THE JOURNAL
LOOK UP If you forgot
to look up while you were visiting
WOW!house, you missed a trick: designers lavished detail on the so-called ‘fifth wall’ and decorated the ceiling with stylish alternatives to a plain painted finish. “Ceilings are underused – they’re a big area, and often a missed opportunity,” said WOW!house designer Joanna Plant: in the Tissus d’Hélène Bedroom, she created a tented ceiling using Namay Samay’s ‘Kadva’ fabric, anchored in the centre by an alabaster bowl light by Vaughan. Paolo Moschino and Philip Vergeylen were inspired
by the work of the 20th-century artist, playwright and poet Jean Cocteau: “At
the villa Santo Sospir,
Cocteau said that he had ‘tattooed’ the walls, so we thought, ‘why not tattoo the ceiling?’” said Vergeylen. In their Drawing Room, a simple black line twisted its ways across the perimeter of the ceiling in homage to
Cocteau – complementing his art on the walls. Linda Boronkay’s rumpled, reflective silver surface
amped up the opulence in her Egyptian-themed Pierre Frey Salon while elsewhere, designers used wallcoverings or fabric to add an extra layer of pattern and colour on the ceiling: the labyrinth-like ‘Trevi’ fabric by Gaston y Daniela in Kit and Minnie Kemp’s Day Room, or rich-red ‘Amoir Libre’ wallcovering from Dedar in Stephanie Barba Mendoza’s Study, finished with a neat rope moulding around the perimeter. Cocooned by comfort. Most interior designers would profess to putting comfort at the top of their aims for a room – but a visit to WOW!house uncovered exactly how the experts achieved this essential but sometimes elusive element. Many designers opted for
fabric-covered walls,
rather than paint or wallcoverings: it can make a huge difference to the acoustics of a room, dampening sound
and making a space feel cocooning: in the Colefax and Fowler Drawing Room, the banquette and walls were uniformly covered in ‘Rivoli’ cotton velvet by Manuel Canovas, and the seating appeared to almost melt into the walls. In the Tissus d’Hélène Bedroom, Joanna Plant used
no fewer than nine different fabrics to create a sense of comfort. “It might seem a lot in a small room, but because they are tonally matched they sit together harmoniously,” she said, going on to explain how she thought that “we want to be held, not challenged” by our design schemes in uncertain times. Brandon Schubert also played with many layers of
fabric to add to the feeling of richness in a room and create more of a sense of comfort: the magnificent four- poster bed in the Morris & Co. Courtyard Bedroom was hung with ‘Oak’ fabric, lined with contrasting ‘Willow Boughs Minor’ fabric.
OPPOSITE: Paolo Moschino and Philip Vergeylen were inspired by the work of Jean Cocteau in their WOW!house Drawing Room, with Cocteau’s artwork on the wall and a snaking black line decorating the ceiling that could have been by the French artist’s own hand. The room is full of the couple’s personal possessions ABOVE: The Tissus d’Hélène Bedroom, where designer Joanna Plant also took a more decorative approach to the ceiling, cladding it in Namay Samay’s ‘Kadva’ fabric, anchored in the centre by a Vaughan light
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