Sue Timney is an award-winning British designer known for her striking monochrome aesthetic and decades of work across interiors, textiles and art direction. Former Chair of the Chelsea Arts Club, Former President of the British Institute of Design, and now Creative Director at Wallacea Living, she has created homes for the likes of Paul McCartney and David Bowie. A Professor at the Royal College of Art, she continues to work closely with emerging designers, a creative life she has no intention of slowing.
When Sue talks about moving into Wallacea Living, it’s charged with possibility. “I’m only feeling one thing and that’s excited. I can’t wait.” For someone whose life has been built around designing, curating, making and leading creative communities, this next move feels less like a pause and more like a clean, energising beginning.
Her new apartment is already becoming hers. “My second bedroom will be the studio,” she says, immediately animated. It’s the room she returns to again and again: a working space to draw, paint, experiment and leave things out mid-flow. “It’s too good a space to waste on an empty bedroom,” she laughs. “Walking into a room that’s had your activity in it the day before… that’s fantastic.”
For Sue, it’s not just about downsizing, “This is about now-sizing, shaping your life for today, keeping what matters, and letting the rest go.”
Some things will come with her: a cupboard painted a different colour in every home; a pair of her mother’s chairs she’ll reupholster. Others will travel on, to family, or to someone delighted to find them at the charity shop. “There’s excitement in divesting,” she says. “There’s always an upside.”
One of the biggest shifts, she admits, is the joy of moving into a contemporary building. Clean walls. Proper services. No gutters to unclog, no roofs to check every autumn, no damp creeping down a chimney breast. If something needs fixing, there’s help at hand, “which frees up so much time!” she says. “It’s freedom from domestic chores, freedom to live the next stage with energy.”
That freedom is already mapped out with some inspiring plans. She wants to brush up on her German, setting up a small sound system in the studio, and spend more time baking.
She’ll continue teaching, she explains, both with the next generation at the RCA and, increasingly, within the Wallacea Living community. Her early design workshops here have already uncovered new talent. She still talks with delight about spotting resident-to-be Paul Knight’s skill in one of her sessions: “He was outstanding. There are hidden talents in people our age. For me, discovering that talent was exhilarating.
”Most of all, she sees this as a natural, dignified, modern way to live. “This isn’t a care home,” she says. “It’s an extra genre of living that’s completely normal elsewhere in the world. Support is there, but only if you want it. Invisible and thoughtful.”
Her advice for anyone hesitating? “Come and have a look! Ask questions, meet the team, see the community.”
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