Kit Kemp shares her insights on embracing individuality in interiors
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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.
The room is filled with Kit's finds, such as the unusual antique wood panels that she cleaned of their grime and paint and hung on the walls in strips. "It's somewhere else to put beautiful fabrics and flowers," she says. "Every time I get a new fabric, I stick it over the arm of a chair. It's always changing. It's a complete indulgence. And I'm all for indulgences." Kit loves a barter system, devising one of the bedroom schemes around pieces garnered from a showroom set she designed, while another bedroom houses armchairs she created for a stand for home furnishings company Blithfield. I love the color and patina of fine old wood, polished and cared for over several centuries. There is nothing to replace the feeling and character of a fine antique.
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Kit Kemp has cited the life and work of The Bloomsbury Group as an inspiration for many years. They truly loved colour and Vanessa Bell in particular had a very distinctive palette. It is these ‘Bloomsbury Group’ colours that the London collection is inspired by. From the spicy neutral tones of ‘Horseshoe Hand Knotted Jute’ and sunshine yellow of ‘Patchwork Tufted Wool’ to ‘Hotline’ which does all the talking, they work so well with the English depth of light as it changes throughout the seasons.
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.
A guide to creating a relaxing bedroom
At Covent Garden Hotel’s drawing room, we have a large 19th-century Japanese marquetry desk that becomes a talking point and axis to the room. For Kemp, textiles and fabrics are also essential for bringing drama and showmanship to a space. “Textiles were my first love and I’m never happier than on the floor surrounded by different fabrics,” she says.
It's a statement affirmed by the unashamedly maximalist interiors that the homeware designer and co-owner of Firmdale Hotels puts together time and again. A Kit Kemp interior is always a unique treat, a polished yet playful combination of fabrics, textures and one-of-a-kind furniture. As for the original entrance hall, Kemp combined it with two sitting rooms to create a sunny 30-by-22-foot drawing room that stretches from the front of the house to the back and features two replaces with marble mantles on one long wall. The space bleeds into the kitchen, erasing a traditional boundary in favour of something more laid-back.
A Bold and Beautiful Townhouse
“As soon as something is handmade, it automatically adds character to your interiors,” she says. A big inspiration for her home was Charleston, the country house of Bloomsbury artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. In both homes bold patterns and bright color are combined to create an interesting blend of styles which leads to a brilliant unique home. A room should not be a pastiche on the past, but a fine antique will always draw the eye and be given a nod of appreciation in any well-designed interior. Large rooms often need a large piece of furniture to ground the space.
The green marble-top console table is possibly the easiest piece to place and to use. I think a piece like that transcends time and would look good whether you live in a SoHo loft, rectory, or manor house. The delightfully down-to-earth pair, Tim and Kit Kemp, are two of the leading names in luxurious inns in London currently. Specializing in renovating boutique and compact luxurious inns, Kit's eye for detail and charming self-taught inside style suggestions make every single of their luxurious inns incredibly exceptional.
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.
“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.
A sofa and the window recesses are covered in a painterly floral by the Japanese fashion designer Akira Minagawa. "I love fabric and texture and fabulous pieces of art, not necessarily expensive," says Kit, who has made this combination the hallmark of all her interiors. Interiors have always been Vivienne's passion – from bold and bright to Scandi white. After studying at Leeds University, she worked at the Financial Times, before moving to Radio Times. She did an interior design course and then worked for Homes & Gardens, Country Living and House Beautiful. She worked on Country Homes & Interiors for 15 years, before returning to Homes & Gardens as houses editor four years ago.
Discover a series of posts about our 'Dos & Don'ts' to design any space and make it your own, from using strong colours to creating a timeless space. I am fascinated by early embroideries and fragments of early needlework. There is a certain shade of peacock blue that I find in 17th- and 18th-century tapestries and embroideries that has altered over the years but is still quite beautiful.
A daughter's room has a red polka-dot headboard, while a tiny guest bedroom is draped in black-and-white toile. "They feel secure and tucked up. I think that's important in a bedroom." His wife, Kit Kemp, wears miniskirts and go-go boots and commutes on a Serotta bicycle custom-colored in her favorite shades of orange, pink, and green.
Kit works closely with her long-term framer, Marcus Wells, on many of her most striking displays. 'He feels free to show me new ideas and I'm always happy to suggest unusual combinations.' Judging by the results, it's a match made in interiors heaven. Kit uses this trick in her larger hotel suites and communal areas such as lobbies and restaurants, and it will work just as well in your open-plan living room. In this case, she has used a painting by Eileen Cooper as a focal point, then arranged furniture around it to create an intimate sitting room within a room.
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.
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