Revealed: The interiors trends that will transform your home

We visit WOW!house in London where a super showhouse brings world-leading designers' ideas under one roof this summer

Wed, 22 Jun, 2022 - 16:30

Carol O’Callaghan

It's what I missed most in the last two years — the arrival at a design venue, sitting with a cup of coffee to plan my route around cavernous spaces packed full of interiors inspiration from places long steeped in design traditions, alongside maverick upstarts taking risks, untethered by established notion of how things ought to be designed.

It’s thrilling for those of us whose personal art is home interiors, whether it’s focused on a renovation, in revamping a room, or in the simple but instantly gratifying experience of tablescaping.

After two and a half years, I got to experience it again and feed this design-starved soul in the process.

Destination? Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, home to some of the biggest, high-end interiors brands — 600, in fact — spread across 120 showrooms, and where a brand new event, WOW!house, is taking place this month until July 1.

The WOW!house at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, designed by architects Mamou-Mami.

Dreamed up by Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour CEO Claire German during the quiet days of Covid, when many of our minds drifted towards new ideas, she and her team have now brought lockdown notions into reality, recruiting the help of architectural practice Mamou-Mami to design a house-shaped structure with a series of 17 separate rooms inside, designed by some of the biggest names in interior design from both sides of the Atlantic.

“As I’m the first to admit, designer show houses are not new to the US,” says Claire, “but to have something of this calibre specially created in London has taken the concept to another level. And it’s not just about the design community. Wow!house is open to all, so the public will have a unique opportunity to come and experience work by these design stars in person and see how creative ideas are brought to life.”

And that it does.

Keen to give the designers free rein, unimpeded by what could normally be the imposition of clients’ personal taste, the rooms are distinctly different, from the brightly lit entrance hall put together by Shalini Misra, with its eye-catching recycled plastic chandelier, to the atmospheric drawing room beyond by Emma Burns and Philip Hooper of textile house Colefax & Fowler, where deep, rich velvet wall coverings, upholstery, cocooning lighting design and carefully curated art and objects encourage tactility, calm, and relaxation.

In fact, everything used in these rooms can be touched, examined, and even purchased in the Design Centre. QR codes are available to be scanned for each product, so for the die-hard shopper there’s plenty of opportunity for a spree or just window shopping for ideas.

From there, it’s on to a lightsome design in Rita Konig’s morning room using a GP&J Baker embroidered fern print fabric, continuing the theme of fabric-covered walls throughout WOW!house. But it’s homely, too, thanks to small details like a bowl of Smarties on the ottoman which Konig says are needed “to pull a scheme together and make it feel like a proper room”.

But my favourite was Freddy van Zevenbergen’s dining room, a space I’m never convinced earns its keep, but I’m coveting his design which encourages lingering in comfort on a lengthy, velvety soft banquette-style sofa; bathed in subdued lighting for an atmosphere of intimacy; and a reminder to always look up, in this case to a painted trompe d’oeil effect of flames licking the ceiling (or maybe they’re sun rays?), all contributing to the feeling of warm invitation. It’s a dining room but not as we knew it. It’s also the vogue for maximalism but not as we know it. Thankfully.

Dining room by Freddy Van Zevenbergen of interior designers Lambart & Browne.

Layered on top of each room design are more ephemeral on-trend features. Original soundscapes have been commissioned from sound artist Peter Adjaye to match the mood of each room, supported by the addition of room fragrances from Florentine perfumier Dr Vranjes to add to the atmosphere.

Altogether WOW!house makes for an immersive, feast-for-the-eyes experience if you’re looking for inspiration and aspiration, and if you can’t get to London to see it, there’s talk of doing it again next year. See you on the plane over.

WOW!house, Chelsea Harbour, Design Centre, London, open 10am-5.30pm. Entrance £25 (a proportion of price goes to Centrepoint, homeless youth charity).