Quietly and confidently creating luxury interiors for a growing portfolio of outstanding coastal properties.
Words by Hannah Tapping
Mint House has rapidly become a respected voice in the interior design industry. With two successful facets to the Mint House Interior brand, the business is headed up by Caroline Saulsbury and Louise Ingram alongside their talented team. The first side of the business is focused on interior design services, specialising in projects from simple renovations to large-scale remodels for private homes, hotels, and luxury holiday rentals. The second face of the brand is the Mint House Home online store. Full of interior finds curated by the Mint House team, the shop mirrors the look and feel of their high-spec interior projects. Known for their warm, layered, and coastal aesthetic, the Mint House Home store features elevated essentials through to luxury statement pieces. For both facets of the business, their full focus is on quality, sustainable designs, and products that are built to last, bespoke and unique finds, using local craftspeople wherever possible.
With the Mint House design studio based in Truro, Caroline and Louise, who live with their families in the Porthtowan and St Agnes areas, feel strongly that London is no longer the epicentre of style, with Cornwall providing endless inspiration and direct access to skilled craftspeople and style creators. “We love the traditional materials that are to be found locally – so many textures with granite cottages, slate walls, sun-bleached wood, lovely worn in patina – which is why living and working by the coast is so rewarding, ” says Caroline. “The sunsets at our local beach in Porthtowan are pretty spectacular too. We both love to be outdoors in nature, and our countryside and coastline here in Cornwall are unbeatable and an endless source of inspiration.”
“My interest in interior design has been there for as long as I can remember. I always noticed how other people’s houses were furnished and decorated and knew what I liked and what I didn’t – although that itself has changed over the years,” comments Caroline. “I hadn’t really considered that it could be a career when I was younger but throughout my earlier career in graphics, I was always getting pulled towards interior design.” After taking a course, followed by work experience with an interior design studio, Caroline knew this was the path for her. Following a chance meeting with Louise whilst dropping their children off at nursery, discovering their mutual love of design, the seed of a new business was born.
With Caroline coming from a background in graphic design and Louise’s career prior to Mint House focused on the fashion and textile industry, their complementary skills combined with their passion for interior design made the ideal foundations to form their business. “When Lou and I started chatting, it became clear quite quickly that we both had the same aspirations and we sparked off each other. We didn’t know exactly what or how it was going to happen, we just acted on every little opportunity that came our way,” explains Caroline. “We worked from home and took on a variety of small projects just to start building our reputation and get a foot in the door. We soon had our first real project, a luxury penthouse apartment overlooking Porthtowan beach – it was an amazing opportunity and so we poured our heart and soul into it.”
From this first project, now eight years ago, this small team of two received encouragingly positive feedback, with recommendations for other projects soon following, and the business snowballed from there. Just a couple of years in, the business was ready to employ a team to help manage the multiple projects, along with the acquisition of the studio.
Pioneer of the modern coastal look, Mint House has gained an impressive clientele. “Due to the very nature of our location, that in itself has dictated how our business has evolved with luxury holiday properties and second homes being the busiest areas of our business,” says Louise. “Ultimately, our clients come to us for our aesthetic and work standards. We have a signature luxurious but laid-back approach to our designs.”
Some stand-out recent portfolio projects include the spectacular Skyfall in Falmouth, a penthouse apartment overlooking Gyllyngvase beach. “With uninterrupted ocean views, for this design scheme, we needed to create a look to enhance the panorama rather than compete with it. By layering warm neutral tones, with accents of moss greens and deep blues, we created an effortless colour scheme,” says Louise. “We chose refined materials such as marble and walnut for the bespoke built furniture and tailor-made beds and sofas, all designed by Mint House in collaboration with local craftsmen. The result is elegant, inviting, and our interpretation of laid-back luxury which our client loved”.
In contrast, on the other coast, Tater Du at Harlyn was a four-bedroom, newly developed townhouse project for the team. With a brief for the interiors to reflect the calm and cool coastal views whilst also appreciating the warm rural surrounding landscape, the result is a confident and playful yet sophisticated design. “The colour palette is calm with subtle contrast highlights. The tones used echo the dark slates of the surrounding cliffs and sand from the nearby beach – a redefined coastal palette,” says Caroline. “The confident choice of artwork really pulls the open-plan spaces together, allowing the different zones to work as one. Placement is well thought through to add balance to each room.”
With bespoke upholstery a signature service for Mint House projects, most recently the team has launched their first own-label collection – a plush range of cushions and bolsters. Inspired by coastal textures and tones, these sumptuous cushions draw inspiration from some of Cornwall’s most scenic beaches and coves, incorporating nautical stripes, palm prints, and clean checks. From tactile velvets and soft bouclés to fresh linens, textures evoke the wild Cornish landscape with a colour palette of warm sandy neutrals and sunset tones, referencing the golden hour for a modern coastal aesthetic.
“For our design projects, we have always created sofas, beds, ottomans, and cushions, so decided to launch our own label with a selection of our bespoke products. Starting with cushions, the variety of sizes and shapes fit perfectly on sofas and beds, all lavishly feather-filled to give that luxury plump feel. The bolsters are a wonderful update for any bedroom. The beauty of working closely with our skilled craftsmen and women is not only the quality and provenance of our products, but we are also able to offer bespoke sizing,” adds Louise. “The new cushion collection is inspired by recent interior design projects, with the influences behind this textile collection extracted from natural elements and the surroundings of each of the homes and locations.”
“We have the most amazing team supporting us now – Frankie our Project Manager, Rosie our Office Manager, plus our talented Designers Indie and Meaghan. Their support has allowed us to grow the business but we have lots of ambition so the sky’s the limit as far as we’re concerned,” concludes Caroline. “Being able to have the work-life balance that we both have living and working in Cornwall feels incredibly lucky, but we’ve worked hard for it. I still get a real buzz from seeing our designs come to life. I spend a huge amount of time picturing how things will look in my mind, so to see them come together in real life never gets old for me. Getting amazing feedback from our happy clients definitely lights the whole team up.”.
minthousehome.co.uk
minthouseinteriors.co.uk