House Guest by Country & Town House | Interior Designer Interviews

In the run up to Christmas we have some special guests and this week it is hospitality guru, Olga Polizzi talking about her own 3-hotel collection, The Polizzi collection, as well as her role at Rocco Forte hotels where she is deputy Chairman and director of Design. She says of Hotel Endsleigh in Devon, ‘I bought it with my heart rather than my head,’ and of her first hotel, The Tresanton in Cornwall, which is about to celebrate its 25th birthday, ‘It’s been the most fun thing I’ve done but the agony, the excitement the tears… we used to watch Fawlty Towers on tv after an exhausting day and laugh and laugh thinking “this is us!”’.

I am in awe of people who follow a dream and Karl O’Hanlon did just that after leaving London and a secure job to head to France to a place he and his wife Anita had always loved - the Languedoc. His dream was to venture into the hospitality industry and after an initial false start, in 2008, Domaine & Demeure was born - three beautiful wine estates brought back to life with a discerning eye and a passion for design.

I visited Karl at his latest venture - Chateau just outside Narbonne a small hotel and wine estate with 44 villas (mostly now privately owned) available for rental. Staying here you get the charm and authenticity of a working wine estate, and the style, service and laid-back ambience of a private club. It’s fascinating to hear how it all came together. ‘For us it was important that the whole estate is integrated into the environment and that we contribute to its ongoing development”, says Karl. That means creating a landscape without using chemical or irrigation (Languedoc is renowned for its dry countryside which gives the wine its minerality). One of the commitments to the local community was that they wd not use irrigation hence he engaged award-winning garden designer James Basson and plantsman and botanist Olivier Filippi, ‘a legendary figure when it comes to ‘dry gardening’” explains Karl. Karl designed the interiors of the villas using polished concrete (often used in wine estates) and colours of the landscape. One of my favourite features, his idea for using olive trees instead of sun umbrellas by the pool - ’so much nicer reading under the shade of a tree,’ he says. Tune in for more

Mike Fisher founded Studio Indigo in 2005 and it now employs over 50 interior designers and architects. 

He says, 'Architects are often monochromatic and rather restrained in their use of colour. I soon realised the architect wasn’t most important person and if I wanted to be in control, I had to be an interior designer too’.

Today’s House Guest podcast is with Buchanan Studio - Angus and wife Charlotte set up their eponymous studio specialising in interior design, event and set design, creative direction and branding. Originality is at the core of everything they do. “We encourage clients to be brave’, explains Angus who worked as an assistant to fashion photographer Mario Testino before moving into set design alongside Michael Howells. ‘I walked onto a Versace set Michael had created for a Madonna shoot and thought, “This is for me”.

Angus runs the creative side while Charlotte wears the organisational, business hat. Projects include Wild By Tart restaurant in Eccleston yard, the branding and launch of Della Vite Prosecco (a project with the Delevingne sisters) the Studio Chair (one of the most photographed chairs of last year) and a fabric collection.

Emma Manners the Duchess of Rutland lives in one of Britain’s most magnificent stately homes, Belvoir Castle. The Duchess chats to Carole about her journey from running around on a Welsh farm as a child to running a 200-room stately home when she married the 11th Duke of Rutland 30 years ago. As a keen decorator, she gives an insight into how she stamped her personality onto the private areas of the house and how looking after fabrics and wallpapers in the State Rooms requires a delicate hand. Belvoir Castle’s stand in as Windsor Castle in the upcoming season 5 of The Crown - The Duchess prefers to keep out of the way during filming, which she describes as ‘a long process’. Her joy is in the gardens - she is so hands-on, she earned the nickname ‘Digger Duchess”. Emma's new book is out now - The Accidental Duchess. Tune in for more

The next House Guest in our ‘How To’ series is Anthony Barzilay Freund of 1stDibs talking about how to buy online. Anthony Barzilay Freund is editorial director and director of fine art at the online marketplace interior designer Duncan Campbell of Campbell Rey, calls ‘eBay for serious antiques’. Anthony chats to Carole Annett about how 1stDibs was founded, how it has become a go-to tool for the interior design trade and the fascination of seeing trends emerge. Tune in for more.

Born and raised in Vicenza, Italy and then moved to New York City to start her career in design, Manuela Hamilford first cut her teeth at Bergdorf Goodman, working within luxury Italian home furnishings. She gained a flair for interior design and after heading back to London in 2000 she launched her own interior design studio, Hamilford Design. Manuela has created many beautiful projects over the last twelve years, noting a change in how children’s bedrooms are designed - the kids are now in control requesting theatre-style dressing rooms and gaming chairs. Tune in for more.

The two creative dynamos, Annie Selke (chief vision officer and founder of Annie Selke the Massachusetts-based go-to for colourful rugs and bedding) and Kit Kemp, founder of Firmdale Hotels and Kit Kemp design studio who together have launched a new collection of lifestyle designs based on three favourite destinations, London, New York and Barbados.  Having never met, the two were introduced when Annie was asked who she would most like to collaborate with ‘I immediately said Kit Kemp as I am a big fan of her hotels although we’d never met. It happened over Zoom and ‘we spoke the same language,’ she laughs. The collection includes rugs, pillows and bedding in natural jute and wool and also PET (made from plastics), ‘I was a bit sniffy at first about recycled material but it’s fantastic,’ says Kit. Designs include Jellyroll, Lily Pad, Eternal Spring and Horseshoe. Tune in for more. 

The Kit Kemp Collection for Annie Selke, a collaboration and friendship available at andrewmartin.co.uk and kitkemp.com

My House Guest this week is Guy Oliver, managing director and principal designer at Oliver Laws. We natter about designing luxury hotels as two of Guy’s long-term projects are Dublin’s The Shelbourne and London’s Connaught hotels. Guy joined Oliver Laws after finishing his commission as a Royal Naval Officer and credits the training with being able to work with demanding clients including first boss, David Laws. ‘I was used to dealing with eccentric characters,’ he says, ‘they were no more challenging than the average Admiral, captain, or even my parents’. His work often involves historic or listed buildings and interiors - ‘Finding the subtle interplay between authenticity and taste is the very essence of what we do and are known for’. Tune in for more.

Charlotte Lawson Johnston of Cloth Collective is on a mission to educate consumers on non-toxic fabrics and using sustainable fibres such as linen, silk and hemp. Trained at the New York School of Interior Design, Charlotte now lives between Oxford and Uruguay. She has two daughters and a cow called Leche, which her husband gave as a birthday gift. She is passionate about natural fabrics having been alarmed at the amount of water used and the chemical smell of textile manufacturing when creating her first collection. It kick-started a desire to create fabrics in a more natural, sustainable way. Tune in for more.