How did a Thurloe Square town house in London—one bathed in greenery and sun-diffused light from private communal gardens—become a house divided, one torn between the visions of the men in the house and that of the wife and mother? Despite being outnumbered four to one by her husband and three sons, the wife had a secret weapon in her arsenal: London-based AD100 interior designer and childhood friend Leonora Hamill, who worked with the family on both the cosmetic makeover of their South Kensington home and on the art of compromise.
There’s room for everyone within these 5,000 square feet. Take the drawing room: There are patterned Pierre Frey curtains and a rose-velvet-upholstered Luigi Caccia Dominioni sofa playing with a pair of modernist Pierre Jeanneret chairs with bespoke tweed cushions and a sculptural stark white coffee table by François Bauchet.
“The curtains were a coup,” says Hamill, who admits a classical chintz may have been too much. “We layered modernist elements for the husband and textiles for the wife, who wanted maximum coziness for their boys.”
The kids often perch on the vintage round conversation piece Hamill and the homeowner spotted at Puces de Paris Saint-Ouen, the largest antiques market in the world. “Leonora found me some really unusual pieces of furniture at different dealers on both sides of the Channel,” says the wife, who spent hours sourcing with the designer. Hamill re-covered the circular seating in contrasting Lewis and Wood velvets. “The room is quite wide, and the sofa is far away from the fireplace,” says Hamill. “A low piece like this helps connect the fireplace to the sofa, and it’s quite fun when entertaining.”
A nod to the husband’s thoughtfulness hangs above the ikat sofa. It’s an oversized photograph from Hamill’s own Art in Progress series that was a gift to the wife for the birth of their second son. A Märta Maas-Fjetterström tapestry is central to a gallery wall in the morning room.
“Leonora is the master of gallery wall hangs,” says the wife. “I love what she did with that room—it’s so cozy.” The green hue of the walls originally felt too bold for both husband and wife. “Leonora encouraged me to be brave,” she says. “In the end, I’ve found one’s boldest choices become one’s favorites.”
One bold choice is the dining room’s Alexandre Logé pendant, a contemporary fixture in an otherwise sumptuous room. The custom shelves are filled with objects sourced from the Decorative Fair in London, like an array of Japanese baskets and Kashmiri papier-mâché boxes. And while the Gio Ponti chairs have a powerful inclination (and required a “huge” restoration to keep them sturdy), the colorful suzani on the table softens the mood. “This reflects them well, a layered interior with a contemporary bent,” says Hamill. “Mixing it up is what they wanted.”
The guest bedroom, then, is swathed in shades of pink, which Hamill considers a neutral. “The wife would have done the entire house in pink,” says the designer. “We settled on a bedroom. A client once told me to add a drop of pink into white ceilings because it’s so flattering on the skin, and I’ve done it ever since.”
”You spend a lot of time decorating your house,” says the wife. “It’s such a personal experience, so it has be a pleasant one, too.” And, here, everyone’s a winner.
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