East Meets West

Designer and author Kelly Hoppen creates eclectic, vintage combinations

By Gwen Williams

Leather is used to stunning effect in a double height library for the floor and chimney breast. At the core of the scheme, wenge wood is used for the staircase.

Known for her East-meets-West interiors, London-based interior designer Kelly Hoppen’s recent style has a lot more twists to it, incorporating vintage and round female shapes into eclectic combinations.

“People associate my style with modernism and perfection, so at first glance this is a departure from my signature look,” said Hoppen. The self-taught designer began her career more than 25 years ago at age 17 and has become one of the most influential Britons in the field.

Her design studio, Kelly Hoppen Interiors, has completed designs for apartments, houses, yachts, ski chalets, hotels, corporate spaces, private jets and British Airways cabins. Design projects have taken the company to most continents. Hoppen’s home collections are available in the United States at some Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus stores, making her style increasingly accessible.

In designing her own New York-style loft apartment in south London, Hoppen brought a double-height former Victorian school into the 21st century while retaining its inherent architectural features. “In many ways, it is classic Kelly — a yin-yang scheme of dark and pale, using a palette of neutral colors and contrasting textures,” Hoppen explained.

Hoppen reconfigured the 80-foot-long ground floor into an open space with a living room, kitchen and dining area. “I did want to do something different here and I took inspiration from the vintage look that is so popular in the fashion world,” said Hoppen, who selected a retro Perspex bubble chair and other vintage furnishings and artwork to accentuate divides between the separate areas.

The 4,000-square-foot, two-bedroom residence featured a peaked, 25-foot double-height ceiling that required large-scale pieces of furniture. “When you are working with such a large space, the important thing is to keep it as simple as possible,” Hoppen said. “When people first walk into my home, they do have that sense of ‘wow’— but if they stopped to analyze what is going on, they would realize my aim has been to allow the room to speak for itself.” 

Hoppen mixed the vintage pieces with contemporary furnishings suitable for the vast dimensions of the space. “Using contrasting forms of furniture to create visual excitement is a natural progression for me, just as I have always combined fabrics of wildly different textures,” she said. Linen is at the core of the scheme, combined with velvets, leather and suedes. A neutral palette featuring splashes of color to create focal points unifies the space while imbuing it with a sense of warmth.

A wooden screen of her own design and a spiral staircase leading to a mezzanine den were added as pivotal elements of the visual punctuation. “In my apartment, the staircase is a visual divide between the dining and living spaces,” Hoppen explained. “The screen makes the dining room even more secluded and introduces a horizontal line to balance the vertical of the stairs.” Hoppen accented the scheme with pieces from her extensive art collection.

In describing her design for an estate in New York’s Pocantico Hills, Hoppen said, “The client had a great sense of the East, loved the Art Deco period and owned a lot of traditional furniture, too, so the challenge from a design point of view was making sure that this cross-reference of styles all worked well together.” A traditional house with an eclectic interior, the Colonial-style, 26,000-square-foot residence required sourcing from various places. “We were fortunate enough to be able to commission many special pieces of furniture for the house, even locating a Japanese craft consortium that could make traditional shoji panels,” she added.

The formal library and trophy room within the 30-room home stars in the design scheme while reflecting the origins of the residence. “The clients own a stud farm, and I wanted to make reference to this within the house, hence the inspiration for the double-height library with its stitched-leather floor and leather chimney breast. The client was nervous at first of damaging the floor by walking on it in heels, but, in fact, it looks even better once it picks up a patina of use — just as a saddle does,” she said.

Exuding the ambiance of a gentlemen’s club, the library features leathers, wools, suedes and cashmeres combined with wood finishes in wenge. An Asian influence, apparent in the Chinese vellum trunks and Chinese coffee table, mixes with comfortable seating. “The key was to keep the interior relatively simple in terms of color and pattern, but to build up a textural palette,” Hoppen explained. Decorative items including frosted glass table lamps, traditional side tables and accessories keep the room from appearing too austere.

“I like to use leather in slightly masculine rooms, such as libraries, studies or home cinemas,” she said. “The warm colors and textures create a feeling of intimacy and coziness even though the dimensions are so huge.”

Hoppen recently won the top Euro design award for women, 2008 Creator of the Year, and released her latest book, Kelly Hoppen Home: From Concept to Reality (Little, Brown, 2007). In Home, Hoppen explores the entire process of creating a home that is as functional and versatile as it is beautiful and nurturing. Beginning with her personal story of redesigning her own home, Hoppen explains how to be your own interior designer.

“The whole experience has given me more insight into the pitfalls people face when designing their own homes,” Hoppen said. “Homes are created and layered over years. Today we expect to make one instantly. The key to a beautiful room is planning, and the biggest mistake, rushing.”