Q&A With Ruth Crilly of A Model Recommends

We love to see what inspires people to choose Brintons. Ruth Crilly from 'A Model Recommends' talks to us about her latest renovations and why she chose Timorous Beasties carpet for her home.

Tell us a little about yourself

I’m Ruth Crilly, I’m a full-time beauty and lifestyle writer and vlogger under the name “A Model Recommends”. I’ve been blogging for over eight years and before that I was an international fashion model for over a decade. I’ve been with my husband, who’s a fashion and portrait photographer, for fifteen years and I’m now a Mum to a three year old girl and one year old boy. We live in rural Somerset with our dog and house cat in a Georgian country house.

How would you describe your style?

In terms of fashion – and probably interiors too – I’m quite understated and classic, but I enjoy the odd splash of print and colour. Before falling in love with our Georgian house, we were very into mid century modern and completely renovated a seventies house that was on stilts next to a river. The Georgian thing has been a bit of a change! But I still love clean lines and simple, elegant shapes. I don’t like a lot of clutter, but when you have a small family there’s no point battling the mess!

How has your home needed to evolve as the family has changed and grown?

Well, we started off with glass coffee tables and amazing vintage things and then gradually started swapping over to sturdier, chunkier things that wouldn’t potentially cause accidents! Our main concerns seem to be safety and comfort, so it’s more of a challenge trying to keep any sort of sense of stylishness. The kids climb over furniture, accidentally scrape sharp objects along the paintwork and generally cause havoc so I can’t have anything that we need to be TOO precious over. Or if it’s precious then it needs to be workable and durable.

What made you choose carpet?

We both hate wooden floors! I know that’s controversial, and we’ve kept one that was exposed upstairs, but the racket from things falling on wooden floors! The sound of shoes trip-trapping on them! It drives me mad! Add to this the fact that in our house you could actually FEEL the draught coming up through the gaps in the floorboards and carpet was a no-brainer. Our whole house was carpeted before this, and the one before that too, pretty much. I mean I’d never carpet a kitchen/utility or bathroom and maybe not a dining room because the floor needs to be wipeable but everywhere else is fair game. I’d probably carpet the walls if given half a chance.

We wanted an amazing, striking pattern. The rooms are big, and plain colour just felt like a sea of carpet and very blank, so when we saw the Timorous Beasties collection we were quite wowed. Pattern is also great with kids because they drop absolutely everything on the floor and if you can hide at least some of the accidents then you’re doing well. It’s quite a nervewracking thing to go for pattern, but the pay-off is amazing.

What are your main sources of inspiration for your home?

I love old, grand country houses – comfortable ones with log fires and slightly battered furniture – but I also can’t shake my love of modernist design, so I suppose I constantly look at both and try to find ways of mixing them. So far I’ve done more looking than buying because I’ve been known to make the odd mistake with impulse buying and I’m taking it slowly!

What was the last piece of homeware you bought?

The Noir Ruskin Butterfly carpet for what is going to be a family room/library. I say library because it sounds pleasingly grand but really it’s a couple of walls of books!