Inside London’s WOW!house 2024

London’s Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, has long been a mecca of inspiration for professional interior designers. But what it needed was more homeowners visiting the interior design hub. The annual showhouse exhibit WOW!House is one attraction drawing people to the venue – an installation stretching the length of the building’s Design Avenue, accommodating a series of rooms assigned to interior designers who have been given free rein to let their imaginations run wild. Previous participants have included Nicky Haslam and Tim Gosling – and visitors to the third edition of the showhouse, which opens on 4 June, will no doubt be expecting to be suitably impressed.

I want people to hang out there – to feel at home

This year’s installation introduces 19 rooms, each one entirely different: American tastemaker Ken Fulk has created a dining room befitting “a countess and her artist entourage”; UK designer Sophie Ashby has conjured a sitting room with a comfortable Sunday afternoon ambience “and Etta James playing on the turntable”; Tolù Adekó’s bedroom suite is a decadent affair evocative of the “glory days of the Orient Express”; and design stalwart Katharine Pooley’s tennis pavilion (one of the showhouse’s simulated outdoor spaces) is an English country garden “adorned with sweet-smelling roses”, imagined while “Wimbledon is in full swing”. Check out Chase Erwin’s library, Lucy Hammond Giles’s morning room and Anahita Rigby’s study.

Designer Suzy Hoodless has kept her concept under wraps until now. Unveiling her sketch on the eve of the opening, she’s taken the opportunity to use a richer palette than is typical for the designer. “I wanted it to be really natural and earthy,” she says. “I have a house in Cornwall where we have the most amazing views of pine trees and a landscape looking out to sea, so we’ve designed wallpaper in collaboration with Adam Ellis Studio, which became the starting point for the room.”

A palette of natural materials complement the wallpaper, including large room dividers built by [joinery specialist] Alex Findlater in rough sawn Lebanese cedar, which create a dining area and a reception space with a fireplace. “The rug was made for us by The Rug Company as a kind of carpet of flowers,” says Hoodless. “It’s all very liveable and tactile in a palette of warm tones.” 

Like most designers taking part, Hoodless hopes visitors will linger in the space. “I want people to hang out there. We’ve got a beautiful table from Another Country, which I hope they will sit at for a time. They should feel at home.”

WOW!House 2024 is open from 4 June to 4 July. £25 per person or £40 for two, with two-for-one £25 tickets available on Saturdays