We are a team of creative and dedicated professionals with over 25 years’ experience in creating living spaces that complement the personality of the people who love them.
It’s our goal to ensure that our clients feel confident that the choices they are making will result in the best possible outcome for their personal needs.
That’s why we give you the same advice we would give our friends, because when you work with us, you become one.
A few years ago, Anne Hogarth had a significant birthday and decided the time was right to change careers to something she truly loved. That’s how she wound up trading in her corporate job and enrolling at the prestigious Sydney Design School where she graduated with a Diploma in Interior Design and Decoration.
A co-founder of Thornton & Blake, Anne is a talented interior designer and decorator, specialising in soft furnishings, window treatments and space planning. Anne aims to balance aesthetics, form and function to produce designs that are not only beautiful to the client, but are also environmentally friendly, low energy, functional and space efficient.
Living and working in the Blue Mountains provides Anne with access to many highly talented local artisans including ceramicists, painters, weavers, glass blowers and lighting specialists, and the one-off pieces they produce feature in her interiors.
Anne translates her clients’ need into interiors that are tailored just for them. Her intuitive sense of colour and textiles creates a grounding elegance that characterises her work.
Combining the classic and contemporary, fine antiques and market treasures, she crafts warm, inviting spaces to be lived in and enjoyed, not simply looked at and admired.
Aside from the look of painted brick, Anne loves her two cats, Daphne & Niles (named after the characters in the comedy series Frasier) and food, so much so that her stomach often determines her travel itineraries with restaurants being booked before accommodation!
When it comes to paint – both the product itself and its technical aspects – you’d be hard pressed to find someone more knowledgeable than Ellisha. Having spent the last 15 years working with paint, Ellisha has been called ‘The Paint Guru’ on more than one occasion! Ellisha loves mixing paints and custom eye matching to create unique colours, perfect for your project. Besides paint, Ellisha’s other area of expertise is fireplaces. Her deep product knowledge means she can easily help you identify a fireplace that will suit your home, budget and keep you warm on those chilly Mountain nights.
A lifelong love of fabric and interiors encouraged Gill to seek out a job in this field over 15 years ago. A first degree in Art History and languages was an excellent starting point, as was growing up in Virginia in the US which is a state full of beautifully decorated historic homes and towns.
Courses over the years in interior decorating and soft furnishings fed her love. Like Anne, a significant birthday prompted her to act on her passion. She has since developed and owned her own interior decorating business in rural NSW and has worked in the Blue Mountains as a decorator for the past six years. Gill loves to help clients make their homes flow better and give them more joy.Her special area is window coverings, and she loves to work out appropriate and efficient solutions, both internal and external.This includes all types of blinds and awnings, shutters and curtains.She also has plenty of experience helping decorate the rest of the room with rugs, furniture, lighting and other accessories. Having been connected with the upper Blue Mountains since the early 80s, Gill loves the area and its natural beauty, architectural history and weather.
In 2014, Jess studied interior design at the Commercial Arts Training College CATC where she not only gained invaluable design skills, but also an understanding of how to create stunning, yet practical spaces. Known for her creativity and ability to come up with effective design solutions for any sized-project, Jess has a knack for leaving her customers with a happy smile on their face and feeling inspired thanks to 10 years’ of customer service experience.
Creativity has always been the driving force in Fiona’s life, first as a choreographer, and dance teacher and most recently as an Interior Designer. After making a “tree change” to the Blue Mountains, Fiona gained her diploma in Interior Design and Decoration while working in event management and styling, retail styling and product sourcing & buying. But her heart firmly belonged to interiors, so she started her own business working with clients near and far.
Fiona’s passion for design goes beyond aesthetics; she firmly believes home is a place that should evoke feeling, reflect the owner’s story, and enhance life through beauty and practicality. Fiona starts each new design based on elements that elicit positive emotion be it colour, texture, pattern, shape, simplicity, glamour, nature, warmth, humour, irregularity, or all of the above, applying consideration to every component of a project so that the elements in a space coalesce with harmony and style.
Years of experience in retail (Fiona has worked in, and decorated, some of the Mountains most beloved homewares emporiums) has given her special insight into product sourcing and she thrives on finding unique pieces that surprise and delight her clients.
Fiona’s love of dance remains, and she continues to be inspired by live performance, ballet, and music.