Walking into the home illustrator, ceramicist and artist John Booth shares with his housemate and friend Barry Linnen, it’s hard not to feel uplifted. Like his boldly variegated and playful work, which has had the likes of Fendi, Sunspel and Globe-Trotter knocking, the space is a bonhomie arrangement of graphic textiles, yellow walls, select classics like Vernon Panton’s Ikea chair and Sottsass’ Shiva vase, and his own work, all held together by a colour scheme derived from childhood nostalgia and Italian post-modernism in equal measure.

We visited John at home in Hackney to talk to him about his work, life and creative process, and then headed out to his housemate’s hair salon, On The Floor, which received a Booth-style interior fit-out complete with pink walls, cheeky detailing and original artwork by Matthew Smith.

John: “I think as you get older the way your house looks starts to matter more to you. I lived above where The Queen Adelaide is now on Hackney Road for nearly six years, which was great but leaving there was a turning point for me. I was into my thirties and making a home, having the opportunity to style my space how I wanted became a priority.

“Not that I want to live in really fancy places, just somewhere I can make a mark is enough. I think it’s important and, especially with my work, which is visual art, it would be weird if I didn’t care about what I was surrounded by. My home is an extension of my work and, actually, I do have my own pieces at home, which is maybe narcissistic, but then again I wouldn’t create something I didn’t think would be a nice thing to live with every day.

“I don’t make things specifically for me to keep, but sometimes I make things I like so much that I want to keep them, even if it’s just a sample or colour swatch. I don’t make conceptual work, it’s ornamental and decorative, so the fact I can carry that thinking over to my domestic space is important, and I think is reflected more and more in my house.

“It’s a rented house, which means there are some limits on what I can do, but my landlords are pretty chilled and like what I’ve done. Frustratingly, I don’t know how to use a drill properly yet, but I want to put more stuff on the walls. Though, maybe it’s quite good I have that limitation because I think it could get overdone if I knew how to put stuff up. Now, I have to wait every few months for my friend Sam to help me…

“I live with my friend Barry and I’m quite lucky in that he lets me do what I want. It sounds arrogant but our flat is more of an expression of my aesthetic than his, mostly because he’s quite minimal. He even let me design his salon, which is a joyful celebration of colour.

“Even though it’s a relatively small flat, with a small backyard, the ceilings are quite high in the living spaces, so it feels bigger and it means I’m able to put stuff in there. I’m 34 now, and the past few years I’ve been working more and more, so I have a bit of money to buy some nice furniture or something for the house I want – it’s nice to get to a point where I’m not as skint anymore!

“I’ve saved up for Ladderax furniture, and the Vernon Paton Ikea chair, which was crazy expensive – I saved up for it for over a year. I really love it, and I had wanted it for years. My friend’s boyfriend has a company called Diagonal Furniture, dealing in mid-century stuff, and I’ve been getting quite a few things off him over the years. I would love an Eames Lounge Chair with yellow leather – I saw one of them once but haven’t been able to find one again.

“I got into ceramics because I wanted another surface to decorate. I do a lot of work on paper that is then translated over to textiles or whatever, but it’s not the same as building an object and then having a surface you can paint onto. There are limitations, like I can’t translate every colour over – I can’t for the life of me find a good green –  but I work around them.

“I love colour, and I think I always have. In my head colour is linked to childhood memories, a lot of which are based on logos and motifs of clothes I liked. I’ve got a twin sister so we shared clothes quite a bit – we had lots of yellow and green things. I respond to fashion because I really like clothing and textiles, and even now I like investing in a nice shirt every couple of months. But I don’t get a chance to wear any of it, because I’m always at the studio. It’s weird because day-to-day, I see these nice things on the rail and, even though I don’t wear them, I still get enjoyment from them.

“Most of my week is spent in the studio, but I’m also quite good at wasting time, and I’m definitely not a martyr to it – I like doing nothing too. I go out less, and I guess my life is quite home-focused, so after a long day, I just go home. God, that sounds so boring. But I don’t have any other specific hobbies, and I feel quite lucky because I’m not trying to escape my work life – it’s the opposite, I get complete enjoyment from it. I don’t fetishize weekends, and most Saturdays I end up going into the studio at some point, even if it’s just something fun like putting stuff in the kiln or painting. What’s not fun and enjoyable about painting a rainbow?

“I’m even more excited about going to the studio these days because I’ve recently started a collective with Ian McIntyre, who recently redesigned the Brown Betty teapot, called Super Group. It sounds like an arragont name, but the reference is Super Studio, the post-modern Italian stuff, which is why we were happy to launch our first project in Milan, a collection of ceramic rainbows, clouds, and flowers.

“He and I are polar opposites. He worked on that teapot for over a year and will spend days or weeks agonising over millimetres – I couldn’t watch it. But I think our skills are complementary, and now he’s learning to loosen up, and I’m learning to be a bit more meticulous.

“I’ve moved house quite a lot, and I think it works out eight years south, seven years north, but within that, there’s been so many areas. Two years ago I moved to a flat by myself in Brockley and I hated it. I moved in and thought, ‘Oh God, is this it forever?’ None of my friends would come and visit me, so I was constantly coming east, and spending a million quid a month on drunken Ubers at 3am, whizzing through the Blackwall tunnel feeling really weird! I was pulled back east; my studio is here, and, I just like knowing I’m near my friends. I feel settled now, and I think I’ll stay here for a while.”

John, how do you define modern living?
“For me, there are a few factors that define this. I guess primarily it’s about making the best of what you have, and taking pride in it. Whether you are renting a place or are lucky enough to own your own place, you should treat it the same, because you’ll get joy from that.

“I think it’s about mindfully filling your place with things that you really love and inspire you. My living space is a direct extension of my work and interests, so it also acts as a space to show my own work and ideas. I enjoy supporting smaller companies and furniture dealers, and also buying furniture and art that my friends have made; it’s nice to invest in things with a view to keeping them and enjoying them for a long time.”

Is there a home on The Modern House website that has caught your eye?
“I’m happy in London and I don’t really plan on moving away, but a property I was really struck by was a three-bedroom flat in Park Hill, Sheffield. It was really beautiful, and I love the orange and yellow cladding. Also, the price was much less alarming than London prices, which is always nice…”