Potter Kayti Peschke shows us round her mid-century inspired, Scandi-made home and studio

Potter Kayti Peschke is a fan of the famous William Morris quote “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” Trading as Here be Monsteras, she has a similar description attached to her wheel-thrown ceramics. It reads: “Practical pieces made to bring a bit of extra joy to every day.”

Those who were planning to follow this year’s York Open Studios trail , which has now been cancelled due to the coronavirus, would have had a chance to see her pots on display there.

Organisers of the event are following government advice in abandoning the event.

Kayti was planning an installation on a botanical theme and was busy putting the finishing touches to it in the converted garage she calls her “pottery shed”. The shed now houses her wheel and kiln and is one of the main reasons she decided to move from central York to the rural village of Fangfoss.

“I lived in a Victorian terrace house in York city centre and decided to move out to the countryside to find a house with potential garden studio and somewhere more suitable for my dogs,” says Kayti.

She swapped a successful job as a fashion photographer to pursue her current career as a designer maker. Ozzy the whippet and Frank the greyhound are clearly delighted with her decision to buy the quirky property which she now calls home. It has a huge garden that backs onto fields.

The single storey, timber-framed, Scandinavian flat-pack house was built in the 1980s. It is a complete contrast to the local vernacular but has all the advantages of Scandi design. Full of natural light, it is very warm because the external walls and roof are supremely well insulated and the windows are triple-glazed.

The internal walls can be easily moved to create different room shapes and sizes to suit different needs. The only element of the structure that Kayti has changed is the built-in sauna, which she felt would be far more useful as a storage cupboard.

The house had been on the market for two years when she bought it five years ago and she has since transformed it into a stylish live-work haven that reflects her love of mid-century design. “The interiors were in a Laura Ashley style when I bought it but I thought it would suit mid-century furniture and furnishings so I started collecting them,” she says.

York car boot sale is a favourite hunting ground, as is Bar Farm Antiques at Barmby Moor, and the annual York Festival of Vintage. Kayti has also had some success “skip diving”.

The red G-Plan chair in the enormous sitting room is one of the most admired pieces. It sits next to what was a red brick fireplace that Kayti painted white.

At the back of the room is a striking yellow piano. “That was left by the previous owners and I tend to paint everything that stands still so that’s why it’s now yellow and since I don’t play it’s used to display things on,” she says.

In the hall, there is a Peacock chair, which belonged to her parents, and a bookcase housing her collection of vintage cameras, some of which she still uses. The kitchen was inspired by her time spent working on photo shoots in Miami. “Everything was beige and I’m drawn to colour so I repainted the units in turquoise and pink,” says Kayti.

The melamine table is from a charity shop and the sofa is a hand-me-down from her grandma and is topped with cushions by an independent maker. The Dovre wood-burning stove is one of two she has had installed in the house, which previously relied on electric wall heaters. “I’ve kept a couple of the wall heaters in the bedrooms but the house is so well insulated, the stoves are all I need to keep it warm,” says Kayti, who turned a second sitting room into the main bedroom.

She has topped the floor in white laminate boards and filled the walls with her finds, including a large mirror from the French House, cow skulls from a ranch in Montana and, above the bed, a feather headdress from Africa.

One of her favourite rooms is the Las Vegas-themed bathroom complete with redundant guitar above the bath and plenty of Elvis memorabilia. “I’m a big Elvis fan and this room always makes me smile,” adds Kayti.

Outside, the large/garage shed has plenty of space for work and storage. Kayti spends many hours in there, making the pots before painting and firing them. Her love of making ceramics began after she took her mother for a pottery workshop at Fangfoss pottery for Mother’s Day.

“After one two-hour session I was obsessed and I eventually got a wheel and a kiln of my own. It started as a hobby but I made so much that I started doing craft markets and then shops and galleries started stocking my pieces.Now, making ceramics has taken over from my photography,” says Kayti, 38.

Everything she makes is useful from mugs, plates and bowls to her best-selling plant pots and hanging planters. “I love plants, especially variegated ones, and so making plant pots was an obvious thing to do.

“They have been really popular, which makes me feel very lucky because I love what I do and as long as people buy my work I can keep on doing it.”

Kayti is working on new collections, including travel cups and a full dinnerware set. You can find her work at Kiosk cafe on Fossgate and Sketch Art Gallery, both in York, and on her website www.herebemonsteras.com

*As coronavirus restrictions take hold, you can still offer support to artists and makers by following them online and by visiting their websites, where many also have online shops.