Since they bought their Nineteen Thirties townhouse in central London simply over twenty years in the past, co-founders of Firmdale Lodges and the Equipment Kemp Design Studio, Equipment and Tim Kemp, have undertaken two main renovations.
The primary was prompted by a dialog between Equipment and fellow designer Robert Kime. ‘He instructed me that he all the time suggested making the very best room in the home the kitchen – and it was like a light-weight had been turned on,’ says Equipment.
Kitchen
This wisest of kitchen concepts impressed Equipment to rework their giant, barrel-shaped eating room overlooking the backyard into the kitchen, ‘which, in fact, we now reside in,’ she provides.
The bespoke cabinetry was put in a number of years in the past and it has seen quite a few colour modifications. Equipment had the beaded lampshades produced from colourful Kurdi aprons.
Eating room
Equipment added a conservatory main off the kitchen for eating.
Tord Boontje’s chandelier casts filigree shadows on the ceiling at evening.
Front room
Extra just lately, with the couple’s three daughters having flown the nest, it was time to tweak the structure once more. ‘We had a entrance room that was now not getting used so we knocked it via to the lounge, which in flip hyperlinks to the kitchen, so now every thing is open plan,’ explains Equipment.
For vibrant front room concepts – a room now with superb east-west gentle – she teamed her outsized One Method geometric linen with an exuberant botanical print, tempering the 2 bolder designs with a neat paisley sample.
The lounge’s energetic patterns are grounded with antiques, together with a placing 18th-century Spanish chest, above which hangs a portrait by Duncan Grant. ‘This residence may be very a lot a collaboration with my husband and the 2 of us share a love for Bloomsbury artwork,’ says Equipment.
On the partitions cling a set of works by seminal Bloomsbury artists. ‘The Bloomsbury Set has been a lot part of our lives ever since we designed the Charlotte Road Lodge,’ says Equipment. ‘As a result of they’re all by British artists, we discover that these work are excellent in our gentle, as they don’t seem to be too robust.’
Entrance corridor
Within the strategy of the redesign, the entrance door was moved and the hallway enlarged and it was with this area that Equipment commenced the redecoration of your entire home.
‘It’s considered one of our outdated sayings that if the in-between areas – hallways, landings and so forth – are given character, then your home is double the scale, as you aren’t via them and out the opposite aspect,’ says Equipment, who papered together with her repeat Legendary Land design, which varieties a fascinating backdrop to intriguing items and hallway concepts, together with a Swedish marriage ceremony clock and an outdated beehive.
‘I wished to make this into an space you’ll need to stand in and go searching,’ says Equipment of the selection of her whimsical wallpaper design, which offsets a set of bizarre items together with a chair upholstered in an embroidered textile from Kazakhstan.
Music room
Equipment sacrificed one of many 4 bedrooms on the primary ground to create a walk-through music room housing their grand piano.
‘Each Tim and I are naturally untalented so we didn’t need the piano in our principal residing area,’ she laughs, including, ‘I lined this space with bookshelves and I now suppose that may have been acoustically moderately a great factor.’
Essential bed room
Tucked beneath the eaves, this area advantages from fascinating volumes which can be emphasised with a grand half-tester mattress.
Though each room has witnessed an overhaul with new, unique bed room concepts, Equipment has been aware to reuse items the place she will. ‘If the body is sweet I’ll all the time reupholster it and we donate our materials to quite a few totally different charities, whereas smaller offcuts get made into toys,’ she says.
Bed room
Equipment loves a barter system, devising one of many bed room schemes round items garnered from a showroom set she designed, whereas one other bed room homes armchairs she created for a stand for residence furnishings firm Blithfield.
This fantastical headboard was created by Equipment for a showroom show; by a stroke of serendipity she discovered a lamp base that chimes completely with the aquatic theme.
Creativity is on the coronary heart of every thing Equipment does and, certainly, it varieties the main focus of her newest e-book, written throughout the pandemic. ‘By doing my weekly weblog, we noticed that creativity at residence has had huge traction and that folks need to customise their interiors,’ she says. ‘I feel we’ve got obtained over the concept of huge designer names; now it’s extra about your identify – one thing you might be bringing to your inside in order that it’s really considered one of a sort.’
Equipment Kemp Design Secrets and techniques £25, Hardie Grant Books
Inside design/ Equipment Kemp
Pictures/ Simon Brown
Textual content/ Rachel Leedham
