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Though the house feels different than it was in its previous incarnation, what hasn’t changed is the high-octane spirit. Join us as we explore its many storied items, each one infused with artisanal warmth and with the power to transform the look and feel of an entire room. Join us as we explore this new scheme in room 501 at Crosby Street Hotel, a space which boasts calming blue tones and energetic pops of yellow...
About 10 years ago, they completely refurbished it, adding the orangery – or dining room – as well as an extra bedroom, new entrance hall and stairway. Clearly, pieces have been collected from all over the world – in a bedroom, for instance, a traditional hunting scene hangs above ornate Indian side tables. In Kit’s capable hands, elements that, in other settings, might not sit together comfortably make perfect sense. Some evenings, when it's just the two of them, the Kemps will take their meals on the faux-shagreen cocktail table in their living room, a newly created space open to the kitchen. Here, an artwork by the English textile artist Anna Raymond hangs above the mantel, flanked by a pair of antique Venetian mirrors.
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Encouraged by art and sculpture, Kit Kemp would make great use of materials to incorporate heat and character to her boutique hotel patterns. Across the arm of a sofa in the sitting room of Kit Kemp’s house in the New Forest is a colourful cloth she found in a second-hand clothes shop in Covent Garden. It provided the inspiration for ‘Mythical Creatures’, the range of china she designed for Wedgwood. Kit isn't afraid to try new ideas – such as curating a room at Somerset House using pieces only made from wool, in celebration of Wool Week. The scenes above the fireplace depict London and were created by textile artist Anna Raymond. Kit is such a fan, one of Anna's works takes pride of place in the Kemp's Knightsbridge home.
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.
The Soho Hotel - The Soho Hotel by Kit Kemp
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.
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.
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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.
For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. Ingrid Abramovitch, the Executive Editor at ELLE Decor, writes about design, architecture, renovation, and lifestyle, and is the author of several books on design including Restoring a House in the City.
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.
“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.
Want to know where to buy the latest furniture, homewares, rugs, art and more? We’re always sharing our latest finds and telling you where you can buy them. Art is often bc perceived as the final flourish to a decorating scheme, but it can also be the statement around which everything else is designed.
Apart from the topiary animals that frolic across the lawn or stand among flower beds, there are three enchanting additions – a shepherd’s hut, a gypsy caravan and a thatched summerhouse. The hut had once belonged to a friend, John Harman, who had built it and used it as an office. The hut provides a quiet working spot for Kit, or just somewhere to retreat to. It’s decorated with all sorts of bits and pieces she has collected over the years, which look all the better for being mismatched. Each property is unique, but what ties them together is Kit’s unpredictable, and often playful, approach to design.
A magnificent assortment of rugs, pillows, and bedding, ‘The Kit Kemp Collection for Annie Selke’ is a collaboration and friendship that came together with grace, humour, and relative ease via Zoom! After many months of sketching, sampling and scheming we couldn’t be happier to see the collection launch on 7th March 2022. Follow our series of 'Sleeping Around' blog posts which capture the inspiration behind some of our interiors at Firmdale Hotels. Watch our exclusive series of short films in which Kit Kemp, takes you on a journey through some of her most treasured spaces designed by Kit Kemp Design Studio and at Firmdale Hotels in London and New York.
Kit finds inspiration everywhere, and has also collaborated on textiles, wallpapers and rugs. But, in the design world, she is known, more than anything, for her individual take on hotel interiors. More than 30 years ago, Kit and her husband, Tim, opened the Dorset Square Hotel in Marylebone, and since then they have established a string of others, in both London and New York. As well as the hotels, they have their own commercial laundry and a small in-house hospitality school and bakery. "You come in and see straight through to the garden," Kit says, "and that big bubble of pink makes everything feel happy." Well-versed in the demands of hotels and other high-traffic spaces, the two founders leveraged that experience to create high style, high-performance rugs that will wear well over time.
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