THE JOURNAL
FRINGE BENEFITS Passementerie went super-sized at WOW!house 2025. Kelly Hoppen CBE used a bespoke-length ‘Ebony’ fringe from Houlès, draped to the floor around her tessellating ottomans; while Toni Black of Blacksheep used Samuel & Sons’ ‘Margaux’ bullion fringe on Shepel’s custom sofa in the Home Bar, complemented by fringed lighting. There was supersized trim of a different kind in the Treasure House Fair Morning Room: Daniel Slowik edged his cushions in lavish pleated fabric frills, their bold scale complementing the opulence of the antiques that surrounded them.
ARCHITECTURE AS FURNITURE When architects also take on interior design, the big ideas they put into buildings can often bleed into the smaller details. Ben Pentreath Studio’s Kitchen had shelving with an elegant colonette framing detail and a central table supported on octagonal columns; while Tomasso Franchi of Tomèf Design was inspired by a Venetian hotel room for the Fortuny + Bonacina + Barrovier&Toso Primary Bedroom. His bed took the form of a typically Venetian ogee arch, with smaller arches around the base. In other rooms, designers used the architectural motif of the plinth to (literally) elevate sculpture, lighting and other objects.
SEMI-SHEER DELIGHT Transmitting beautiful soft light, semi-sheer fabrics were WOW!house’s moment of understated luxury.
Pirajean Lees designed a pendant light for the Library in room sponsor Dedar’s ‘Wide Wool Qb’ fabric, made from the softest virgin Australian wool. Semi-sheers were also used for shades in the Hector Finch Snug: the ‘May’ desk lamp is an Arts and Crafts-inspired design with a brass designer,
frame and pleated shade. The Snug’s James Thurstan Waterworth, also worked
with Nest Design to create a Roman blind made from delicately stitched together linen from de Le Cuona.
A PALETTE FROM THE EARTH If there was a recurring colour thread, it was that of semi-precious stones and minerals, from amber to malachite and amethyst: colours intrinsically associated with opulence. In the Benjamin Moore Dining Room, designer Peter Mikic custom-designed a dining table inlaid with semi-precious stones. Turquoise, jade and amethyst were Nicola Harding’s palette for the Drummonds Powder Room, while Daniel Slowik’s peridot-coloured trellis fabric was the backdrop for the Treasure House Fair Morning Room. These materials could be neutral, too, with designers embracing not their colour but their luminosity: there were onyx pots and bowls in the House of Rohl Primary bathroom, and a shimmering mica wallcovering (used on the ceiling) in the Phillip Jeffries Study.
CURATE WHAT YOU LOVE Art and artists provided a leading inspiration at WOW!house 2025, from Victoria Davar, who imagined
an artist-owner for her Cox London Entrance Hall, to Brigitta Spinocchia Freund, who was inspired by Katy Hessel’s The Story of Art Without Men to create a room where female creators took centre stage. There were unexpected juxtapositions of eras and scale – Davar placed an enormous contemporary abstract canvas by Richard Zinon in the architecturally classical hall. And there were tips to take away for displaying art: in the Casa Branca bedroom, Alessandra Branca’s landscape-format painting of greyhound after Jean- Baptiste Oudry was hung low over a console, making it immediately engaging at eye level and drawing the art and design closer together. Mostly, what came across was the joy of curating what you love.
GLOBE-TROTTING The perfect geometry of the sphere was a stepping- stone motif
across the rooms. Sometimes it had
astronomical roots: Brigitta Spinocchia Freund placed a lunar painting, Hunters Moon by Wanda Koop, above the fireplace in the Stark Curator’s Room, while lighting from Lasvit’s Constellation collection, in the shape of Cassiopeia and Ursa Minor, snaked across the ceiling in the Phillip Jeffries Study. Elsewhere it felt more architectural: neighbouring room sponsors Adam Architecture and Cox London collaborated on an innovative globular lantern set into the fanlight above the front door, and Cox London’s designer Victoria Davar further extended the concept, elegantly arranging a series of stone balls on the floor.
OPPOSITE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: In the Sims Hilditch Courtyard Room, Emma Sims-Hilditch layered a sprig-patterned wallpaper border and rope moulding at picture-rail height – one of several designers to get creative with the edges and borders of a room; fringing galore in the Shepel' Home Bar by Toni Black of Blacksheep; Nicola Harding’s rich palette of turquoise, jade and amethyst in the Drummonds Powder Room. ABOVE: The curved walls (and furniture) in the Nucleus Media Room created the perfect cosy set-up for designer Alex Dauley’s ‘date night’ theme, but the curves also served a practical purpose, hiding the speakers and tech for the room’s top-flight sound system
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