Dolls, cakes, shoes, tiles, furniture, frocks and footwear, you name it and Agatha Ruiz de la Prada will almost certainly have her name on it. She is one of Spain’s best-known designers, distinguished by her trademark surreal style and passion for colour.

Her recent fashion collection showed an umbrella dress with the skirt formed from an inverted parasol with blue satin rains drops hanging from the spokes. Her bathroom range has hand basins in the shape of a red heart or green or yellow flower, and even white goods such as dishwashers have been given daisy-print fascias.

The family home in Madrid is a two-storey apartment with a colourful past of its own. Built in the late Forties, it was the home of an infamous marquis who loved to party but not to pay his bills. “A great character,” says Agatha, with a hint of admiration for his extravagant ways.

Agatha, her husband Pedro J. Ramírez, founder and editor-in-chief of the Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo, and their children Tristan and Cosima have lived in the apartment for 12 years, but recently Agatha felt the need to give the place a makeover with the aim of creating more flexible living space. “Home is my playroom,” she says. “I like to change things around.”

During the alterations the doorways were raised, and floors were covered with a thin screed and painted blue. “Blue, like denim jeans,” says Agatha with a smile, “and it doesn’t show the dirt.” Two rooms were knocked together to enlarge the kitchen and a shiny stainless steel Bulthaup kitchen was fitted.

The only room that remained untouched was Pedro’s wood-panelled study, which has stayed much as it was the day they moved in. “He has a horrible obsession with collecting books, so many books,” she says, adding that she has banned him from spreading his ever-increasing volumes to the shelves in the dining room which she has designated as her space for colourful glassware, artefacts and art books.

The dining room is a perfect example of Agatha’s flexible take on living. There are four small tables pushed together in the centre of the room to make a single dining surface; these can be added to as the number of diners dictates. Around the tables are coloured chairs with star, dot, heart and crescent-shaped backs in shades that echo the colours of a painting by Peter Zimmermann. “It used to be in the hall, but in its place I now have one by Markus and a rounded sculpture by Franz West.”

The hall separates two living rooms, one dominated by a bold striped rug and a pink and orange sofa, both designed by Agatha. By the doorway is a shiny globular seat by Karim Rashid, but these contemporary pieces blend with older ones. The original black marble fireplace and ornate cornicing are still intact, and an antique cabinet is from Agatha’s mother’s home. “It was in the bathroom before the recent changes, but I think it works well here now under the painting by Peter Halley.”

Dotted over the top of the marble surface is a collection of apparently random objects. “In my life I have been given many things, some lovely, some ugly, but all special, so I mix and move them around in different arrangements.” The second sitting room is predominantly blue with a rug designed by David Hockney and a vivid green Lily chair from Edra. Whereas the other sitting room is bright and vibrant, this one feels cooler and calmer, although colourful.

The main bedroom is also a calm space, with a collection of upholstered furniture including two heart-shaped poufs that were made to be used in one of Agatha’s fashion shows. “I used to have curtains with personality, but now I prefer the background to be white so that the objects and their tactile shapes are more the focus of the room.”

The bedroom may have been given a dose of white, but the bathrooms make up for any loss of colour with striped tiles, red spot shower panels and basins in red, green and yellow.

“Colour gives me energy,” Agatha says, and from the way she is dressed, in brilliant shoes, vibrant tights, psychedelic dress and multicoloured hair band, you can understand why she is always on the move.

www.agatharuizdelaprada.com

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