The co-founder and CEO of Vinterior swapped a successful career in finance to set up her online marketplace for vintage furniture, falling in love with design in the process

Sandrine Zhang Ferron is co-founder and CEO of Vinterior, an online marketplace where you can snap up vintage and antique furniture and homeware from the UK’s leading pre-owned furniture suppliers – and do it sustainably.

Curating hidden gems and antique treasures is Vinterior’s raison d’être. On the website, you will find icons from Aalto to Zanotta. With no waste, lead times, or fast furniture production lines, Sandrine and her team aim to fix the broken furniture industry. “There’s nothing new here,” she says. “And that’s exactly the point: just good-looking, good-quality furniture that won’t cost the Earth.”

Continue reading to find out who Sandrine’s design heroes are, where she finds inspiration and why she takes time to invest in herself.

How has your style evolved over the years?

With my interiors choices, before Vinterior, I think I used to play it quite safe. We had a lot of midcentury pieces – clean lines and quite classic – and although I still love this look, I’m much more daring now. I mix and match and have created a home more in keeping with the ‘shambolism’ aesthetic.

I think the biggest change is my use of Art Deco furniture in my home. Some may feel it’s incongruous in a Victorian terraced house, but I love the juxtaposition. My style has evolved quite naturally with the growth of the Vinterior brand. As I’ve learnt more about vintage and pre-loved pieces, my confidence has grown, letting me make bolder interior design choices.

Who or what are your biggest influences?

Travel has shaped my style more than anything. My childhood home was simple and functional, so discovering new places gave me a sense of how spaces can feel. I’m also inspired by our community; I love seeing customers and designers using Vinterior pieces in unexpected ways – like reupholstering a tired armchair in a wild velvet, or reimagining a French cabinet in a minimalist space.

Who is your design hero?

Charlotte Perriand – not just for her work, but for her story. When she first applied to work with Le Corbusier in 1927, he dismissed her, saying, “We don’t embroider cushions here.” But she invited him to see her rooftop bar installation, the Bar sous le toit, and he changed his mind on the spot. That resilience, that refusal to take no for an answer, has always stayed with me – especially through the growth of Vinterior.

Perriand went on to co-design some of the most iconic modernist pieces alongside Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, even if her contributions were often under-credited. Her philosophy of functional beauty, her ability to merge Japanese craftsmanship with modernism, and her belief that design should improve everyday life, not just look good, were so ahead of their time.

I admire how she brought warmth and soul to a movement that was often cold and clinical. Her Alpine retreat at Les Arcs is a masterclass in blending architecture with nature. She was a trailblazer, a quiet revolutionary and someone who designed with conviction. That’s my kind of design hero.

What is your favourite building?

Angkor Wat. I remember arriving just before dawn, at the moment the pink sky slowly revealed the silhouette of the temple. It took my breath away. There’s something surreal about standing in front of a structure that’s nearly 1,000 years old. It has lived through empires rising and falling, religions shifting, even war and neglect, and it’s still there, standing with quiet majesty.

What moved me most was the sense of time, the way the carvings and towers tell a story that’s bigger than any one era. It’s powerful because of what it has survived. That combination of beauty, scale and resilience left a deep mark on me. It’s the kind of place that changes how you see the world.

Describe the interior style of your home

Someone once described their style as ‘shambolic’ and it stuck with me: that idea of embracing the imperfect, the unexpected pairing of objects, the layers of life and texture. My home is full of pieces that tell a story (mostly from Vinterior). It’s not polished, but it’s alive.

How do you invest in yourself?

I love looking after my health. I track my sleep with an Oura ring, use a glucose monitor for blood sugar, and my morning routine is sacred: mushroom coffee, probiotics, workout, sauna, cold plunge, then a walk home with a protein shake. It gives me the clarity and the energy to show up for everything else.

Which iconic interior product do you wish you’d designed?

The Ultrafragola mirror is pretty iconic. We have a Bellini sofa which I also love. I think there are really interesting ways AI will enhance how we design and think about our homes. Watch this space.

Luxury is…

Time and space to learn. When things get tough or feel repetitive, like they can when running a business like Vinterior, learning something new keeps me going. It’s a privilege to be able to grow, and one I try not to take for granted.

Enjoyed this interview about Vinterior? See who else in in the frame… Here, we speak to TV personality Natasha Raskin Sharp.

In the frame: Natasha Raskin Sharp, broadcaster and auctioneer