Creativity Is my gateway drug
For as long as I can remember, creativity has been my way in. my way into calm, into focus, into connection - and ultimately into better architecture.
I’ve learned over the years that my most productive architectural ideas rarely appear when I’m sitting at a desk, staring at plans. They arrive when I’m doing something entirely different - lost in the rhythm of making, creating with my hands. Whether I’m reupholstering a worn-out chair, transforming an old piece of furniture into something beautiful again, or piecing together fragments of broken jewellery into a brand-new design for my recycled jewellery company, Fontainebleau Jewellery, I find myself entering a kind of meditative flow. My anxious mind quotes down, my thoughts become lighter, and ideas begin to surface on their own.
In my blog “Making Time for Anxious Minds” on the FontaineBleau Jewellery website, I talk about creativity as a form of therapy - a way to steady myself in a noisy, fast-paced world. What I didn’t realise then was how deeply that process fuels my professional life as an Architect and Interior Designer.
The creative crossovers are constant. When I take a tangled chain or a box of discarded beads and see potential - the glint of what could be - it mirror exactly how I see architecture. I look at a tired, difficult house, awkwardly laid out and immediately start to imagine how light could move through it differently, how the flow of space could improve, how it could feel alive again and support the lives of the family living there.
Reimagining spaces and reimagining objects come from the same creative instinct: the ability to see beyond what’s there, to trust that beauty and function are waiting just beneath the surface. To see potential.
Even my love of thrift shopping feeds this same impulse. Finding a one-of-a-kind jacket or bold vintage dress isn’t just about fashion for me - it’s about expression. About layering textures, colours and stories to create something personal and unexpected. The way I dress - colourful, playful, sometimes a little offbeat! - is another form of design thinking. It’s how I remind myself, family, that creativity isn’t limited to projects or deadlines. It’s a way of being.
The truth is, my architectural work, my furniture restorations, my jewellery kits, and even my wardrobe all come from the same place: a deep curiosity about how things can be reimagined.
So yes - creativity is my gateway drug. It’s the thing that studies my mind when life feels too full. The thing that keeps me connected to joy. And the thing that makes me a sharper, move intuitive architect when I finally sit back down at my desk.
Because creativity doesn’t drain my energy - it restores it.
About the Author
Camilla Monk is the founder of Architecture Ventures Ltd an architectural and interior design practice based in Shropshire. Known for her zero-build-first approach, she helps families transform the homes they already have into spaces that feel effortless, light-filled and beautifully considered. Alongside her architecture work, she is also the founder of Fontainebleau Jewellery, where she designs creative jewellery-making kits and reimagines vintage and broken pieces into something new
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