Creative Spotlight :: Olga & Taras Kott from Kott Soft Furnishings

Oct 1

5 min read

Olga and Taras beside patterned curtains in a home showroom collage, with text reading Creative Spotlight: Olga & Taras Kott.

I’ve worked with Olga & Taras for a few years now, so it’s a pleasure to introduce them as this month’s Creative Spotlight makers. I’ve also had the chance to spend a day with them creating some wonderful cushions.

Olga teaches sewing as well as making beautiful soft furnishings and I can say from experience that she’s an amazing teacher. She even managed to teach me how to put a zip into a cushion and zips have always been my sewing nemesis! If you’d like to learn from her too, you can find a link to her courses and website, below.

I hope you enjoy getting to know Olga and Taras in the interview below.

1. How did your creative journey begin and what led you to what you do today?

Our creative journey wasn’t really planned - it grew with us.

After our first child was born, I realised I wanted to do something creative - something I would genuinely enjoy, but that could also grow into a business and give me the flexibility to be there for my family.

Taras supported me completely and gave me the space and confidence to grow. I put everything into it, always caring about quality, craftsmanship and the little details and quite quickly the business started to grow too.

Taras was always by my side, helping behind the scenes, but it took 12 years before he made the big decision to leave his own career and join our family business full-time. That was a huge step for him and for us.

Today we work as a real team. I’m probably the more creative side, working mainly with curtains, Roman blinds and soft furnishings, while Taras is much more technical and practical, with a particular talent for upholstery and solving the things I sometimes dream up! Somehow our different skills work perfectly together.

We also create educational content together and share the reality of running a busy family workroom.

It has grown far beyond what we ever imagined, but at heart we are still simply two people who love making beautiful things with our hands.

4. Is there a particular detail or finishing touch you find yourself returning to again and again?

For me, it is always the little details. I love

small curtain pockets for cords, narrow borders, delicate edges and beautiful hand stitching - those tiny finishing touches that you may not even notice at first but somehow make a curtain or Roman blind feel truly bespoke and handmade.

And of course, I love piping! Such a simple detail, but it can completely change a piece, add another colour or pattern and make it feel just a little more special.

I always say that the difference is often in the details you almost don't see.

Olga and Taras Kott working together in their studio in Hampshire. As Olga sews, Taras films a close-up to capture the details of her technique

2. Where do you tend to find inspiration for your work?

Fabric is probably my biggest inspiration. Sometimes I see a beautiful pattern or an unexpected colour combination and immediately start imagining what I could make with it.

But my clients inspire me just as much. They bring us such interesting, colourful and sometimes wonderfully unusual projects and I can genuinely feel myself getting excited about bringing their ideas to life.

And then there is the best part - installation day. Seeing everything finally in its place, watching how the room transforms and seeing the client's reaction... that feeling never gets old. If you follow our content, you've probably seen me dancing or clapping my hands when a project is finished - it's never for the camera! That's genuinely how excited I get.

3. What do you think makes a room feel really special or personal?

I don't think it is about everything matching perfectly. In fact, I don't really like rooms that feel too polished or perfect.

I love a mix of colours, patterns and pieces that show something about the people who live there - a favourite chair, family photographs, paintings, books and magazines, little objects collected over the years, something handmade or something with a story behind it.

For me, it is all those little details that turn a house into a home.

I think a home should have personality. It doesn't need to follow every trend or look like a showroom.

And of course, beautiful curtains help! 😊

5. What part of the creative process do you enjoy most - the initial ideas, choosing fabrics and colours, making, or seeing everything come together?

Probably the making.

Of course I love beautiful fabrics and planning a project, but there is something incredibly satisfying about taking a roll of fabric, putting it on the worktable and slowly turning it into something that will live in someone's home for many years.

And then installation day is another favourite moment. After seeing a project flat on the table for days or weeks, suddenly it is hanging at the window, the furniture is in place and everything makes sense.

6. Are there any colours, patterns or materials you’re particularly drawn to at the moment?

At the moment, I’m completely in love with colour - all the different combinations and the way colours can work together. I really admire clients who are brave with colour and know how to mix it beautifully.

Personally, I always come back to greens and pinks, in almost any combination. And of course, patterns! Small-scale prints and geometrics are absolutely me.

I’m drawn to colours that feel vibrant, interesting and happy - the kind that simply make you smile when you walk into a room.

7. What’s something you’ve learnt through your work that you wish you’d known when you started?

That challenges will always be there, but you become less afraid of them.

In the beginning, there were so many doubts. I was terrified of making a mistake, cutting into an expensive fabric or doing something differently from the way I had been taught. With experience comes confidence and you realise that there is rarely only one “right” way to do something. What matters is the result, the overall beauty of the piece and all those little details.

I’m still learning all the time and I’ve also learnt not to be afraid of people who are better than me. Quite the opposite - how wonderful to have someone you can learn from!

And I wish I had known that a mistake is not the end of the world. Sometimes it costs you money because you need more fabric, sometimes it costs you time because you have to remake something, but almost everything can be fixed.

Mistakes are not something to be afraid of. They are simply part of learning, growing and becoming better at what you love.

8. Is there a project you’ve worked on that has stayed with you? What made it memorable?

I love and remember all my projects. I may sometimes forget a client's name, but I never forget their windows!

But there is one project that genuinely changed my life. I was working with a beautiful, colourful patterned fabric and filmed a little video showing how I carefully pattern-matched and joined it.

That simple video reached almost 10 million views and nearly 30,000 people followed me on Instagram overnight.

It was the moment I realised that I could do more than simply make beautiful things for my clients - I could share the process, inspire other people to sew and help them create something beautiful with their own hands.

That one project became the beginning of our social media journey, our masterclasses and this wonderful community of students and makers who now learn and grow alongside us.

And to think it all started with one beautiful fabric and one little video!