Home: In a New York state of mind with Ben De Lisi

What's your design philosophy?

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA, New York)chic. Never overwork or over handle; hard working yet effortless with humour.

Your collections definitely have a sense of humour; you're inspired by your old French bulldog Ella, but where else do you get your ideas from?

From the 1950s, and artists like Roscoe, Picasso, Nicholson, Kandinsky and sculptures like Brancusi, I love that era. I guess being born in the 50s and starting to see things in the early 1960s developed my sense of design into clean lines, stainless steel, a no-nonsense, style. Never overstated, but luxurious.

What do you think are the big décor trends for autumn?

I never really buy into trends, I always tend to follow my heart and my heart is always the same; highly-coloured, very graphic. My work tends to always have a 1950s slant to it and a bit of Americana always infiltrates the collections as it's my roots. I have this penchant for toys, toys of yesteryear that have become the antiques of today. There's always things in the collection that have that fun feeling, you wouldn't know why you're buying it but you want it anyway!

With that sense of fun from your design, what do you think makes a happy home?

I think being true to yourself is number one to a happy home. You have to have a personal relationship with everything you buy. People who use interior designers, maybe they don't have the confidence or foresight, so they use someone to create that vision. It's sometimes sad to walk into someone's house and say how marvellous that piece is, where did you find it and they go 'I don't know, the decorator found it'. I could tell you where I got everything in my house, and why, and to me that's what works in a home.

Do you have any interior rules?

I tend to keep my colour palette quite neutral with accents. I like to take flooring throughout the entire home. I think what happens if you treat each room as a separate entity, it becomes hotel like and disjointed. Keep one common thread is my advice; so my floors are an alabaster white and my floors are all walnut in the other house. It's important to have consistency to your interiors.

What about accessories?

A really simple trick to making something "uncool cool" is to arrange them in constellations, whether you stack, or group them, it could be your Grandma's teacups, but if you put them together in an unusual way, they take on a modern feel. Keep your colour palette quite minimal and let your accessories do the talking.

What tips would you give to someone to get great interior style on a budget?

First of all find an image that represents who you are and then write all the words that come to mind from that image - base your home on those words. It might be a photograph of a 1960s loft in Manhattan, or anything, but you have to find your image. I believe anybody can have a beautiful home on any budget, the thing is to have one thought. If you start getting confused and you want to have a bit of this and bit of that, it comes a bit of a hodgepodge and no consistency. It's confusing and not very restful either. Most importantly buy what you love, buy what makes you smile and stick to that.

Do you take inspiration from your fashion collections through your interiors?

Fashion influences the interiors in terms of print and colour. If it's highly coloured graphic print with a 50s slant, it will get my creative juices flowing. Funnily enough anything that has a red or bright tangerine hue to it I tend to gravitate towards. Red is a colour that accents my home in London and my home in Ibiza.

Who's house would you most like to have a snoop around?

It would have to be Mark Rothko, the artist, his paintings were so completely larger than life and had beauty and ugliness but still so evocative and I would have loved to seen where and how he lived.

Ben's A/W collection 2014 is available at Debenhams