MRS BENNET AND ME
Mrs Bennet's Beginnings
My sister and I grew up in a house of pattern and print; where homemaking (in the very best sense of the word) was a constant adventure. It wasn’t unusual for us to wake in the morning to find the hall painted pink, or a jaunty new wallpaper gracing the downstairs loo. Our mother was nothing short of a whizz and a whirlwind when it came to decorating, so it's unsurprising, perhaps, that we both caught the interiors bug.
Despite this, as we all did in those 1990's days, I left university and got myself a proper job; first as a teacher then, after it dawned on me that this would mean actually teaching (hats off to those marvelous professionals who do it every day), I went back to school and retrained as a Barrister.
For 17 years I appeared, wigged and gowned, in court rooms across London. But all the while the stash of design books and magazines by my bed grew, and I embarked on home renovations as often as I could persuade my husband to live through the upheaval.
I also began to collect fabrics, buying vintage at antiques fairs, collecting cottons on my travels and ushering them home in my suitcase. It may be my mother's hand in it all, or a touch of nostalgia (some of my earliest memories are of sitting underneath the old Singer sewing machine, tented by fabric, as she ran up curtains from chintz and check) but for me it's always been when the soft furnishings go in that a house truly becomes a home.
In 2017 our family’s move to Singapore brought an end to my lawyering days and left me (as it does so many of us ‘trailing spouses’) with the big and scary question of ‘what next?’ I absolutely knew what I'd love to do; the only question was, was I brave enough to do it.
Five years later, Mrs Bennet was born. A brand that celebrates, in the form of bright and beautiful furnishings, all those things my mother taught me were important- making a comfortable home, embracing your individuality and having some fun with it along the way!
I really hope you find as much joy in Mrs Bennet as I do,
Lucy-Ann x
(p.s. Just until I manage some remotely reasonable photos of myself, please enjoy these of Toffee - our very cute Cockerpoo - instead!)
