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Nothing Borrowed, Nothing Forced: Annie Harrison on Designing for Feel, Not Flash
- Hinton Magazine
- Aug 4, 2025
- 4 min read
What happens when you hand over the keys to an iconic Italian name to one of London’s most intuitive design studios? Something far more interesting than nostalgia.
Lina Stores didn’t need reinventing—but it did demand reinvigoration. Tasked with threading a new narrative through the brand’s latest space, Annie Harrison, Founder and Creative Director of Fare Inc., didn’t reach for the usual tricks. No superficial pastiche, no blind allegiance to trend.
Instead, Fare Inc. approached the space like a scene—sharp contrasts, layered materials, and a deliberate tension between elegance and wear. The goal? To build something that feels like it’s been there forever, without pretending to be anything it’s not. Warm timber, reeded glass, steel, leather, light that shifts across time of day—every choice is doing something, but nothing screams. It’s design for people who know the difference.
Lina Stores strikes a rare and compelling balance between heritage and modernity, threading vintage charm with contemporary sensibilities. Can you take us behind the scenes — what was your mindset when approaching this blend? How did you negotiate respecting the location’s history while making bold design decisions that feel entirely new?
The brief for the restaurant was to create a new Lina Stores with an old Italian wine bar ambience, so we took the view to ensure modern and retro style materials were prevalent alongside more ‘worn in’ features, that feel like they’ve been layered in over each other over years of use. This creates a lovely nostalgic vibe to the space.
Were there any design challenges or surprises in this project?
Ensuring the ambience of the space felt right was a challenge as the original site was a very cold, grey box, and we had to work some of then existing finishes and materials in the space. We stripped and stained the flooring and joinery pieces to give them a new look that felt in keeping with the look the restaurant was aiming to achieve - something that had always been there.
The tactile richness of warm timber panelling and the retro bar’s chunky tiles and leather detailing lend Lina Stores a unique textural dialogue. Could you explain these material choices? How do these elements converse with each other and the broader concept of the space? Were there any inspirations that influenced your palette and finishes?
The materials were chosen to contrast against each other - gloss curve tiles and leather bolsters against sharper wood panelling and steel elements to create a cool yet comfortable and approachable space. The mix of materials create a layered look that compliments the authentic offering of the menus, and create a playful yet refined backdrop for bitter cocktails and branded elements Lina Stores is known for. The inspiration for the materials came from our clients - there is a specific ‘look’ Lina Stores has that needs to be adhered too, but we added soft fabric lighting and gloss elements inspired by retro wine bars to ensure this site feels unique and authentic.
Photographer: Charlie McKay
How did you architect the lighting design to both shape atmosphere and subtly guide the customer journey across different times of day? Did you experiment with layering light or colour temperature to achieve this?
The typical Lina store globe pendants were kept as a recognisable brand decision, but we added softness with newly introduced ruffled fabric wall lights and bespoke fittings around the bar. Bringing more of the light down to a lower level helps the space achieve more ambience in the evening, as well as adding a delicacy to the hard finishes creating a casual feeling for the daytime. Reeded wall lights are placed alongside antique mirror in the bar areas, which really glow when the main lighting is turned down at night. The colour temp is kept lighter in the day to align with Lina Stores deli style past, and warmed up in the evening to feel inviting to the evening crowd.
The project feels contemporary without feeling fleeting or generic. In your eyes, what are the hallmarks of a ‘timeless’ interior? How did you apply or rethink those principles here to avoid clichés and deliver something truly authentic and future-proof?
Timeless interiors tend to avoid trends, and for a space like this we wanted to evoke an retro Italian wine bar feel which doesn’t lend itself well to new or ‘on trend’ design principles. With that in mind we didn’t over style the space but focused on using recognisable retro materials alongside timeless mosaic flooring to create a sense of authenticity. We wanted the restaurant to feel nostalgic, like you’ve been there before even if you haven’t - which a timeless space can achieve.
There’s a quiet confidence to Annie Harrison’s and Fair Inc.'s work on Lina Stores—a refusal to play the crowd. It’s a space that rewards time, not attention spans. The materials speak, the lighting guides, and the atmosphere holds its shape long after the food’s gone.
If there’s a message here, it’s that design doesn’t have to shout to be heard. And in Fair Inc.'s world, legacy isn’t preserved in amber—it’s layered, lived-in, and lit just right.
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