Andrew Buchanan – The 9 Lives of an Interior Designer

Andrew Buchanan has lived in Folkestone since 2007 and describes himself as having had 3 different lives here so far.  Firstly he would visit at weekends, making sure he was up-to-date with his sister, neice and nephews who also live here.  Then lockdown forced a move from London to be by the sea for the duration.  At some point Andrew woke up and realised that he didn’t miss London, and that he had created a life that suited him very well.  Folkelife met up for cake and copious chat to find out more.

“I was working for a big Interior Design practice in London until 2018.  Working 70 hour weeks and being very driven in what I was doing seemed to be what I wanted at the time, but looking back now I wasn’t happy really.  I’d rarely spend more than one and a half days in Folkestone, so when I packed up and moved here for Covid I realised that I’d never actually cooked in my own kitchen.  There was a peace of mind I got from knowing exactly where all my clothes were, and I finally became established in my home here.  It goes without saying that the weather was glorious and we couldn’t have had a better time, in that sense.  But I realised one day, having been in one place for 18 weeks, the longest I’d spent anywhere for a long time, that I didn’t miss London.  

“What I had created here was a life.  I had found friends to sea swim with; I had found friends to cycle with; I had found friends to cook and eat with and enjoy time with.  It was a realisation that I had created a life for myself beyond my work that made me very content. It also goes without saying that I love Folkestone.”

international interiors

“I’m an interior designer and work across the world.  There might be a lot of us, but there’s enough work for all of us; I’m currently working on a project in Knightsbridge, Jamaica and Kent but have clients in the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Saudi, and have built a Swiss Chalet… you name it.  But, I think the reason why it took me so long to make the move full time to Folkestone – having first come in 2007 – was that I was terrified of leaving London.  I thought I’d miss out on business opportunities and so on.  It’s not true.  

“In 2017 I turned 40 and our house that we’d renovated from buying in an auction 10 years before was featured in House and Garden.  That felt like a validation of my work up to now.  I’d been featured in a magazine and was now a grown up. So, I quit!  All that time I’d been working so hard, I felt it was time to focus on me.  I set up my own business in 2018, Andrew Buchanan Design, and then we know what happened next.  2021 and 2022 were pretty quiet for everyone but I used the time to ‘reset my chakras’, spend time on the Harbour Arm and at The Pilot Bar and figuring out what I wanted to do next.”

content in folkestone

“I’ve found that I’m at a place now where if the phone rings I don’t have to jump to answer it.  I can speak to whom ever I like and go up to London when I want.  At the beginning of this year London called me for three days a week.  Now I haven’t been for three weeks and I don’t miss it at all. There are so many different people here, and it’s such a sociable place.  I can’t walk down The Old High Street without meeting someone I know.  My friends find it quite irritating!  But I’m a gregarious person and it’s so unlike London.

“This is a town where you meet people.  I can remember having dinner at The Folkestone Wine Company just after it opened about 8 years ago or so.  We got chatting with the couple on the next door table and then that lead to them coming back to ours and drinking champagne until 4am.  Now we’re sea swimming companions – the Frosty Nips – and were down at The Riviera this morning at 6am. I now do Saturday night working there as a waiter and I love it!”

connections and experiences

“There was another time when down at The Pilot Bar where I met a lovely friend who works at The Burlington Hotel.  I thought it would be good to see that side of hospitality so went to work for them for a couple of weeks that summer.  I love the building but it’s an incredibly hard job; I’ve given it a go!

“There are quite a few people I’ve introduced to the town too.  Some people joke that I’m part of the Folkestone PR and Tourism Board but I just love it here.  There are friends who rented a place unseen during Covid – he’s a 6ft German and she’s a glamorous American.  They were living in Portugal but he has to go to Germany a lot so it made sense to move here.  We go off-road cycling which is a lot of fun.  I’ve now introduced him to my friends who I do the Park Run with and suddenly you have this extraordinary network of people.”

folkestone is so central

“If you are looking for sea sports activities then you’ll find that Folkestone is a very central location.  You can go either way around the coast – to Ramsgate and off to Camber – to find the ideal conditions for your sport.  Whether it’s kite surfing or paddle boarding, or anything else.  

“You can then see that there’s a huge amount of coastal building happening across the south.  We’ve got Shoreline and it is, honestly, the best quality build on the South Coast of England, built by Jenner and designed by acme.  It’s an exciting building and the Beach Houses are my favourite.  My mother lives in an apartment building in Auckland with underground parking and it’s a lifestyle that’s easy to get used to.  Having your own front door, and coming in under the building at the back to park your car is so private.  It’s taken the English a while to cotton on to it, to be fair, especially as a lot of the apartment buildings here don’t factor in parking.”

sustainable work

“Being based in London in the high-end luxury interior market you can easily get carried away with your work.  Generally there’s no shortage of funds, and dreams of marble bathrooms are totally feasible.  One of the things about moving to Folkestone that I relish is the challenge to make things more sustainable.  When working locally, you need to be more considerate of peoples budgets.  I relish the challenge to find more cost effective alternatives – working with clients in Folkestone has made me more aware of this.

“The other thing about working here is that you get to meet a huge variety of local artists.  This is a Toby Melville-Brown, and that over there is a Rob Buchanan who ran the Folkestone Art Gallery until 2024 and now runs Buchanan Art.  I bought Molly Jones‘ first ever commission; and this here is an Alice Liptrot who’s a local yoga teacher too. David Alderman does these wonderful geometric designs and John Bartlett creates these vibrant, colourful images.  His work is all across London and he’s based here. This is local, but it’s original artwork by talented artists.  It’s also affordable.”

folkestone works

“I love this town, and putting a finger on what I love about it is difficult.  It’s beautifully set out to the urban plan by Decimus Burton, who designed much of the great parts of London.  Castle Hill Avenue is wide and straight, and up in the middle at the top is a statue to William Harvey.  The town’s architecture, especially in the West End part, is a testimony of this period, with many impressive buildings, townhouses, villas and private squares.  The town grew very quickly and was considered the most fashionable resort of the time. Once the railway had been built in the 1850s, this town exploded from its sleepy fishing village to Victorian destination in around 30 years. 

“Have a look in The Bayle.  The Priory, my home, has the signature arched windows of Robert Edis.  He was commissioned by Edward VII to add the bay windows and design the Ballroom at Sandringham.  He also wrote the first book on Interior Design.  Here in Folkestone, right from that moment of investing in the railway, we’ve been able to attract the leading architects and designers to create this wonderful town of ours.  It’s still happening today.  There’s a plethora of important buildings in this town and that’s what I love about it. Oh, and the people.  And the Zig Zag path… do I have to limit my list..?”