DE S IGN CENTRE
celebrated that role. Some designers showcased new names: Chad Dorsey hung three paintings by young London-based artist Joseph Goody on the walls of his Fromental Drawing Room, while Alex Dauley, co- founder of 2025 WOW!house charity partner, United in Design, showcased work by her favourite black artists and makers in the Nucleus Media Room. Others furnished their rooms with bespoke commissions and unexpected collaborations, including a rhythmic ceramic artwork by Carl Koch in the House of Rohl Primary Bathroom, a carpet by fifth-generation makers, Kahhal 1871 in the Shepel’ Home Bar and a custom-made runner by Colombian artisans from Tapistelar in the Fortuny + Bonacina + Barovier&Toso Primary Bedroom. The Design Centre played its part too with QR code links to the suppliers of everything on show, including the Jo Malone London scents that added another dimension to every space. The curation of the WOW!house rooms is always immaculate and inventive, but this year it reached even
“THERE IS NO BRIEF FOR
WOW!HOUSE. YET SOMEHOW IN EVERY ITERATION A SENSE OF COHESIVENESS EMERGES – A UNIFYING COLOUR OR MATERIAL PALETTE; A REPEATED FORM”
greater heights. Several designers, including Tommaso Franchi, Daniel Slowik and Kelly Hoppen CBE, who designed the Living Room for Visual Comfort & Co, conjured rooms for collectors, and there was a brand- new space dedicated entirely to the art of curating. Stark ‘The Curator’s Room’ by Spinocchia Freund was the ultimate home gallery. Designed as two distinct areas, it was filled with art, furnishings and objets by both stellar names and stars in the making. All of them women. An iconic stainless steel chair by Maria Pergay and a painting from Bridget Riley’s renowned Egypt series rubbed shoulders with work by acclaimed contemporary names including Studio Drift and fashion-designer-turned-artist Luella Bartley, and up- and-coming talent from incubators such as craft charity QEST and the Tracey Emin Foundation. There is no brief for WOW!house. When the invitations
to the designers and brands go out each year, they are simply asked to let their imaginations fly. Yet somehow in every iteration a sense of cohesiveness emerges – a unifying colour or material palette; a repeated form. This was true for 2025, but there was another dimension too, created by the smaller spaces that punctuated the
house. The jewel-toned Drummonds Powder Room and the cocooning Home Bar; a fabric-wrapped Casa Branca Bedroom by Alessandra Branca; an exquisitely detailed Snug by Thurstan conceived for the founder of lighting brand Hector Finch and a Media Room that made hi- tech low key and embracing. These enveloping rooms, all tiny works of art in their own right, gave visitors a place to pause and proved that WOW!house can also be a quiet thing. WOW!house 2025 reached an unprecedented global
audience (numbers were up threefold on the debut edition), dazzled the British and American media – “London’s chicest showhouse” proclaimed Elle Decor US; “Bigger and better than ever,” declared House & Garden – and provided infinite inspiration for future design directions. And perhaps most importantly, through the special house tours, the 20 talks across the month and the countless serendipitous encounters prompted by the sheer beauty and inventiveness of the rooms, it sparked conversations and fostered connections between visitors, designers, makers and commentators that ensure the immediate, exhilarating WOW! of the WOW!house lasts long into the future.
THE WOW!ROOMS Artorius Faber Entrance Garden by Alexander Hoyle Adam Architecture Facade by Darren Price
Cox London Entrance Hall by Victoria Davar of Maison Artefact Fromental Drawing Room by Chad Dorsey Nucleus Media Room by Alex Dauley Phillip Jeffries Study by Staffan Tollgård Stark ‘The Curator’s Room’ by Spinocchia Freund
Fortuny + Bonacina + Barovier&Toso Primary Bedroom by Tomèf Design House of Rohl Primary Bathroom by 1508 London Treasure House Fair Morning Room by Daniel Slowik
Perennials and Sutherland Courtyard by Goddard Littlefair
Sims Hilditch Courtyard Room by Emma Sims-Hilditch Casa Branca Bedroom by Alessandra Branca Samuel Heath Bathroom by Laura Hammett
ABOVE: In the Dedar Library, design studio Pirajean Lees were inspired not by books but by music, creating a cocooning room for listening, anchored by innovative fabrics from the Italian textile house OPPOSITE: WOW!house 2025 dazzled with global names, exquisite craftsmanship, iconic artwork and immersive spaces – cementing its status as one of the interiors world’s defining events
Visual Comfort & Co. Living Room by Kelly Hoppen CBE Dedar Library by Pirajean Lees Drummonds Powder Room by Nicola Harding Benjamin Moore Dining Room by Peter Mikic Shepel’ Home Bar by Toni Black of Blacksheep Hector Finch Snug by Thurstan Lopen Joinery Kitchen by Ben Pentreath Studio
McKinnon and Harris Garden Terrace by Randle Siddeley
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