This course is a unique opportunity to learn directly from Marc Allum a leading arts and antiques specialist, author and broadcaster. From the historic to the post-modern, Marc has worked on a number of projects which illustrate the dramatic and yet subtle value of well-chosen art, antiques and design elements to produce classic and even challenging domestic and working environments.

We all have different tastes. This course will aim to expand your horizons by giving you a wide ranging insight into designing and decorating with originality. Based largely on a Marc’s eclectic precept that ‘anything goes’, his sense of style and his innate passion for objects allows him to advise on design outside of archetypal convention but also in an approachable and sometimes playful way; yet, his interiors draw on material ranging from the classic to the modern. As a result, this course will teach you to mix the affordable and the ordinary with both the valuable and the chic; it’s also full of practical advice on how and where to buy. Marc’s knowledge of fashion, history and craftsmanship allows a flexibility which will help give you the freedom to pursue the eccentric and assist you in sourcing affordable antiques which will flatter your environment in both a satisfying and stylistically unencumbered way.

On this course you will cover:

• Sourcing art and antiques and utilising the marketplace to best advantage.

• How to get ‘the eye’. What constitutes ‘good taste’ and whether or not that’s important.

• Art history and design in historic interiors and their re-interpretation for domestic use.

• Using your own design initiatives.

• Colour, textiles and soft furnishings.

• Restoration, upcycling tricks of the trade and salvage with an informative view on the economies of scale for the purposes of restoration.

• Concept and design with a minimum of fuss and how to own and enjoy living with antiques and collectables.