The third edition of WOW!House is open and packed with ideas to steal
Since its first instalment back in 2022, WOW!House has established itself as a highlight of the design world's calendar. Hosted by Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, the annual event sees a large showhouse spread across one storey of the grand, light-filled space. This June it's back and better than ever, with 18 designers taking part.
Partnering with some of our favourite brands - think Zoffany, Schumacher, Watts 1874 and Tissus d'Hélène - each designer has taken the opportunity to showcase their distinctive style, from a layered and opulent entrance hall by Benedict Foley, to a sun-filled morning room by Lucy Hammond Giles.
It's a rare way to see schemes by some of our Top 100 Interior Designers in the flesh, including Alidad's thrilling Watts 1874 ‘Legend Room’, and Veere Grenney's charming Schumacher Courtyard Bedroom – as well as a chance to discover the work of designers you may not have encountered before. The event is open to the public throughout the month of June, and tickets are on sale here.
We were first through the doors to see what the 2024 WOW!House has to offer. Here is our room-by-room breakdown of all of the amazing spaces you must see when you visit.
Milo Brown1/18Zoffany Entrance Hall by Benedict Foley
Benedict Foley – the erudite designer who brings a glamorous, eclectic flair to all of his projects – is showing us how to make a great first impression with his Italian palazzo-inspired entrance hall. Working with fabric and wallpaper house Zoffany, Benedict has used a series of luxurious fabrics to create a glamorous feel. The room is enveloped in a mixture of Zoffany’s ‘French Marble’ wallcovering, ‘Wool Satin’ and ‘Long Gallery’ brocade, and filled with hand-crafted furniture.
Milo Brown2/18The Studio for Dedar by Fosbury Architecture
This room sees the coming together of two distinct Italian design studios: Fosbury Architecture, and textile company Dedar. The home office-cum-studio will showcase the refined sensibilities of the former against a backdrop of fabrics provided by Dedar. Sticking to a light colour palette of whites, pinks and greens, you can expect sumptuous velvets, cottons, linens and raffia. Further putting the spotlight on Italian craftsmanship, all of the furniture in this (seemingly never ending, thanks to a mirrored back-wall) room has been made by Italian craftspeople.
Milo Brown3/18The Dining Space by Suzy Hoodless
You’d be forgiven for thinking that you had walked into a forest clearing upon entering this dining room by Suzy Hoodless. Walls covered in a bespoke Adam Ellis wallcovering depict expanses of trees and a fireplace covered in natural clay Moroccan bejmat tiles by Robert Emile Atelier create a sense of being outdoors. A mixture of antique, mid-century and contemporary furniture in natural materials makes for a cosy space in which to enjoy a long, plentiful dinner party.
Milo Brown4/18Jamb London primary bedroom by Charlotte Freemantle and Will Fisher
At House & Garden, we are big fans of the work of Charlotte Fremantle and Will Fisher, whose company, Jamb, sells antique and reproductions of 18th- and 19th-century chimneypieces, lighting and furniture. The centrepiece of this romantic bedroom is the four-poster bed. It is reproduced from a Chippendale model and dressed in an eighteenth-century paisley fabric and fine skirts of pleated linen. The walls are lined with silk, blushing to a dusky rose colour and complementing the paisley and stiff-leaf cornice of the bed washed in celadon blue.
Milo Brown5/18Sicis Bathroom by Maurizio Leo Placuzzi
A shimmering delight, this bathroom is the meeting point between a tropical getaway and a 1970s disco. It has been designed by the Italian designer Maurizio Leo Placuzzi in collaboration with the mosaic art factory Sicis. Your eye immediately goes to the bathtub, which has been painstakingly adorned by hand with mirrored mosaics. A sense of being in the tropics is introduced by the Faux Mosaique ‘Mystic Flowers’ wallcovering.
Milo Brown6/18Watts 1874 Legend Room by Alidad
A stalwart of the design industry, Alidad’s name is synonymous with exceptional design. This year’s designer of choice for the ‘Legend Room’, he has teamed up with creators of bold fabrics and wallcoverings, Watts 1874, on a room which nods towards an English Gothic castle. The starting point was a large-scale Renaissance design that was redrawn in 1889 by Watts’ co-founder, G.F. Bodley. ‘Malvern’ has been wrapped around the walls and up the ceiling. Against this backdrop sits an impressive Gothic Revival fireplace and antique circular oak parquetry table.
Milo Brown7/18The Rug Company Dining Room by Ken Fulk
Evoking a sense of palatial grandeur, the American designer Ken Fulk has worked with The Rug Company on a transportive dining room. Inspiration came from two main sources, says Ken. The first was ‘the bespoke rug we designed with The Rug Company called ‘A Life Reflected’, inspired by the traditions of storytelling in Delft and Azulejo tilework dating back to the 14th century’, and the second is the William Morris ‘Green Dining Room’ at the V&A - one of Ken’s ‘favourite rooms in London’. The result is a wondrous room filled with craft – from the ceiling coffers printed with drawings by the Ken Fulk Art Department to the chandelier made from recycled plastic PET bottles by Thierry Jeannot.
Milo Brown8/18Study by Anahita Rigby
One of House & Garden’s Rising Stars of 2023, Anahita Rigby’s designs are informed by her background in architecture as well as a stint spent working on high end residential projects in Hong Kong. Her study for WOW!House demonstrates this East-meets-West sensibility, and features Georgian proportions combined with Japanese-inspired details. The ‘windows’ on the long wall, for example, were inspired by a drawing of Georgian panelling and are formed from a Japanese shoji paper screen. Bespoke joinery and bookshelves laden with books adds to the refined, sophisticated feel of the space. For Anahita, the space is ‘a place to read and a place of refuge to share a martini over a little secret with an old friend.’
Milo Brown9/18Schumacher Courtyard Bedroom by Veere Grenney Associates
Inspired by a long ago bedroom of his own, Veere Grenney has made a space of handsome restraint filled with his newest fabrics for Schumacher. Used to upholster all four walls and for the full-length curtains that frame the window, the large scale ‘Woodman Check’ in berber brown forms the backdrop to the space, which includes a grand four-poster bed: one of Veere’s signature pieces. A pair of ‘Paris’ tables, from Veere’s own collection add a contemporary twist.
Milo Brown10/18Sitting Room by Sophie Ashby for United in Design
Sophie Ashby has designed this sitting room in collaboration with the charity United in Design (UID), which she founded in 2020 alongside Alexandria Dauley. This year, UID joins WOW!house as its 2024 charity partner. The charity aims to address the lack of diversity within the interior industry and it is this mission that was the starting point for her Sitting Room. ‘We wanted to work with people who would inspire the aspiring designers we seek to offer opportunities to’, explains Sophie. The room features furniture designed by a range of studios, including Wilkinson Rivera, B.C. Joshua, and Studio Meseme, and an eclectic mixture of photography by artists including Lily Bertrand-Webb and Sridhar Balasubramaniyam.
Milo Brown11/18Tissus d’Helene Drawing Room by Guy Goodfellow
The kind of room which you have to tear yourself away from, this drawing room features some of the most covetable fabrics layered together by the expert hands of Guy Goodfellow. Anchored by architectural features such as arches and an antique French limestone fireplace from Thornhill Galleries, you’ll find a daybed, window seat and armchairs upholstered in the eclectic mixture of fabrics which we’ve come to expect from Tissus d’Helene, including its latest launch – the ‘Baisha’ fabric which envelopes the walls. There are decorative finishes by Matthew Bray and Matthew Collins, 18th- and 19th-century Japanese Imari porcelain from Guinevere, a contemporary artwork by Adrian Heath and an 18th-century bureau from Brownrigg.
Milo Brown12/18Chase Erwin Library by Andrea Benedettini
Andrea Benedettini’s background as a ballet dancer has informed the design of this library. The curved lines of the furniture is a nod to the movement of dance, while a ‘Thea’ chandelier in Murano glass by Fiona McDonald evokes the feathered costumes of Tchaikovsky’s swans. The cocooning atmosphere of this space has been created using lashings of Chase Erwin’s signature organic yarns in a range of soft, serene colours.
Milo Brown13/18Colefax & Fowler Morning Room by Lucy Hammond Giles
‘To me a morning room is somewhere you’d want to sit on a Saturday with a cup of coffee and a newspaper, with a desk for writing and a sofa on which to nap’, says Lucy Hammond Giles, Associate Director at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler. With this in mind, Lucy is working with bright, uplifting yellows and floral fabrics from the Colefax & Fowler collections, which provide a backdrop for furniture found in the archive of the company’s Pimlico road showroom.
Milo Brown14/18Home Bar by Oza Design
Arguably the most important room in any house (if you’re lucky enough to have one), the Home Bar designed by Özge Öztürk and Alexandre Simeray, founders of London-based studio, OZA Design, takes inspiration from the duo’s Turkish and French roots. The space mixes natural materials – including clay walls in an earthy red from Clayworks – with opulent finishes, namely a bronze bar. Swathes of natural fabric from Misia Paris soften the space, which feels like the perfect place to relax with a nightcap.
Milo Brown15/18House of Rohl Primary Bathroom by Michaelis Boyd
The soft atmosphere of the primary bedroom is continued in the neighbouring bathroom, designed by Michaelis Boyd. Drawing on a palate of pale greens, the space features zellige chequerboard tiles by Mosaic Factory and surfaces of rainforest green marble from Diespeker & Co. Bathroom furniture from House of Rohl includes a freestanding bath from Victoria & Albert, painted in a custom olive shade, which is surrounded by a wall mural of green landscapes and pink sky.
Milo Brown16/18Zimmer + Rohde Bedroom Suite by Tolù Adẹ̀kọ́
‘Our room design is a homage to the art of travel and textiles in the early 20th century,’ says the designer Tolù Adẹ̀kọ́. ‘We’re mixing leather, marquetry and embroidery to make something interesting and unexpected’. Among the fabrics Tolu has selected from the Zimmer + Rohde collections are the ‘Dimora’ moiré, which adds an electric jolt of blue and the ‘Leto Velvet’, a geometric cotton velvet which combines relief shapes with matte and shiny finishes. Incorporating pieces of collectible design, Tolù has decorated the room with the ‘Astraeos’ bench designed by Jean-Louis Deniot for Pouenat, Porta Romana’s ‘Sway’ lamp and Jallu Ebénistes’ straw marquetry ‘Blue Wave’ mirror.
Milo Brown17/18Martin Moore Kitchen by Studio Vero
Yorkshire-based Martin Moore has been designing and building bespoke furniture for four decades, and for its WOW!House kitchen has called upon the expert eye of design studio Vero, founded by Romanos Brihi and Venetia Rudebeck to create a functional yet beautiful space. ‘We wanted it to be a place to spend time in and truly enjoy with the same capacity to showcase personality as any other room in the home’, they say. Timber cabinetry is softened by a bullnose edge to the green quartz worktops. Brass hardware and a striking four-armed Italian brass chandelier from 1stDibs add a subtle touch of splendour.
Milo Brown18/18Summit Terrace by Fernando Wong
A photograph of a hedge framed by palms wraps around the terrace, enclosing the space and turning it into something of a sanctuary. Fernando Wong, of Fernando Wong Outdoor Living Design, Inc. has dug into the plentiful collections of teak furniture designed by Summit to create a space to relax. David Harber’s large scale outdoor sculpture ‘Torus’, made in mirrored stainless steel simultaneously stands out while also blending harmoniously with the green surroundings.
