Sibyl Colefax designer Lucy Hammond Giles on creating a modern family home
Lucy Hammond Giles is one of those people gifted with an easy charisma that makes her a pleasure to spend time with. It also, I imagine, quickly disarms her clients, allowing Lucy to get a sense of who they are and what they want. This is not a skill that can be learnt. But Lucy has learnt plenty from her work as a decorator at the revered Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler.
It seems destined she would end up there: her mother worked as an assistant at the firm right up until she gave birth to Lucy. More than 20 years later, Lucy got in touch with her mother’s old friend Wendy Nicholls, the managing director of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, for a bit of career advice. By then Lucy had an MA in history of art from the University of Edinburgh, experience working in television production and some part-time interior design courses from the Chelsea College of Art & Design (now the Chelsea College of Arts) under her belt. She had also spent a few years working with a property developer. Instead of advice, Wendy gave her a job doing maternity cover as a design assistant, and Lucy ended up working in various parts of the business.
She stepped away while her two children were young and developed her own client base, but in 2016 she rejoined Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler as a decorator in her own right. ‘There is so much knowledge in this building,’ Lucy says of the company. ‘It is a very open and sharing environment and to be able to bring that collective knowledge to my clients is incredible for me as a decorator.’
When asked to describe her own approach, she says that she cares more about how a room feels than how it looks. ‘I don’t decorate in order to create spaces that only look pretty on a page: they have to feel right and make people comfortable.’
Project
Lucy’s decoration of two rooms on the first floor of a west London family house (she also helped with the main bedroom and the paint colours throughout) is a good illustration of how she works. And both rooms had to work hard. The large drawing room needed space for a seating area, piano and desk, while the small study at the front of the house doubles up a snug for watching television.
‘The owner has great taste and had already found some of the pieces in the drawing room, which gave me something to work with,’ Lucy says. For example, one of the white sofas is a vintage piece bought from a New York dealer, while the other was commissioned to match it. The rug between them was made by Cogolin. Its texture corresponds with that of the wooden wall sculpture, which the owner bought from Rose Uniacke. The sofa in the study was also a commissioned piece, and was covered in a punchy teal wool from Kvadrat. ‘The owner chose Papers and Paints’ “Medici Green” for the walls, and the colour of this sofa works so well against it,’ Lucy says.
Of course, Lucy came with plenty of her own ideas. When the client asked for white linen curtains in the drawing room, Lucy duly brought her several samples to choose from. ‘But I snuck in some turmeric-coloured wool, too,’ she says with a laugh. ‘She was surprised, but she loved it. And it worked so well behind the piano.’ She delivered white linen curtains in the study, although she could not resist lining them in a wonderful orange-outlined geometric fabric by Christopher Farr Cloth. ‘In many ways, she was the perfect client,’ Lucy says. ‘Together we have created something that neither of us could have done on our own. That’s always exciting – building up that sense of magic.’
Address Book
Lighting
Soane has beautiful things that are always full of character. For the bedroom in this project, we chose the understated and functional ‘Reading Wall Light with Swivel’. soane.co.uk
Furniture
Nina Hertig at Sigmar has a wonderful eye for scale, colour and texture, and mid-century furniture that works in any environment. The Robsjohn-Gibbings sofa in the drawing room was from Collection 20C in New York. sigmarlondon.com | collection20c.com
Instagram
@thefineartofscience is by James Hyslop, head of travel, science and natural history at Christie’s. He posts photographs of natural objects – a lovely counterbalance to a day at my desk.
Paint
This house is full of greens and blues: ‘Medici Green’ (Papers and Paints) in the study, ‘Vert de Mer’ (Edward Bulmer) in the laundry room and ‘Blue Moon’ (Sanderson) in the yoga room. papersandpaints.co.uk | edwardbulmerpaint.co.uk | stylelibrary.com
Dean Hearne1/2One of the sofas is a vintage piece from a New York dealer, while the other was commissioned to match it; its frame was made by Christopher Bell and Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler upholsterers finished it off. The wooden wall sculpture is from Rose Uniacke and the milking stool beside a sofa is from Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler.
Dean Hearne2/2Seen reflected In the drawing room’s large mirror are the turmeric-coloured wool curtains Lucy suggested for the room. The carved head sculpture was made by the owner’s mother as a girl.
