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I am always trying to re-create the look and feeling of them in my rooms. A light-filled drawing room designed by Kemp is shown with lot 32, a circa-1790 Louis XV1 ormolu enamel and rouge griotte marble skeleton clock. Offering a house-from-house in this charming luxurious hotel in London's West Conclusion / Soho district, the eye-catching “Bloomsbury Team” art selection would make a focal point in the public places of this stylish home. Described by a daring mural behind the bar, the Soho Hotel gives some of the very best suites obtainable in luxurious inns in London.
In London, where they have transformed the hotel scene with their six boutique properties, including the Haymarket and the Soho, this entrepreneurial pair turn heads with their mod personal style. "We look like a very 1960s couple," says Kit, a self-taught designer who does all the decoration for their hotels. 'I wanted to make this into an area you would want to stand in and look around,’ says Kit of the choice of her whimsical wallpaper design, which offsets a collection of unusual pieces including a chair upholstered in an embroidered textile from Kazakhstan. For bright living room ideas – a room now with glorious east-west light – she teamed her oversized One Way geometric linen with an exuberant botanical print, tempering the two bolder designs with a neat paisley pattern.
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Kit Kemp has cited the life and work of The Bloomsbury Group as an inspiration for many years. They truly loved colour and Vanessa Bell in particular had a very distinctive palette. It is these ‘Bloomsbury Group’ colours that the London collection is inspired by. From the spicy neutral tones of ‘Horseshoe Hand Knotted Jute’ and sunshine yellow of ‘Patchwork Tufted Wool’ to ‘Hotline’ which does all the talking, they work so well with the English depth of light as it changes throughout the seasons.
The grandest room in the house, the new drawing room, is not the one the couple uses most, although it does contain Tim's grand piano and a fireplace they love to stoke on cold winter nights. Rather, the room is a colossal canvas where Kit can express her all-out passion for decorating and collecting. Always evolving, the room is anchored by a large sofa and a pair of slipper chairs upholstered in bold red and white.
A guide to creating a relaxing bedroom
Amy Cutmore is Editor-in-Chief, Audience, across Future's Homes portfolio. A homes and interiors journalist of 20 years standing, she has spent much of that time writing about technology, appliances and kitchens. While other people count how many countries they've visited, Amy tots up how many countries' washing machine factories she's toured (it's eight by the way, from South Korea to Slovenia). She can't leave the house without a decent pair of noise-cancelling headphones, and is always ready to explain an acronym – be it QLED, DAB or HDMI. Kit is co-founder and creative director of Kit Kemp Design Studio and Firmdale Hotels, which includes London’s Ham Yard Hotel, Charlotte Street Hotel, The Soho Hotel, Covent Garden Hotel, and The Crosby Street and Whitby Hotels in NYC. A lover of British art, craft and sculpture, she uses these elements to make her hotels feel unique and personal — the antithesis of anonymous, bland decorating.
It's a statement affirmed by the unashamedly maximalist interiors that the homeware designer and co-owner of Firmdale Hotels puts together time and again. A Kit Kemp interior is always a unique treat, a polished yet playful combination of fabrics, textures and one-of-a-kind furniture. As for the original entrance hall, Kemp combined it with two sitting rooms to create a sunny 30-by-22-foot drawing room that stretches from the front of the house to the back and features two replaces with marble mantles on one long wall. The space bleeds into the kitchen, erasing a traditional boundary in favour of something more laid-back.
A Bold and Beautiful Townhouse
A trio of plates by English ceramicist Robina Jack are displayed in plexiglass boxes next to a collection of books. British interior designer Kit Kemp is constantly changing her home design. Even though she has lived in the same house in London for more than 20 years the interior of the home has changed considerably in those years. Get Melissa's weekly rundown of where top interior designers source their things and find inspiration - that will instantly transform your pad. Although every room has witnessed an overhaul with new, original bedroom ideas, Kit has been mindful to reuse pieces where she can. ‘If the frame is good I will always reupholster it and we donate our fabrics to a number of different charities, while smaller offcuts get made into toys,’ she says.
The green marble-top console table is possibly the easiest piece to place and to use. I think a piece like that transcends time and would look good whether you live in a SoHo loft, rectory, or manor house. The delightfully down-to-earth pair, Tim and Kit Kemp, are two of the leading names in luxurious inns in London currently. Specializing in renovating boutique and compact luxurious inns, Kit's eye for detail and charming self-taught inside style suggestions make every single of their luxurious inns incredibly exceptional.
With boutique hotel service and 5 star facilities, Kit Kemp's tasteful inside suits beautifully with the total peak home windows, velvet chairs and granite bathrooms. Jen Bishop is our owner and publisher and an experienced journalist and editor. We also collected bowling shoes – so, peculiar things, which we then make into an art piece.
“I love that moment where they are shown for the first time, the embroidery, the decoration and the embellishment,” she says. “I’d recommend layering textures to make rooms come alive, while embroidery is a wonderful art form that makes a room feel handcrafted and can provide a focus point in a room,” she adds. The reconfigured house revolves around this new barrel-shape kitchen, with limed-wood cupboards, bleached-white floors, and a bottle-green '50s Aga stove—"the only thing I can cook on," Kit says. While she prepares dinner, her husband joins her in the kitchen, relaxing in a wing chair upholstered in a patchwork of tea towels. An adjoining sunroom has a long refectory table and a view of the lush garden outside. This casual eating space is the closest thing in the house to a dining room, a formality the couple decided to forgo.
A sofa and the window recesses are covered in a painterly floral by the Japanese fashion designer Akira Minagawa. "I love fabric and texture and fabulous pieces of art, not necessarily expensive," says Kit, who has made this combination the hallmark of all her interiors. Interiors have always been Vivienne's passion – from bold and bright to Scandi white. After studying at Leeds University, she worked at the Financial Times, before moving to Radio Times. She did an interior design course and then worked for Homes & Gardens, Country Living and House Beautiful. She worked on Country Homes & Interiors for 15 years, before returning to Homes & Gardens as houses editor four years ago.
Discover a series of posts about our 'Dos & Don'ts' to design any space and make it your own, from using strong colours to creating a timeless space. I am fascinated by early embroideries and fragments of early needlework. There is a certain shade of peacock blue that I find in 17th- and 18th-century tapestries and embroideries that has altered over the years but is still quite beautiful.
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Kit Kemp, Founder and Creative Director of Firmdale Hotels and Kit Kemp Design Studio, is passionate about creating exciting and unique interiors. Kit is an author, a successful textiles, homewares & fragrance designer and respected champion of British art and craft. Pairs of antique tables are highly prized and easily adapt themselves to modern interiors either side of a fireplace or either side of a beautiful door in a hallway. This mid-sized luxurious hotel in the heart of the theatre district hides behind a nineteenth century store entrance façade. The inside is introduced to everyday living with Kit Kemp's inimitable fashion with pin-striped wall masking and comfy floral upholstery. I also love picking flowers on a Friday evening – sometimes I get tense about work, but whenever I start putting the flowers together, I begin to feel so relaxed.
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