Inside WOW!house at London's Chelsea Harbour Design Centre
Ken Fulk's dining room is inspired by the decorative arts and the William Morris room at the V&A.
I REMEMBER feeling bored with interiors after being locked down for two years when all the lovely shows I used to trot along to either didn’t happen or were a shadow of their former selves online.
Despite the rain last week, spring sprung rather gorgeously with an invitation to preview the WOW!house at London’s Chelsea Harbour Design Centre, which I was easily persuaded to accept for the purpose of gorging on interior design schemes by some of the most famous designers in the world.
So what is the WOW!house when it’s at home?
It’s a temporary, unassuming — from the outside — one-storey show house constructed at the Design Centre, where each room is taken over by an interior designer collaborating with an interiors brand, based on the American showhouse concept but with a difference, as explained to me by interior designer Ken Fulk who counts Pharrell Williams, Gigi Hadid and Dolce & Gabbana as his clients.
“In America, interior designers are invited to take over a room in an existing house so you have the structure of the room already,” he says. “This is different as you’re building the entire room from scratch. We began with a bespoke rug we designed with The Rug Company, inspired by the traditions of storytelling in Delft and Azulejo tilework dating back to the 14th century, and the William Morris Green Dining Room at the V&A.”
It also includes a chandelier made from hundreds of recycled bottles by Thierry Jeannot and a French Empire fireplace, with the dining table laded with plates hand-painted by Californian ceramicist Linda Fahey.
Design A-lister Alidad tells me about how he was approached initially to design a Wow!house room. “It took them four weeks to persuade me to it, five months to plan it and five days to build it.”
It was worth the persuasion and effort as the finished room is true to Alidad’s signature style, drawing on antiques, textiles and colour in collaboration with textile company Watts 1874. His starting point was a heritage piece from the company, a redrawing of a large-scale Renaissance design.
“I decided to use it for the walling as I wanted a big design that had movement in it and appeared to be growing up to the ceiling,” he says, and to which he has added layer upon layer of pattern and texture throughout the room. I wonder if I’m in an English Victorian Gothic stately home or an Italian palazzo. Either way I’d be happy to curl up on one of Alidad’s velvety chairs with a cup of tea and a book, and understand why his style is coveted by Middle East Royalty and British aristocracy.
Opulence, texture and colour are the beauties of this year’s WOW!house but there was a simpler beauty to be found in the stillness of a bedroom design by Charlotte Freemantle and Will Fisher of Jamb London. Their pared back historic context suggested a more modest country house furnished with a four poster bed, a bolster pillow in Regency stripe, a foxed mirror, antique cabinetry and screen, with a wall-fabric giving a modern touch.
Staying with stillness is the Suzy Hoodless dining and living space which starts with an Adam Ellis wallcovering of a treescape that despite it being spring has an autumnal seasonal feel of mists and mellow fruitfulness about it. Earthy and pared back, her tablescape is simple, texture is everywhere especially in the use of rattan and rough hewn wooden room dividers.
Of course it wouldn’t be a house, wow or otherwise, if it didn’t have a kitchen, a job taken on by Notting Hill-based Studio Vero. They applied their keen eye for style and functionality to make the kitchen more than just a place to cook, co-founder and co-director Romanos Brihi says. "We wanted it to be a place to spend time in and truly enjoy with the same capacity to showcase personality as any other room in the home.”
Rich terracotta on the kitchen’s ceiling and walls with olive granite worksurfaces might just be the colour combination of the season with subtle references to the duo throughout the WOW!house. But it’s the design eye that added brass hardware, a four-armed Italian light fitting and a confident curation of art and accessories that gives a covetable balance of function and aesthetic.
WOW!house is at Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, London, until July 4, Monday-Saturday, 10am-5pm; tickets from £10 online at www.dcch.co.uk.
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