Estelle Bailey-Babenzien featuring the Canyon Sofa and Corca Table
Published on 02 Nov 2026
Orior
Tell us a little bit about your background in the world you grew up in.
Estelle Bailey-Babenzien
My background, I'm half English, half Ghanaian, born and raised in England, that lived in the north of England for the first eight years of my life, and then I was moved to the south, 30 miles outside of London.
So I went from the countryside, to the countryside, but closer to the big city.
And the world I grew up in was very multi layered, diversity in wealth brackets as well as cultural brackets as well as design brackets.
Orior
What sparked your interest in design?
Estelle Bailey-Babenzien
What sparked my interest in design, I think, to begin was fashion.
My mom and my aunties were really into clothes and always looked cool. And then actually, my grandmother and my granddad, they traveled the world and they always brought things back and I would always help my grandmother clean the house.
So it was a lot of discovering things that she and how she would arrange them in the house. And then I started watching these TV shows where they review or they buy houses abroad and then do them up and I was obsessed with that.
I thought that was the coolest thing and that was something I would like to do one day, you know, when I could save up and do it as a hobby.
I didn't actually know it was an option as a career for me.
Orior
How would you describe your aesthetic, what connects the spaces you inhabit, the furniture you're drawn to, and the way you dress?
Estelle Bailey-Babenzien
My aesthetic is a little eclectic , chic classic bohemian, comfortable, found things, meaningful things, things that last quality, a little ethnic sometimes. I like to mix it up.
Orior
Tell us a little bit also about what you do and your career and what the last, let's say, 10 years has been for you.
Estelle Bailey-Babenzien
Essentially what I do , I'd say a creative director.
I hate that term and everybody's a creative director, but I like to create environments and I like to create experiences. And that's span across music, I worked in the music industry for a while and I was doing that, and then fashion.
I actually studied fashion, I studied creative direction and then it's moved now into interior design and obviously I'm creative directing at NOAH in our photo shoots. So I don't design the clothes, but I'm creative directing our campaigns. And then the stores, ultimately when you're designing an environment, whether it's a retail space or a home or a hotel, it's ultimately it's bringing all of these different elements together and creating something beautiful.
I like to create beautiful things
Orior
What are the characteristics or attributes of an object that make it valuable?
Estelle Bailey-Babenzien
I think what makes an object was worth keeping is, there's a few things. One is the memory of it, where you found it, how does it make you feel? What does it kind of resonate? What resonates when you look at it and you touch it? I love to travel and when I travel, I often find pieces. I also love Christmas ornaments when I am finding them because it takes me back to a point or a time in place and then jogs my memory and that's what feels really good. So I would say memories attached to things are great and then just beautiful.
So like sometimes something that's just beautiful makes you feel happy. Like a friend of mine , she's a ceramist and she's also an interior designer and she's great. She always has really great things. And I asked her once about her mugs and she's like, oh, this one, this was a few years ago and she was like, oh, this one was either $60 or $80. I was like, oh, that’s a lot of money. She was like, well, I use it every day and I get to touch and hold it every day. It was worth the money. I was like, you know what? You're so right. You know? And so now, I put more emphasis on the everyday objects, making sure that they're special in some way and the value is in how much I touch it and use it and interface with it. And how does it make me feel? You know, and then I think there's a lot of value in that. And then suddenly that becomes more precious and totally worth the money on just a regular work, you know?
Orior
What do you connect with the most in Orior's approach to design?
Estelle Bailey-Babenzien
I really connect to Orior’s approach to design in several ways. I love that they are so connected to nature and craftsmanship, and, you know, care deeply about how something's made and where it's made, you know, with myself, with my brand NOAH and all my interior design practices.
I really care about sustainability and responsibility and making the responsible choices with the materials and the craft and just being ethically responsible too.
That's a given for them.They're founded on that. I think that's a beautiful foundation to build upon.
Then the materials that they use, they're also natural, you know, of the earth and you can really feel that, but then they get exciting with the shapes and the sculptural nature of things like that. So I think there are so many things but I absolutely just adore everything. So many of their pieces just feel like art pieces.
Like this feels like an art piece to me and then the couch is brilliantly designed in its depth and its comfort and then the fabric of being in this beautiful wool.
Orior
What drew you to the Canyon Sofa?
Estelle Bailey-Babenzien
What drew me to this Canyon Sofa is the comfort, honestly, the scope of it. I think it's really beautifully designed with the double layers of the pillows and the depth is incredible. We can all fit on it. I really wanted something that all of my family, I mean we're a small family, there's three of us, but we can all sleep on this and we'd be fine. We don't even need our beds.
I love that we can all snuggle. It's deep enough that we can, like, you know, we can spoon on the couch and watch a movie.
It's just perfect.
