Simone Witney's work day starts with a short walk downstairs to what many would consider the perfect studio space: the light, roomy basement of her large Georgian home, just a pebble's throw from the seafront near Hastings. With the radio on and bright coastal light flooding onto her desk, this is where Simone develops her beautiful, thoroughly English collections of prints and weaves. She sells them through her Ariadne label both in the UK and the US, and in London is represented by Borderline at Chelsea Harbour Design Centre.

Sitting surrounded by her delicately tinted textile samples, drawings and vintage fabrics, Simone talks about her vast working archive of wonderful original designs. Many of these were created by her late partner, the textiles designer Roger Woods, with whom she set up home here 12 years ago.

“We made the break from our two separate flats in London 12 years ago, and really couldn't have taken on a more different space,” she says. The house was built in 1828 and originally one of a pair set right on the seafront as part of a development by the architect James Burton, who designed much of Regent's Park and came to live in Hastings in his old age. Its wonderful position means that all the front rooms have wonderful views of the sea.

The building had been divided into flats for many years, so the couple began the long job of coaxing it back to its original splendour. “I think probably the oddest part was the months when we had to clamber up a ladder through a hole in the ceiling to get to the bathroom!”

Once the major building and renovation tasks had been completed, the next step was the challenge of furnishing the generously proportioned interior. The couple knew they didn't want to create a really formal Georgian home. They searched the many antiques shops and auction houses in the area and unearthed treasures such as the 1930s Heal's dining suite, which was a starting point for the decoration of the wonderful yellow and honey-coloured dining room. The room sums up the whole feel of the house with its mix of design styles and colours and, of course the fabrics that have been inspired by them. “Roger's paintings and designs, a core part of this house and my work, are a constant inspiration. He taught me everything I know about design.”

When Simone and Roger bought the house, Roger was already an established designer who had worked with, among others Bernard Nevill, the influential design director of Liberty in the early 1970s. “The furniture and fabrics we collected have always been an influence on my designs,” Simone explains. “And their presence in the house provides me with ongoing inspiration for my work now.”

The couple's first collection together under the Ariadne banner was also interiors company Beaumont & Fletcher's initial foray into fabrics. “We had a clean slate as the company was only a couple of years old at that point and relatively flexible, so we could really be part of forming a direction for them.” Next to express interest was Osborne & Little for which Simone and Roger designed two collections. “What's really nice is that our Lakeland and Gardener collections are still being used – they've even cropped up on numerous BBC period dramas.”

Simone's designs can be inspired by anything, from the colours in a flower to the shapes in a painting, as the bank of well-thumbed art monographs testifies. She takes time over her creative decisions. “Sometimes it's a case of waiting for the right time for the design to come into its own. I'm very aware of taking account of the current mood in fashion, for example, and letting the ideas and colourways come through when the time feels right.”
Ariadne, (01424) 423789; www.ariadnefabric.com

WORDS ALI BROWN
PHOTOGRAPHS SIMON BROWN
OCTOBER 2005