. You know, we've done this together. And really my clients choose everything. I mean, I don't buy anything that they haven't seen. So it is a process. But there is still that ta da moment. And so we do the install and put it all together and the sort of mice in the doll's house getting it all together. So it's a combination of the two things and it's been very successful. And I suppose it started with that Mill Valley project when my client came to me and he said, what I really love are the gallery walls that you do. And I was like, but those are in my house. I have all those pictures. You don't have any pictures. It will take us ages to get those. And so I was like, we better start now. And we did. We started immediately buying things. And that's sort of how I've gone on ever since. You know, we're shopping for two years. So it is collected. We have collected over that time. And then there was actually this house we just did in the Hamptons. It's gonna be published this summer in ad. I worked with the wife on the house, really almost everything, but I was at Pad in London. And I saw she's Brazilian, this beautiful photograph of Rio beach. And I rang her husband and I said, look, there's this amazing picture. Do you think it would be good for the house? And he goes, I love it. Yes, to get it. It was quite early on, and as we then came to installation and his wife and I were talking about the pictures we had, I thought, oh, God, I wonder if he ever told her about that picture. And I better not say anything because it might be a surprise or it may be a present. And I rang him up. Oh, my God, I totally forgot about it. So I said, okay, well, don't tell her. Let's keep it as a surprise. Anyway, this picture was fitted in. I thought it might go in their bathroom or bedroom or something. And it was in the main room. Lovely, great room over the bar. This fantastic photograph, sort of taken in the 70s. Those are 70s colors. And that was really fun because she knew everything in the house and he hadn't really the surprise almost of the house was her to him. And then there was this lovely surprise at the end for her given by him. It was really a nice.
- [10:48]
Ana Brockway
Oh, that's so beautiful.
- [10:50]
Rita Koenig
Like, serendipitous teary moments. Yeah, it really is. And there are these opportunities for real personal details, even though I'm the sort of puppet master making it happen. But I really like to think that these houses are really for them and that they do feel very personal when people move in.
- [11:15]
Ana Brockway
When you start on a project, do you start with a floor plan? Is that kind of your first step? Or does it vary by project? Or kind of like, what's your first step?
- [11:25]
Rita Koenig
It never does, really. And sometimes I find myself thinking, I don't understand what I'm doing here. And I'll be like, oh. Because we're looking at fabrics and I need to do the floor plan. I can't do anything until I've wrapped my head around the floor plan. I think that's seems to always be the first place that I start. And I think it's your entry really into the property. It's really the way I'm able to wrap my head around the space and how it's going to be lived in and what we're going to do with it. And it really makes me panic when somebody says, so what color should we paint this room? And I'm like, oh, my God, I don't know. I don't know. Oh, my God. How?
- [12:05]
Ana Brockway
Oh. Ah.
- [12:06]
Rita Koenig
And I sort of realized that that's the panic that when people Say to me, how do you do this job? It's so much. I can't. How on earth am I gonna decorate this room? And I sort of think, I wonder if that's. Cause you're looking at the room, wondering what color to paint it. Cause it's really hard. Whereas when you start by looking at the floor plan and thinking where the furniture's gonna be and how you're gonna come in and out of it and what you're gonna do in that room and how that room works with the other rooms, and what's this pokey little space gonna be? And suddenly that becomes something you never thought you'd have. Like a wrapping room or your study or a bar or a. You know, those funny dead rooms also can become the most luxurious, fun little spots that you didn't think you could expect. And while you're doing that, I find the space comes alive. And then on top of that, when you start talking your client through it, either what happens is that they're like, oh, I love that idea. Except that doesn't work because we need this. And so you start to cajole from them the things that they do need and how they live. It's very often when you say to somebody, so how do you want to live? That? I. I don't know.
- [13:17]
Ana Brockway
Yeah, big question.
- [13:18]
Rita Koenig
Very often. Yeah, it's very hard to answer the most obvious questions I find. I can't answer any questions. And somebody says, you know, what music do you like?
- [13:28]
Ana Brockway
Can side effects paralyzing?
- [13:31]
Rita Koenig
Yes. So it's much easier. It's like cooking a lobster, just low heat. And when you're able to think much more calmly. So I find through that process, you actually learn so much, even about the colors people like and whether they like pattern or they like this, and they don't like that. And it's a much easier environment to reveal and even think yourself as the client, what it is that you want and don't want. Sometimes it's easier when somebody presents you with something you don't want to realize what it is that you do want. So it's. That's a really important process for me.
- [14:07]
Ana Brockway
So I remember talking once with Bunny Williams, and she's also a floor plan person first. And she talked about how if you have your floor plan, then from that you can start your shopping list. And then you sort of know what you need.
- [14:19]
Rita Koenig
Oh, it's a map.
- [14:20]
Ana Brockway
Yeah, exactly. That's how she described it. And so how do you balance that with. Also, especially for you, who's such a Finder and a discoverer and kind of a digger and loves antiques. Like how do you balance that with the serendipity of coming across pieces that you just fall in love with and fitting those in?
- [14:37]
Rita Koenig
Well, I suppose because shopping for antiques you never really know what you're going to find exactly. So you sort of have to go off with quite a holistic approach. I'm always amazed by when you go off with quite a specific list how often you find those things and you find quite. I mean there's a chest of bookcase behind me that I found at a Battersea fair and it's this big oversized bookcase that just fits perfectly in this tiny room and you think, wow, if I'd been looking for that I never would have found it. So I think you have to be quite broad minded in your search in as much as bookcase can be about it. And then things come to you. And I suppose that is true even really in life if you're too prescriptive and to have too iron a grip on the only thing that will work, it's very hard to find the right thing. And so I think that's the fun with antiques. And you find all sorts of things while you're looking and you learn to grab them when you see them too.
- [15:41]
Ana Brockway
We always say there's nothing haunts you like the vintage that you didn't buy. You know, the thing that was so fabulous that got away that can only happen to you once or twice. And then you're like, I gotta make a move here.
- [15:53]
Rita Koenig
It's so true. And there's also the thing sometimes I have with clients where they're like, well maybe, but let's keep looking. And you're just like sometimes done is better than perfect about some things are the statement piece that you need to. But I also think a lot, which I quite like about antiques too is that some of them are amazing and some of them are just things you need. And sometimes those things that you buy just because they're things you need end up traveling a long way with you and become quite loved possessions.
- [16:26]
Ana Brockway
Can you talk a little bit about how you got your start in interior design? And I'd also love to hear about how you stayed involved in editorial world and then you know what you're doing with Creator Academy. I mean all the different things that you're doing besides your interior design business.
- [16:40]
Rita Koenig
I suppose my first job was working for an amazing editor called Meredith Etherington Smith who was a rather sort of amazing. She was sort of like a 1930s character. She was quite large with this amazing hair. And she had been in fashion and she worked for Town and Country in Mirabella, and I was her research assistant. She was a really good friend of my mom's and she gave me a job when I first needed a job after, you know, age 20 or 19 or something. And so I did all her research, which I loved. And then she went to Christie's full time working on their magazine, which I didn't love so much. And then I started working for my mum full time in her shop. And so I sort of had this magazine background in the beginning and oddly, I'd written a couple of articles for W. I don't know why, but Gerry Gallagher, who was the London editor, asked me to write a couple of pieces, which I did. And then I went over to work for my mom, who's a decorator, Nina Campbell, and I worked in her shop and I did all the buying and loved all of the accessories and that side of things, and did all the lampshades and had made these match strikers with our lampshade maker. And I had a great time. I loved that. And while I was there, somebody came, approached me and asked me to do a flat for them. And I was like, I work in the shop and you should go and see the decorating department. And they're really. Who do that. And they were like, no, we want you. God knows why. I have no idea. Anyway, I did this job and that was when my mum gave me a sort of half an hour lesson on how to decorate houses, which was, thanks, Mom. Yeah, it was like, you need a dual furniture plan so that you can then do the electrics. And this is how you use a scale rule and work on plan and off you go. And she gave me a junior from their design department who sort of knew how to do. She was like, you do an estimate, then you do an order, and then you clip the invoices to the estimate to check they're correct and file them here. I was like, okay. So off I went. And it was. I have to say, the other suggestion she made was that I use these. She goes, I think it would be a good time to try out some new, cheaper builders than the builders we use. By the way, never, ever do that and certainly never suggest that to somebody who they don't know what they're doing. So I went off with these builders. It was a disaster, absolute disaster. And he was so nice. The client who, weirdly, I bumped into in a restaurant the other day, literally a month ago or Something. And anyway, we did this apartment on Holland park and it was lovely. I mean, the builders were a nightmare. And we got there in the end because in the end my mum's builders came in and fixed it and I learned so much. The next job I did, I used the builders, Terrywood, who were the good builders, and learnt that really you always want to use.
- [19:37]
Ana Brockway
Makes all the difference.
- [19:39]
Rita Koenig
It makes all the difference.
- [19:40]
Ana Brockway
Do you find that now? Do you have like your core team that moves from project to project? Cause you're doing projects all over the world.
- [19:46]
Rita Koenig
Not really, because we're always in different places, so that's quite hard. But in the States, I'm almost always working with Gil Schaeffer, so that's like working with Rolls Royce. That's amazing. And also, of course then the builders slightly fall to Gil. Not me, thank God. We try to not be involved with the build as much as possible, but the builders we've ever contractors in the States have actually all been really very good. We've only had very good experience in the States, in fact. And in England we also work very often with the same architects. I mean, as much as your team can be the same, it does make things so much easier. And the builders can't necessarily always be the same. But if the project managers and the architects and that team can be, it works really well. We do have people we like working with and funny enough, sometimes the funny thing is we've just working on this job in London and in fact we've brought on a company, Grove, who we work with a lot. They have a building team, they're really project managers and they now have their own firm of builders. And this job was without their builders. But we now have Grove working on the project management. And I think our client was a little unsure to begin with and thinking should they be working with somebody we're suggest there. Anyway, it's changed completely since they've come because there's a lot of moving parts. Their builders are terrific, but there are so many trades and the higher quality the project, the more trades there are. And that's complicated.
- [21:20]
Ana Brockway
I mean, that's such an interesting comment. I have a friend who's doing a project right now in Palm beach who's struggling a bit and so don't you want a team that's all worked together and knows each other?
- [21:29]
Rita Koenig
Well, yes, I would. Especially if you've seen the work of that decorator and these are the people they want to bring on. There's definitely. I wouldn't say it was a mistrust but a questioning of, oh, yeah, well, I'm sure you want all your people. And you're like, well, there's a reason.
- [21:45]
Ana Brockway
Yeah. Cause it's easier.
- [21:47]
Rita Koenig
You don't bring the shit team with you. Yeah. Because it works really well and they produce. You only want to bring people that produce a high level of work. And you never want, I would think, ever want to employ your cousin who's a screwball. Because it's going to be a disaster. So I think there should be more trust in that area of people wanting, you know, our specialists, we always use our own specialists. And sometimes people say, oh, I'd love to use Misty, my curtain maker. And we're like, well, we'd really rather use our own because we speak the same language and there's no errors. People never remember the reason the thing arrived and isn't very good is because it was the new cheaper guy down the road that they wanted originally. I feel like you remember the good quality more than the bill. Yeah. Or at least you remember the bad quality more than you remember the expensive bill. Cause you have to live with it.
- [22:48]
Ana Brockway
Hi, everybody, and thanks for joining us for another episode of the Cherish podcast. I'm Ana Brockway, co founder and president of Cherish. I'm delighted to share that Cherish is now offering only to the trade the most generous return policy in the industry. That is a 14 day return window on all our exceptionally curated inventory. Designers asked for it and we listened. This offer is now available to interior designers on all purchases. So it's time to get shopping. For more information, visit cherish.com that's C-H-A I R I S H.com Trade and now back to the show. So I know you've worked on both hospitality and residential projects. Can you talk a little bit about when you move into hospitality projects? What are the kinds of things you have to think about? I mean, your hospitality projects, just speaking from my experience with them, they feel homey. I mean, they feel like a residential project. But I'm sure there's all kinds of thinking and approaches that go into it. That behind the scenes there is.
- [23:53]
Rita Koenig
It's a different muscle that you have to sort of exercise. And the first commercial project I did was San Vicente Bungalows and that was with Jeff Klein.
- [24:03]
Ana Brockway
Yeah, fantastic project.
- [24:05]
Rita Koenig
And Jeff was so amazing to work with and work for. And he was so supportive and he was also such a realist. So when I would say, oh, you want to do this? It'd be so lovely. And he would go, okay, that's a great idea, except this is a hotel and people behave like animals in hotels. And so we need to make sure this is gonna survive. And he would be very keen on us finding an alternative route to get to the same place that would survive and would be practical. So I learned a lot. I learned a lot from Geoff. And I loved that instead of sometimes people are all knowing and just want to tell you that you don't know anything and your ideas aren't gonna work, rather than going, okay, it's not going to work like that, but we need to go about it another way. And so that was terrific and it's been very successful. There were two parts to that job, which was. There was Hotel 850, which was really a hotel. And that was great fun. And making all. You know, there were some tiny rooms that we made these little carriage rooms which were tiny. They had a sort of full size bed which we built in like a box bed and a tiny. It was like a railway carriage. We called them these carriage rooms. And they've been really successful and I loved doing that and making the sort of boutique hotel that I would like to stay in, because I've always thought, why these hotels are so depressing, that so unnecessary for them to be depressing. And so that was. I really enjoyed that. And then the club, of course, the sort of whole thing about a club is that it feels more domestic. So that was also great fun and working out how people wanted to be there, working the places where people would be working on laptops, where people would be having drinks. And there were lots of back and forth with Jeff and he's very funny. He says, oh my God, all these things. There were so many things. I just was like, no, that's not gonna work. And it does. It's amazing. I'm really pleased. So you learn between you a lot. I think that's really fun on all projects, actually, and especially with private clients. You also learn so much from them in the course of the project, and I did with Geoff. And we're just about to start a new commercial project actually in the States, which I'm really excited about. Oh, fun. Which is another hotel in the Midwest. Oh, good.
- [26:29]
Ana Brockway
Yeah, he's amazing. And I have had the opportunity to visit that club multiple times. And it's all full of these little charming, surprising spaces that pop up on you. It's just gorgeous. So I know exactly what you're talking about in terms of those small little rooms that you discover and kind of land upon that are just so amazing.
- [26:49]
Rita Koenig
Yeah, in fact, one of my favorites there is. That room off the bar tucked at.
- [26:53]
Ana Brockway
The back is so, yeah, fantastic.
- [26:55]
Rita Koenig
That little ante room and the little.
- [26:57]
Ana Brockway
Private event space upstairs, it's just fantastic. So everyone will kill me if I don't ask you, where are some of your favorite places to shop? I guess I should ask in London first, but where are some of your favorite hunting grounds, if you're willing to share?
- [27:12]
Rita Koenig
Yeah, I always am because I think it keeps the wheels oiled and then there's more for everyone. But I think. I mean, the Pimlico Road obviously isn't a big secret, but has become such a rich hunting ground and so easy when you just want to go to one place. I also go to Church street up in St. John's Wood, which has Alfie's Antiques Market and then antique shops along the street. And Andreas Schmidt and Nick Jones are two theatres that I always go and see when I'm there. And then the Lily Road is also fantastic. And the Battersea Antiques Fair, which happens three times a year, is a brilliant resource that we always. I never miss it and I go several times while it's on. And then I also go to Tetbury a bit out in Gloucestershire, and then I'm always looking, you know, if I'm out in the country or anywhere, I'm always looking for an antique shop. Maine is quite a good place. Gil and I, we'd been working on this project in Maine and we would go from. Gil lives up near sort of Bangor and that very watery bit. And our job was further south, so two hour drive with a bunch of little shops along the way. There are loads of good dealers.
- [28:30]
Ana Brockway
I wanted to ask you about your collection with Schumacher. It's really so beautiful.
- [28:34]
Rita Koenig
Thank you.
- [28:35]
Ana Brockway
We sell a ton of Schumacher on the site. It's one of our shopping audience's favorite brands.
- [28:40]
Rita Koenig
Oh, that's brilliant. I'm sure, because it's very hard to buy fabric. So that's. I'm really glad that you sell Schumacher.
- [28:46]
Ana Brockway
Yeah. No, I mean, it's sort of been this business that's just kept on growing with us and I love the way that they are always bringing in newness and new partnerships and new people. It's really fun to work with them because it's just a newsmaking machine. But your line in particular is so fantastic and I was wondering if you can talk a little bit about what that was like and developing it and working with them and how that's all gone down.
- [29:10]
Rita Koenig
Well, it was really fun. I mean, it was an amazing process. And of course, I knew Dara from Domino. She was the style editor at Domino magazine where I worked. And so I knew how. So I was really excited when she called. And of course it was, I mean, an amazing honor, really, to be asked to do this for Schumacher, because such a wonderful brand. So I was like, yes, bit their hand off. And then once I had bitten their hand off and signed the contract, I thought, oh, wow, I've now got to come up with a collection and I hope I'll be able to do it and it won't be rubbish. You know what? I better get. This is serious. So, actually, the room I'm sitting in is covered in terry, which is the first fabric. And this was a vintage piece of cotton that I'd bought and loved and made a lampshade for a client out of, and kept some thinking, I want to make this a fabric one day. So that was my starting point. So, anyway, I do find that Terra is quite a good galvanizer. So off I went. And the terry, which was this fabric I'd bought ages ago from a dealer called Ebony Jean, which I'd loved, I knew I wanted to turn into a fabric, so I had that. And then I sort of started shopping, which, of course, is what I really love doing, and I went to see a dealer who has such pretty things and bought some pieces and then found some other things. And I had some things of my own that I took off. And so off I went to Schumacher with my suitcase full of bits of tat and pulled them all out, and we started to pull together this collection. I knew I wanted a batik, so I had the horizontal Ronnie. I also knew that I wanted to pull together a group of things that were different enough but would come together in palette. So the batiks, which are from the Far east, and there's the paisley, which is sort of slightly Indian feeling. Then there were some florals, which were very French. So there was all these different sort of nationalities that then sat together well because of the way they were coloured. And that was really fun. And also, I feel like in a room, the way you mix pattern is you have this certain sort of cadence between the loudness, if you like, of the various patterns. So you'll have a big, strong thing with many colours in it, and then you have other things that are slightly geometric or smaller that have some of those colors. And that's how I put together the things in a room. And while Schumacher weren't that bothered by a collection all having to go together, I think it was, for me, a way to make sense of it. I sort of needed that, even though I'm sure it's not purchased in that way. But it's really exciting now, seeing I hadn't really thought about how people were gonna use it in the end. You know, you sort of sit in your box of where you are in that moment, and we sat with doing it and then delivering it, and then. And now, of course, it's out in the world and being used, which is really exciting. And it's fun to see other people using it. Is it?
- [32:37]
Ana Brockway
I always wonder what that's like. It's like, here you raised this baby and then it sort of goes out into the world. Is it kind of scary seeing people? I don't know.
- [32:45]
Rita Koenig
Well, it's really exciting to think people are buying it.
- [32:47]
Ana Brockway
No, that's good news. Yes, of course.
- [32:49]
Rita Koenig
And then I've been really lucky. I've been. There was a woman in Australia who put it in her shop window and it was the chintz. It was. I think it was Serena Garland in the pink and sort of dark red color. And she made it somehow quite masculine rather than too pretty. And that was really fun to see. These different takes on it. I've been lucky, too. There aren't any sort of oh, wow moments. I've been really lucky.
- [33:16]
Ana Brockway
That's not what I meant. Yeah, that is good. Rita, tell me a little bit about your new book that's coming out, about your amazing flat in Oxford Gardens and the process behind that, both the flat and the book for 2026.
- [33:32]
Rita Koenig
So the idea for the book was really, we planned it five years ago with my then editor, Trish Todd, and I was starting this renovation. I'd recently separated from my husband. I was in the process of getting divorced. And I knew that I was going to do this. I sort of have been thinking about it most of the time I was married, knowing that I couldn't do it. So the minute I separated, I was like, okay, renovation. And my ex husband rang me and said that he wanted to buy the apartment on the top floor of our building, which was great. It's been amazing because that was so easy for our daughter. And when we were first together, bought an apartment above ours, which we never connected, which I'd always dreamt of connecting. And so I bought that from him. And I'd been living here since 2012 when I first moved back from New York. So I'd moved in 2012. Then I met Phil and he moved in and we bought the flat next door and connected those. And then when Phil and I split up, I bought the flat above that he'd bought and connected those. So this was the second connection had been a little bit like a peg leg stuck on. And I thought, okay, now I have the opportunity I need to bomb the place and start again and redraw the plans and do the whole thing. So my bedroom and the little room off it became the kitchen, dining room, which was the major change. And then the kitchen became the garden hall and the sitting room was just one big room. And Margot's bedroom became a playroom. And then I built this little remon, which, in fact, Phil had always wanted to do. And I was like, it's so tiny, it's not even worth doing. But here I am sitting in it. It's absolutely fantastic. So it was a sort of opportunity to really do it properly. And I think because I was also turning 50, the business was established. It was, you know, when I'd first moved back from the States, I did it slightly more by the seat of my pants. And this time I was able to do it really properly. And so it felt like a good time to record it. Like Bunny Williams wrote An Affair with the House. I mean, it felt a bit like that. It was this place I knew so well and had seen me through so much. You know, I'd come back from the States here. I'd had been married here, I had my child here, got divorced here, started my 50s here, you know, it's been good to me. So here we are, we're sort of recording it. And I think it's also. I like that we can show the before pictures and the before pictures aren't that sort of easy thing of. Here's something hideous that we made look nice. It's. Here's something that was great before that now has been reconfigured into something else.
- [36:18]
Ana Brockway
Something even better and also responsive to.
- [36:20]
Rita Koenig
You as you do to where I am in my life.
- [36:22]
Ana Brockway
Yeah, yeah, it's cool. I also want to be your neighbor because I know I could sell my apartment to you.
- [36:28]
Rita Koenig
Exactly. In fact, now people say, oh, there's two. There's two little studio flats between Phil and I. And then I was like, you've got to get those. And I'm like, no way. They are Norway and Switzerland. It's like these two little buffers that help make the decisions and things. But I think when I was younger, we lived in an apartment. My mum sort of connected things. It's really fun connecting and adding to.
- [36:56]
Ana Brockway
And, well, I'm excited to see the book and see how it all came together. And I love that you're going to have floor plans in it. I think you mentioned that. And I'm the floor plans person.
- [37:04]
Rita Koenig
Yeah, we've got the floor plans from before, from the first renovation and then from this. Because when I first bought it, I mean, I don't know if this is boring, but when I moved back from America and I was looking for an apartment, you go into the here, it's called Prime Location. What's it called? Zillow, I think in America, isn't it? However much money I put in, it was always a kitchen in the sitting room, a fourth floor walk up or a basement. And I was like, this is so awful, I can't bear it. And there came a point when I was like, I'd gone beyond fantasy money. I was then in, I was like, I can't put more money in. So I went down, I changed my bottom figure and this flat came up on Oxford Gardens with a communal garden. I was like, that's funny, I didn't know any communal gardens. Thinking of Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant in Notting Hill, those big gardens. I was like, where's that? Anyway, I came to think that it was not that it was like the private garden of a house shared by all the people that lived in the building. And it was pretty, it wasn't that exciting. But I went in the bedroom, which had these like 1960s sort of social housing windows, right? Plate glass. And it was painted in this maroon color, literally like a liver. It was. And I was like, oh, God. And there was a metal door in the corner of the room. And I was like an idiot. I said, where does that go? I mean, obviously to the garden. And she said very patiently, to the garden. And I was like, okay, amazing. This flat can have its own front door because it was an end of terrace. And I thought, if I can get a door into the garden wall, it can have its own front door. And then this flat is amazing because all the others, you'd walk past people's buggies and their bikes and disgusting staircase with ripped carpet and into these. And all these apartments in Notting Hill were so expensive. You're like, it's so much money and I've got to step over all this gump to get to my apartment on the third floor. So that was really what made this place magic for me. And I thought, when you walk through a door in a garden wall, it's the secret garden, isn't it? It's just heaven. So. Yeah.
- [39:17]
Ana Brockway
Well, private entrance. I mean, fantastic, right?
- [39:20]
Rita Koenig
Yeah. So that was what made this place kind of special.
- [39:23]
Ana Brockway
That was the selling point.
- [39:24]
Rita Koenig
Yeah. And it was also what made it hard to find something else because every window you look out of here has green out of it. And it's.
- [39:34]
Ana Brockway
You can't easily replicate that. I mean. And there's nothing better.
- [39:38]
Rita Koenig
No. And it's got high ceilings and fireplaces. It has. It's sort of, in the end, ticked every box on my wish list.
- [39:45]
Ana Brockway
Well, I love how you've stayed there and expanded it and just really made it yours in every possible way. It sounds like a great story and an awesome book. What is a little luxury that you like treating yourself to? Like, what's your favorite hostess gift?
- [40:00]
Rita Koenig
I love rose and violet creams. That's definitely a sort of personal luxury. I'm not sure it's a good hostess gift because so many people think they're really disgusting.
- [40:09]
Ana Brockway
Where are you traveling to these days and what's on your places I want to go list?
- [40:13]
Rita Koenig
I mean, I really want to go to Japan, which I feel like lots of people are doing, but that's somewhere I'd love to go. And feels properly foreign, if that makes sense. You know, so many places don't really feel foreign any longer. And that feels like it really is. I've just been in Greece. Last week I was in Hydra and actually I'm going back in August and I love Greece. And I think Greece is having a sort of great moment. It seems that there's lots of young there and there are lots of people doing pretty hotels and restaurants and making things. And they make such beautiful jewelry. So I think that's an exciting place. I'd like to go to Portugal a bit more. I like what they make.
- [40:56]
Ana Brockway
Portugal. You have to bring like three empty suitcases for all the women's and all the stuff. I mean, isn't it amazing?
- [41:01]
Rita Koenig
All the amazing. And also Spain. I mean, I love Spain.
- [41:05]
Ana Brockway
Yes, of course. So fantastic.
- [41:08]
Rita Koenig
I love that part of Europe, too. I'm not quite sure how you identify them as sort of the Portuguese. The Spanish. They have a great style, I think. I like the earth sort of tones that they use in their decorating. I love the wool trims that they use. I think when the Spanish and Portuguese are chic, they're hard to beat, really. The way they use linens, the way everything's so beautifully arranged. And when the Spanish and the Portuguese do things really beautifully or they're sort of. They really have great style and I love the way their sort of tapas and the Porto tonic is such a refreshing drink. So jugs of. I don't know, they even make sangria kind of feel chic somehow. I think that way of entertaining or that way of welcoming and being hospitable really appeals to me. I suppose that's because also that's the way I approach decorating as well. It's sort of about living.
- [42:08]
Ana Brockway
What is a small thing people can do, a relatively small thing people can do that you think has a big impact in someone's home and experience?
- [42:17]
Rita Koenig
Well, I think there's a couple of things. I mean, I think rearranging the furniture, so fun. It's really fun. Completely changes the whole way. We used to do that, even at school, when I was at boarding school, on a Sunday, we might move all the beds around to a different configuration. And so that is something that is completely free and makes a big impact. And I think very often the key is so much in the furniture layout that you can really change how you feel about a room that way. Then the other thing is paint. And I think of when I first moved to the States and I'd rented an apartment. I don't need to tell you how they're painted white, and that's how you get them. And in fact, my first apartment, I painted in this lovely pale gray. And it was such a small change. When I first did it, I was like, oh, my God, I wonder if that was even worth doing. But it was huge, the difference. And then the other thing, of course, is the drinks tray.
- [43:15]
Ana Brockway
Oh, I love that answer.
- [43:16]
Rita Koenig
That's just a tray. And getting the bottles out and putting the glasses and having it ready for cocktails makes you feel sew at home immediately. And I think it's very easy. It's also a small thing. It is literally on a table. So you can really focus on something small that's easy to achieve that way, which obviously getting the painters in is big. And you've got to choose that wretched paint color, of course, which is big deal.
- [43:44]
Ana Brockway
A bigger project. Now, I love the drinks tray idea. We did an interview with sort of a famous American chef and host Alex Hits. I don't know if you know Alex.
- [43:54]
Rita Koenig
I love Alex.
- [43:55]
Ana Brockway
Yeah, he's such a great guy. And one of the things he talked about was the definition of hospitality is we thought of you. And I do think the drinks tray really says that. You know, it's like, this is here for you, which is lovely. So lightning round. Please tell us your favorite city.
- [44:12]
Rita Koenig
London. Hotel San Vicente Bungalows LA Me Too cocktail. It's either a no gin Negroni, which I love because you can have a few, or a Telefonino, which I love, which is it's a sort of Campari based cocktail that they serve at the River Cafe.
- [44:33]
Ana Brockway
Fantastic Favorite restaurant River Cafe in London. Sheets Brand Porto Home fragrance.
- [44:42]
Rita Koenig
Home fragrance is funny because it's Bamford and it's a scented candle and they only sell it at Christmas, but it's cinnamon and clove and it's delicious. And it's the if anybody remembers Ken Turner from the 80s who was an amazing florist in London and he did this scented candle from my childhood and that is the fragrance and Carol Bamford bought the recipe and she did this candle, cinnamon and clovia and it's delicious.
- [45:08]
Ana Brockway
Oh gosh, that must smell like home for you. And your favorite Saturday morning ritual?
- [45:13]
Rita Koenig
Well, I have so few rituals and my Saturday morning is always the same because I have my Life coach at 9am So I have coffee Elizabeth, and the top half of me is dressed and the bottom half of me is in pajamas and I just dread having to stand up in front of the screen and she'll know. But actually while I was writing this, I was like, I wonder if Elizabeth is in pajamas on the bottom half and just, well, if she's your life.
- [45:40]
Ana Brockway
Coach, she can't judge you for being in your pajama pants. Right?
- [45:44]
Rita Koenig
So that's my Saturday morning.
- [45:46]
Ana Brockway
I love it. Thank you so much for giving us all this time, Rita, and sharing so much with us. We really appreciate it.
- [45:54]
Rita Koenig
Oh, and I'm so delighted to be asked. And I love Cherish and it's such a fun sight to shop. So I couldn't be more happy to be on your podcast.
- [46:03]
Ana Brockway
So I wanted to thank our amazing guest Rita Koenig for joining us today. And thank you for listening to the Cherished Podcast. You've been listening to the Cherish Podcast, brought to you, of course, by Cherish, voted by USA TODAY readers as the best place to shop online for furniture and home decor. If you enjoyed this podcast, please tell a friend or a colleague. Or better yet, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It's a great way to help more design lovers discover our show. Have an idea for a future episode we would love to hear from from you. Drop us a Note at podcasterish C-H-A I R-I-S-H.com the Cherish podcast is produced by Mugs Buckley and engineered by Hanger Studios in New York City until next time.