A couple of weeks ago we had the pleasure of catching up with Gillies’ Design Consultant, and interior design expert, Ryan McNeish. With 25 years’ experience in the home furnishing industry, we wanted to get to know him better, and find out more about his journey to becoming one of the UK’s leading interior design consultants. Here’s a glimpse of just how Ryan got into the business, and where he sees interior trends heading for the rest of the year and beyond.
Tell us who you are and a little bit about you?
I’m Ryan Mcneish and I’ve been working in the trade for 25 years now. I grew up in Fife and studied Fashion & Textiles at Galashiels, down in the borders, and went on to work in fashion for about 6 years getting a job doing styling and buying for ‘Flannels’, based in Glasgow.
How did you get into interiors?
After working 6 years in fashion, I got a job working for a large home furnishing business in Scotland for around 7 years, and then moved to Manchester where I got a job with an upholstery and cabinet supplier, called ‘Halo’, who at the time Gillies used to stock, for 9 and a half years. This involved working across Asia, as their furniture production units were in China and then I would come back, work in the galleries, and do product development and design. And that takes me onto what I’m doing now, and working for Gillies.
What is it that you do now and when did you start working with Gillies?
After my time in Manchester, I set up my own business in 2015; I guess my official title is ‘Design Consultant’ which covers product design, store design, interior styling, furniture photography shoots and exhibition work. I do lots of different things for clients across the furniture & interiors industry. I started working with Gillies in 2017 for the launch of the Inverness showroom, and then got involved with Broughty Ferry, then also the showrooms in Aberdeen and Perth too. Most recently I’ve also been working in the new Elgin store.
You vist Gillies on a regular basis, don't you?
I do! It’s usually 4 times a year and it’s usually for a week within each quarter. Sometimes it’s more if there’s a big project like when we refurbished an entire floor in Broughty Ferry, so I was here for 2 weeks. It really just depends on what the project is, but we regularly communicate with each other, sharing project plans, and then executing them once a quarter to keep things fresh, relevant and on-trend! I have family in Fife, and friends in Glasgow, so I’m able to coordinate work and leisure at the same time which is nice.
How does it work? Are you asked to come in and redesign an area or do you come in and think 'this area needs redesigned'?
It’s a combination of both really. The most recent project in February was a request to re-design a section of the store to upgrade the premium European-based sofas and furniture, and give that section a more luxury feel, including some on-trend panelling and re-visiting the customer walkways to enhance their flow through the area. Other times I’ll be asked simply to spend some time in a selected store, for example Aberdeen shop, with a remit of simply making it look better and enhancing the styling so that customers get a better shopping experience. The one thing that happens when your styling is, once you start moving one section it ultimately means you’ve got to move areas in other sections to get things styled and flowing in a way that makes sense for customers, so sometimes a small project, can evolve quite quickly in to a bigger one!
Where do you get your inspiration from when designing a space?
I do lots of travelling, allowing me to see manufacturers in their environment, and from my earlier career as a buyer; I travelled the world, looking at brands like Venjakob in Germany, or spending time in Asia getting inspiration there, so that really gave me an in-depth knowledge on how I could translate their looks to the stores. It’s experience that has given me the background. I’ve been to various shows all over the world and have been fortunate enough to do that for a period of time, so have gleaned a lot from that which has helped me replicate and build on these experiences to bring them to life in furniture showrooms.
I also get involved in furniture design, including research, and seeing the breadth of materials available, so that too helps me soak up ideas and use for styling.
What trends do you see being big from 2024?
I would say there’s definitely a nod towards warmer hues, tones, and colours as well as more natural looks so I definitely see less grey, more creams, chocolate and quite deep reds coming through. Then your usual greens and blues tend to trend in and trend out. It’s either blue is favour of the month, or green is favour of the month and they’ll always kind of run through. They’ll compliment the browns and creams. I think it will happen in a couple years. Trends can be building for years, or almost start overnight, and the fashion houses have a lot to do with it, so it’s hard to predict! - Bet you wish you’d never asked now!
How would you describe your own personal style?
Really eclectic. I’ve got a real interest in art history and I love fashion mixed with interiors so I never really look at interior trends. As my background is in fashion I always lean there because as a designer you lean to where you have your most interest in. I like different things in different rooms from different periods, and I like mid-century modern a lot. I worked for Tetrad who produce Harris Tweed sofas, so I like some classic details with a real mix of other things. But I like black! *laughs*
Do you think there's an era of interior design that's coming back this year?
There is definitely a trend towards mid-century modern. Not the mid-century 1950’s and 1960’s trends; it seems to be more towards the 1970’s and 1980’s trends so, people like ‘Soho Home’ are really driving that in the upper market. I think that will really come through.
You’ve got something like the Gillies orange ‘Eastwood’ sofa where it’s really slouchy and it’s got that 70’s vibe and it’s fully upholstered to the floor, with some curvature to it. It’s not neat like the 50’s and 60’s so that shape is kind of moving on in favour to the shape of the Eastwood. Mid-century modern retro tiling I think is going to come back in cabinet furniture for 2025 I’d say. That’s where I’m working now at the minute. 2024 is pretty much gone, we’ve just done the main show of the year – January NEC Furniture Show, and we’re working towards 2025 already! – It never stops!
A big thank you to Ryan for sitting down and discussing his background with us. His knowledge of the industry and trends was very insightful and inspring, and finding out about how is experiences have shaped the way he thinks about creating different spaces has been very ineresting!
Visit us in our stores to see some of what Ryan has been doing to help Gillies provide an inspirational shopping experience for your next home project!