Take a Peek Inside Kit Kemp’s Hyde Park Home

Given the choice, most decorators with a personal design itch would scratch it by moving from one house to another, exchanging one expertly completed realm for a new challenge, ad infinitum. That would not be Kit Kemp, the effervescent British interior designer who is also the creative director and cofounder, with her husband, Tim, of the eccentrically chic Firmdale Hotels, an international hospitality empire composed of 10 smart hostelries and eight fizzy bars and restaurants, stretching from London to New York City. “I’ve lived in other places before, but I’m going to stick with this one,” she explains. “I’m no quitter.”

<div class="caption"> Kemp (right) and her daughters Minnie (center) and Willow lounge on the drawing room sofa, which wears a linen by <a href="https://www.raoultextiles.com/home" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Raoul Textiles" class="link rapid-noclick-resp">Raoul Textiles</a>. </div> <cite class="credit">Simon Upton </cite> — Kemp (right) and her daughters Minnie (center) and Willow lounge on the drawing room sofa, which wears a linen by Raoul Textiles.

Simon Upton

<div class="caption"> In the entry, flat-weave rugs were fashioned into a stair runner, antique mirror. </div> <cite class="credit">Simon Upton </cite> — In the entry, flat-weave rugs were fashioned into a stair runner, antique mirror.

Simon Upton

The address to which Kemp has pledged her devotion for 20 years and raised three daughters is a three-story, gray brick, vaguely medieval house on a cul-de-sac near Hyde Park, around the corner from Royal Albert Hall and a couple of blocks off heavily trafficked Kensington Road. Still, she says, “it’s almost quieter here than in the countryside.” Since the couple bought the 1930s property, the L-shaped residence sell my house fast jacksonville has undergone a series of transformative adjustments, all the better to express, at any particular moment, what the designer describes as “the way we live now.” Dormers have been added, and windows have been enlarged. Early on, the garage at the rear of the property was remodeled into an apartment for a nanny; today it serves as a gym. “I’m always having a little experiment with this or that,” says Kemp, who has called her style colorful and carefree. “My poor husband has to put up with it.”

<div class="caption"> A Mark Gertler painting hangs over the drawing room's neoclassical mantel. Cocktail tables by <a href="https://tomstogdon.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Tom Stogdon" class="link rapid-noclick-resp">Tom Stogdon</a> for <a href="https://kitkemp.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Kit Kemp" class="link rapid-noclick-resp">Kit Kemp</a>; African side table; antique rug. </div> <cite class="credit">Simon Upton </cite> — A Mark Gertler painting hangs over the drawing room’s neoclassical mantel. Cocktail tables by Tom Stogdon for Kit Kemp; African side table; antique rug.

Simon Upton

A decade ago, the empty nesters’ kitchen, located at the front of the house, was relocated to the rear of the building, taking over what had been an elegant oblong drawing room. “[AD100 decorator] Robert Kime told me that he always advises clients to put the kitchen in the best room of the house,” Kemp notes of the space, where custom-made cabinets follow the curved walls. “Everybody ends up in the kitchen anyway.” Off the kitchen, she and Tim built a conservatory–cum–dining space, a glass-walled volume that connects to a welcoming stone terrace. Elsewhere, the dramatically beamed attic became a yoga studio—it’s since become the master bedroom— as well as home to the couple’s gleaming grand piano, a beloved fixture, even though Kemp admits, “We both play extremely badly.”

<div class="caption"> In the dining room, an armchair and the pelmets are made of the same <a href="https://www.raoultextiles.com/home" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Raoul Textiles" class="link rapid-noclick-resp">Raoul Textiles</a> linen. A <a href="https://tordboontje.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Tord Boontje" class="link rapid-noclick-resp">Tord Boontje</a> chandelier hangs about the oak dining table with chairs by <a href="https://kitkemp.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Kit Kemp" class="link rapid-noclick-resp">Kit Kemp</a>; antique Turkish rug. </div> <cite class="credit">Simon Upton </cite> — In the dining room, an armchair and the pelmets are made of the same Raoul Textiles linen. A Tord Boontje chandelier hangs about the oak dining table with chairs by Kit Kemp; antique Turkish rug.

Simon Upton

The Kemps’ most recent domestic metamorphosis was completed last summer and resulted in the reconfiguration of the ground floor, as well as a comprehensive redecoration. “It’s taken us years to be brave enough to knock down all those walls,” the designer says. The glamorous bronze-and-glass front door was moved to another location, where it opens into a new entrance hall big enough to handle Sell your house fast jacksonville the full repeat of a Kemp-design landscape wallpaper for Andrew Martin that resembles the naive murals of itinerant 19th-century American artist Rufus Porter. (Kemp also used it in private dining rooms at Firmdale’s Whitby Hotel in New York City.)

See More of Kit Kemp’s Hyde Park Home

<cite class="credit">Simon Upton </cite> — Simon Upton

<cite class="credit">Courtesy of John Derian</cite> — Courtesy of John Derian

<cite class="credit">Courtesy of Porta Romana </cite> — Courtesy of Porta Romana

<cite class="credit">Courtesy of Firmdale Hotels</cite> — Courtesy of Firmdale Hotels

<cite class="credit">Firmdale Hotels</cite> — Firmdale Hotels

<cite class="credit">Courtesy of Arteriors </cite> — Courtesy of Arteriors

<cite class="credit">Courtesy of Theodore Alexander</cite> — Courtesy of Theodore Alexander

<cite class="credit">Courtesy of Chelsea Textiles </cite> — Courtesy of Chelsea Textiles

<cite class="credit">Courtesy of Blithfield </cite> — Courtesy of Blithfield

<cite class="credit">Courtesy of Dowel Furniture </cite> — Courtesy of Dowel Furniture

<cite class="credit">Courtesy of Jamb</cite> — Courtesy of Jamb

<cite class="credit">Courtesy of Vaughan</cite> — Courtesy of Vaughan

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 mantels on one long wall. The space bleeds into the kitchen, erasing a traditional boundary in favor of something more laid-back. “The whole floor is a walk-through now,” Kemp observes. “It’s not an original idea, but it’s just terrific.”

<div class="caption"> A seating area in the linen-wrapped master bedroom. Antique desk and armchair. </div> <cite class="credit">Simon Upton </cite> — A seating area in the linen-wrapped master bedroom. Antique desk and armchair.

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<div class="caption"> The master bath features a <a href="https://www.cphart.co.uk/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:C.P. Hart" class="link rapid-noclick-resp">C.P. Hart</a> tub. Embroidered chair by Minnie. </div> <cite class="credit">Simon Upton </cite> — The master bath features a C.P. Hart tub. Embroidered chair by Minnie.

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Though the house feels different than it was in its previous incarnation, what hasn’t changed is the high-octane spirit. Bright colors and bold patterns come together in welcoming abandon, as they do at Charleston, the country home of Bloomsbury artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, one of Kemp’s inspirations. “They made it into a hub for intellectual and artistic people who never wanted to leave,” the designer says, noting that the still life above one of her drawing-room mantels was painted by Mark Gertler, a member of the provocative and highly creative Charleston circle. “What more can you say about an interior that makes you feel that way?”

<div class="caption"> Pendants by <a href="https://kitkemp.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Kit Kemp" class="link rapid-noclick-resp">Kit Kemp</a> crown the kitchen, whose cabinetry color is a mixture of two <a href="https://www.designersguild.com/us/shop-online/l1142?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxqL8zYvX6QIV9AiICR2KDw5zEAAYASAAEgJZtPD_BwE" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Designers Guild" class="link rapid-noclick-resp">Designers Guild</a> paints. The armchairs feature hand-sewn appliqué by Kit Kemp Design Studio. </div> <cite class="credit">Simon Upton </cite> — Pendants by Kit Kemp crown the kitchen, whose cabinetry color is a mixture of two Designers Guild paints. The armchairs feature hand-sewn appliqué by Kit Kemp Design Studio.

Simon Upton

An outsize herringbone motif in hot pink and orange climbs some of the drawing room walls and curtains its arched windows, joined by Oriental carpets, a painted African stool, a sofa dressed in a cartoonish pomegranate print, and an 18th-century Spanish chest on stand. “An old piece of wood is grounding for a room,” Kemp advises. The kitchen’s cabinets, formerly limed oak, have been painted robin’s-egg blue, while French doors to the garden, various window frames, and bookshelves on a library-like upper landing—the latest perch for the grand piano—are now jade green. The entrance hall’s woodwork, on the other hand, is a marzipan shade of pink. Up under the roof, the master bedroom is wrapped in a madder-red fabric with the radiator rouged to match. “Color makes you happy,” Kemp says. “If you put your key in the lock and open the door to a bit of joy, then so much the better.”