Meet House & Garden's Rising Stars for 2025
The annual House & Garden Rising Stars list is now a firm fixture in our schedule - and this year it is published with our April issue, which is on newsstands now. The list kicks off our ‘Icons of Design’ series, which will be continued in the May and June issues with the Top 50 Garden Designers and Top 100 Interior Designers and Architects, and gives us an opportunity to recognise some of the exceptional emerging creatives that the design industry has to offer. It is not easy to put together: more than ever before the design industry is brimming with exciting talents to watch, and whittling it down to just 25 names is a challenge.
These are people who – whether antique dealers, garden designers, interior designers or product designers – are either pushing creative boundaries and yielding wondrous results or are perfecting time-honoured traditions and aesthetics through their work. Some are finding innovative ways to produce beautiful designs in a sustainable way, and others are fostering communities within their field to offer a fresh take on things. In short, it is a list of names to keep an eye on, ones we expect will be making waves for years to come. Without further ado, the 2025 Rising Stars List.
1/25Shivangi Vasudeva
Furniture Design
It is hard to believe that Shivangi graduated from Central Saint Martins, where she studied for a Design MA, only last June. Within a couple of months, she was showing her first collection - made up of two of the pieces she created for her degree show plus three new ones - at Future Heritage, the contemporary craft show at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, SW10. Entitled The Alchemy of Our Fibres, her debut collection includes the 'Takhat' bench, chairs, an ottoman and a stool, and features textiles woven using heritage techniques by female weavers in the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, upholstered onto sturdy, white ash frames. Shivangi wants to use her skills as a designer to champion Indian heritage crafts.
2/25Kelly Jessiman
Ceramic Design
Having spent 10 years doing what she calls 'odd jobs' - from visual merchandising to being a painter-decorator - Kelly found her calling. After a few months of experimentation, the ceramicist put her first pieces - a collection of colourful candlesticks - on Instagram in 2020. It caught the attention of buyers at Charleston, East Sussex, who felt her work captured the spirit of the Bloomsbury group: she soon had pieces in the gift shop there and now counts M.A.H gallery and McCully & Crane in Rye among her stockists. 'My style is a bit off-piste and slightly wonky,' Kelly says of her vases and vessels, plates and candlesticks.
3/25Ananth Ramaswamy
Interior Design
Bangalore-born Ananth moved to London to study architecture in 2008. He established his studio, Arall, in 2020 following stints working for luxury hotel group The Doyle Collection and the architectural designer Michaelis Boyd. He is also creative director of Chester's, a Bangalore-based Indian luxury furniture business, owned by his family. His work spans interior architecture, decoration and design consultancy, and recent projects range from a Victorian house in Wanstead to a chalet in Courchevel. 'We create inviting, comfortable and idiosyncratic spaces,' says Ananth. ‘Approaching projects with a forensic eye, we inject research, method and attitude into our designs’.
Pixelate Imaging4/25Jess Maybury
Antique Textiles
This model turned dealer honed her eve as a child watching her mother source tapestries, rugs and elaborately patterned fabrics. It was during lockdown, which provided her with the much needed time to focus on her calling, that Jess began collecting Pakistani ralli quilts such as the one above. Fascinated by their history and bright motifs, she started selling them through Instagram. The stock in her by-appointment Hackney studio now includes exquisite jacquard Iranian wall hangings, Indonesian ikats and colourful suzanis from Uzbekistan. 'For me, it's the history of an object that makes it even more beautiful,' she explains.
5/25Oliver Lyttelton
Interior Design
'Sometimes after a busy, anxious day, you want to walk into a room and relax,' says Oliver, whose pursuit of creating 'warm and cosy' rooms drives him away from trends and patterns, and towards rich colours and 1970s-inspired shapes. Assisting Rachel Chudley for six months after he graduated from Central Saint Martins, where he studied Furniture Design, taught him to be brave with colour: 'She always did wacky things that were so exciting. That's what we should all be doing more of - testing the boundaries.' Since opening his own studio in 2020, Oliver has been applying this approach to a house in Highgate and Cob Gallery's new space in Bloomsbury.
6/25Leendert De Vos
Architectural, Interior + Product Design
The art of combining historical influences with a contemporary sensibility inspires this London-based Belgian creative. It is a balance he mastered in London at Caruso St John Architects, which he joined after his studies at Ghent University in 2017. He set up on his own in 2022. His recent projects strike this balance beautifully, as seen in his interiors for a Stoke Newington house and renovation of a Shoreditch flat, characterised by playful modern furniture and sympathetic architectural elements. Leendert's involvement in the art world extends to a recent project designing the exhibition sets for a show at Gallery FUMI, W1.
Anya Campbell Photography7/25Katie Cary
Product Design
Capitalising on the continued appetite for stripes, Katie launched textile and wall. paper brand Studio Humbug in 2023. Her love of colour and pattern from a previous life as a designer of accessories and shoes informs appealing designs such as ‘Quercus’ and ‘Squiggle’. The stripes range from bold bands to soft, squiggly lines. Everything is printed to order in the north of England using sustainable inks, which minimises waste.
8/25George Younge
Furniture + Interior Design
Yorkshire-based academic turned designer-maker George launched his studio in 2024 after a decade of teaching Medieval Literature at the University of York. He began learning his craft from his stepfather-in-law, furniture maker Marcus Jacka, about seven years ago, and has a great respect for traditional materials. 'My approach is holistic, historical and imaginative,' says George, whose work ranges from sycamore plate racks to entire kitchens. ‘Underlying all I do is a preoccupation with defining and creating beauty’.\
9/25Uns Hobbs
Interior Design
With a degree in Interior Architecture from the University of Brighton, Uns spent years working in marketing before launching her south London-based design studio in 2022. She honed her eye by doing up two of her own houses and helping out friends with their interiors, and has become known for layered, colourful, pattern-filled schemes. 'My aim is to create spaces where people can truly feel at home,' she says. Current projects include a family house in Dulwich, a flat in Putney and the ‘exciting challenge’ of a newbuild in Surrey, where she is using rich hues and textiles to bring depth and character to the interior.
10/25Sarah Walter Boyd
Interior Design
Having cut her design teeth working under Emma Burns, Wendy Nicholls and Philip Hooper at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, Sarah founded her own practice last year. Her bijou modernist flat in south London demonstrates her ability to transform a small space cleverly on a modest budget and with a relaxed sense of confidence. Sarah is currently working on a varied list of projects in the UK and abroad - from a charming late-Georgian townhouse in Winchester to a contemporary apartment in New York overlooking the Hudson River.
11/25Petra Ulrik & Miguel Ogando
Garden Design
Having both worked at Urquhart & Hunt for several years, Petra and Miguel set up Dos Landscapes in 2023. Based in Somerset, the couple are currently busy with projects in the UK and in Portugal. Their work has an emphasis on regenerative schemes, and low-intervention and site-specific design, including features such as drought-tolerant borders, wild swimming lakes and wildlife ponds. 'We specialise in taking a forward-thinking approach to land stewardship, combining traditional land management with a contemporary aesthetic that echoes our passion for natural landscapes,' Petra explains.
12/25Byron
Furniture Design
After graduating in 2020 from Northumbria University Newcastle, where he studied Furniture and Product Design, Byron did a master's course in Material Futures at Central Saint Martins. Now installed in a workshop in Walthamstow, he sees London ‘as a massive pantry of materials - anything I can find contributes to an idea’. He salvages offcuts from other designers or rescues waste timber from bins to make his pleasingly curved, patchwork furniture and bespoke pieces for architects and interior designers.
13/25Peter & Caroline Clayton
Garden Design
A brother-and-sister team, Peter and Caroline set up Viriditas in 2020. Formerly a music video commissioner, Caroline retrained in 2018, gaining an RHS Level 2 Certificate in Horticulture and graduating from the London College of Garden Design in 2020. Peter still works in events, as well as project managing for Viriditas. 'I cover the creative direction and plants, and Peter makes things happen,' says Caroline. Conceived as sanctuaries for people and wildlife, their plant-filled gardens are stylish spaces designed, above all, to be lived in. Alongside two private gardens in London, the pair are working on larger projects in Somerset and Dorset, and are also designing a balcony garden for this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
14/25Max McLintock
Furniture Design
Having been made redundant in the first Covid lockdown. Max enrolled on a course in Fine Furniture Design & Making at the Building Crafts College in east London. After he posted a picture of his first piece of work on Instagram, a commission for a dining table followed swiftly and his career as a furniture designer has progressed apace ever since. Max's collection of wooden tables and lamps inspired by 20th-century design and architecture are functional and idiosyncratic, and he also continues to take on bespoke commissions.
15/25Barnaby Lewis
Furniture + Product Design
After studying Furniture Design at what was then Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design, Barnaby taught himself how to melt metal and to shape it into industrial-style objects with a touch of whimsy. In 2020, he opened his own forge in Bermondsey, where he crafts sculptures and one-off pieces of furniture. such as the console table above. Barnaby sells his work on Instagram and also fulfils commissions: ‘I love the immediacy of metal - you can keep on adding to it and changing it indefinitely’.
Dean Hearne16/25Joshua Hale
Interior Design
The colourful, playful interiors devised by Joshua are shaped by the fact that he is an all-round creative - a fashion graduate turned painter, who designed pottery for Emma Bridgewater for seven years. After three years freelancing for Emma Burns at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, Joshua set up his own design studio in 2023, creating interiors that are rooted in classical values. In part, this aesthetic is informed by his time as a full-time chorister at Wells Cathedral School, which made a 'lasting, irrevocable impression' on him. He is currently working on the Senior Common Room at Queen's College Oxford and a Jacobean-Georgian house in Warwickshire.
17/25Andy Monaghan
Floral Design
The grower and floral designer started his business in 2020 and juggles it with a freelance career in dance. Cultivating flowers on a three-and-a-half acre plot in Hampshire, Andy creates floral schemes with a naturalistic aesthetic, led by his organic principles, for weddings and other events. 'As a dancer, I think I bring something different to my flowers,' he says. 'I look at the movement, flow and shape of a piece, and the two sides of my career inform each other constantly.'
Matthew Eades18/25Claire Durbridge-Sakoui
Product Design
'I am not an artist, but I'd like to be,' says Claire, who, for a non-artist, certainly has a talent for drawing and painting exquisite illustrations, which she has been turning into wallpapers since 2023. A former fashion editor for titles such as Teen Vogue, Elle and Tatler, Claire notes that her designs combine pretty motifs such as pea pods and four-leaf clovers with a 'murky darkness'. Her latest collection of wallpapers, launched last year, features moth, pansy and striped designs. 'I always try to make things with just the right amount of wrong,' she explains.
JASPER FRY19/25Christabel MacGreevy
Interior Design + Art
Colour - and an abundance of it - is the thread that links Christabel's work. Though she has been working with textiles, ceramics and sculpture for some years, it was not until she moved into her first flat in 2021 that the Central Saint Martins graduate caught the interior design bug. She has since taken on several private projects, alongside shows of her ceramics. Her style is bold, but rooted in the traditional: colour and pattern layered with natural materials and vintage pieces.
Hannah Veale20/25Tabitha Rigden
Garden Design
Formerly a painting conservator, Tabitha decided to retrain and graduated in 2019 from the London College of Garden Design. She set up Rigden Saunders in 2020 with her fellow LCGD graduate Helen Saunders, soon winning a Society of Garden Designers award for the paper design of a hospital rehabilitation garden. The two have since parted ways, with Tabitha now working under the name Rigden Studio. Her portfolio includes projects with a fresh, contemporary feel, including an admired pub garden near Henley and private gardens in London and the Home Counties.
21/25George Morgan
Interior Design
Having worked at the studios of India Mahdavi, Rose Uniacke and Veere Grenney, George founded his own practice in 2022. He describes his approach as 'steeped in historical referencing and strongly influenced by French Art Deco - in particular, Jean-Michel Frank's furniture - and the Wiener Werkstätte movement'. Based in London, he studied History of Art at The Courtauld Institute of Art and now works on residential and commercial projects, alongside set design and bespoke furniture. George is currently engaged on a commission to create furniture for a performance piece entitled Furniture Music, inspired by works by the French composer, Erik Satie, and due to premiere in late 2025 in New York.
22/25Marsha Abegg
Interior Design
Born in England but raised between Germany and Switzerland, Marsha is a graduate of Central Saint Martins and KLC School of Design, and worked for David Collins Studio and Ennismore, in London, on projects such as private members' club Maison Estelle. She set up her own studio in 2020, focusing on residential interiors, from the Balearic Islands to London. She describes her style as ‘like my upbringing - traversing borders; I blend contemporary and classical perspectives to craft thoughtful, functional interiors that seamlessly weave wonder and elegance into the everyday'.
23/25Tabi Jackson Gee
Interior Design
Trained as a journalist, Tabi still contributes to House & Garden, the Financial Times and other publications alongside her new career as a garden designer. After graduating from London College of Garden Design in 2020, she set up her business and has designed several gardens in London - one was as a finalist in last year's Society of Garden Designer awards - as well as an exhibit at Chelsea in 2024. Tabi enjoys collaborating with sculptors, furniture makers and interior designers, and her schemes mix informality with clever planting.
24/25Rachel Aisling Walker
Interior Design
Mixing modern and traditional elements in an effortless way, Rachel devises interiors that are serene and elegant. It is no surprise then that the interior designer spent six years with Rose Uniacke before she launched Raw Interiors in 2021. Previously, Rachel worked in exhibition design as well as for designers including Harriet Anstruther - experiences that have all shaped her refined approach. 'Natural materials, antiques and craftsmanship are key,' she says. Her current projects include two Notting Hill townhouses and a house on Lake Como.
25/25Joss Stoddart
Furniture Design
While growing up in rural Lancashire, Joss developed a deep connection to materials - specifically UK-grown oak, chestnut and ash. Showcasing these underpins his furniture designs, which range from made-to-order tables, chairs, sideboards and benches to bespoke pieces for clients. In 2022, he opened his Hampshire studio, having spent five years learning about architecture and restoration at construction company Creward. Last year, Joss took part in New Perspective at The Conran Shop: a showcase of emerging designers and makers. He is now working on creating custom pieces for a Portuguese boutique hotel in Lisbon.
