Having grown up in the Wairarapa on the family farm at Hinakura, and with an ever expanding family, Peter and I decided to up sticks (before it was fashionable) and head back to the country for the good life!

Always believing that if you love design and have a good eye you can apply that to any medium, I have had lots of fun dabbling in garden/restoration/interiors and designing our beach house and our new home perched on top of the bluff at Morison's Bush, Greytown. Out went the large sheltered country garden for views that stretched from the South Island to Mount Bruce (we gained a bit of wind) - it's these views that have inspired the names of the Cushion Collections. With the new home came a new couch (only because the old one had had it) and the simple task of adorning it with cushions was not so simple after all. They weren't available - so that's how fionabassánt cushions came about. I wanted those beautiful, luxurious, lavishly trimmed, feather filled cushions I remember my Grandmother having.

Recently I travelled to Vietnam with two of my daughters to buy silk and pashmina scarves and while there I couldn't resist purchasing some stunning Vietnamese silk to make my latest Collection - The Vietnam Collection.

The passion for design continues ...

Cushion designer Fiona Bassant (far right) with her family