Ann Maurice

House Doctor

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About Ann Maurice
House Doctor

Californian interior designer Ann Maurice has a truly unique combination of skills and experience that set her apart from others in her field. Prior to her ten-year Interior Design an Home Staging career, she spent thirteen years selling Real Estate in the San Francisco Bay area.

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Ann Maurice - House Doctor

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My favourite city is San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where I have my holiday home.

I know people find it hard to believe that the House Doctor who is constantly telling people to get rid of all their 'stuff" and go "neutral" actually lives in a house as colourful and eclectic as this one. I've made it my fantasy home. It's an original 18th century Spanish colonial property that I've lovingly restored and decorated over a period of several years. It's built around an interior court yard with every room having access to the outdoors.

I've tried really hard to incorporate the old with the new. For example, one of my favourite rooms in the house is a small sitting room off the master bedroom. This was originally a bakery and still has the original stone walls and arches, which I love. I've put a glass ceiling over it so that you can see the stars and moon at night.

I've used the traditional colours of Mexico using lime paints with natural pigments, which gives a very soft, almost brushed look. I've played with different shades of terra cotta, from a soft dusty rose to vibrant red and then have blues, greens, and yellows spinning off of that. These are the colours you need when the sun is so strong and the sky is so blue.

A great deal of the interior decor has been inspired by my love of Moorish architecture, a style that originated in Spain from the 13th. to the 16th. centuries. The Alhambra Palace in Granada inspired a star-lit domed ceiling in the entrance. Many of the furnishings and objects in the house were collected over the years during my travels, especially throughout the Middle East. The remaining were all made by local artisans, whose talents are amazing...they can make almost everything from a photograph or drawing. And finally, a growing collection of art graces the walls in every room. this house was truly a labour of love.

Desk setting

Bedroom scheme

As I always say, "The home is the metaphor of the Self".

Design and research tips

Keep original features

Original features can be the most exciting and beautiful features of a house, so if you live in a period property work with the features it offers, e.g. original flooring, stonework, a fireplace or wooden beams. Create the design of the room to work with, and compliment the original architecture and design elements.

Look at architecture

Research the architecture and interiors that inspire you, look at different countries and periods and find design elements that you can incorporate in to your own home - shape, pattern, colour, texture and unusual features. You can then develop and incorporate these ideas to suit your home and living space.

Collect things on your travels

Bring vibrancy and individuality to your home by collecting furnishings and objects from different countries on your travels. Find custom made furniture and products made from local craftsmen and artists for a really authentic and eclectic mix within your home.

I believe that one's home should not only reflect who they are, but should be designed and decorated in a manner conducive to bringing out the best in each person living there. It is important for me to know a lot about a client before I start to work with them...how they want to use each room, what things they like about their home as it stands, what things they would change if they could, what they feel is missing. That's the big brush-stroke. Then I dig deeper in order to find out what colours, textures and shapes they respond to. I use these parameters along with my expertise to develop a scheme that is personal, beautiful as well as practical. In designing for others it's "All about them".

I get my inspiration from many sources. Travel is one of the most inspiring, especially to foreign or exotic locations...the architecture, colours, fabrics, food, all of it inspires my design work. I love markets and always seem to find something wonderfully unique in them. I also love communing with nature as a means of slowing down and taking time out to see, really see its beauty. All the design rules apply and are perfectly executed by nature herself...Colour, rhythm, texture, form, balance. I've been known to collect flowers, stones, leaves, twigs and branches and replicate their properties in my schemes.