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10 highlights from the WOW!house decorator showcase at Chelsea Harbour

When the inaugural WOW!house interior-design showcase opened at Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, it caused a stir on the decorating scene. The concept of the decorator showhouse, so successfully executed in America by the Kips Bay houses, was one which, until then, had not been successfully achieved in the UK. Hence the positive response to that first WOW!house, which was full of ideas and inspiration for design professionals and decorating enthusiasts alike. This year’s version, with 18 full-size rooms designed by a fresh phalanx of world-class designers, has, if anything, raised the game. Here’s a round-up of 10 of our favourite spaces.

Dining room by Joy Moyler

Joy Moyler created an elegant red dining room for WOW!house 2023 - Effect Magazine
Joy Moyler created an elegant red dining room for WOW!house 2023, featuring artisanal bespoke elements such as the thatched ceiling (Photo: James McDonald)

New York-based designer Joy Moyler’s creation is a room of two parts – the centrepiece is a round Philippe Hurel dining table elegantly set beneath a crystal chandelier and surrounded by grey flannel-upholstered chairs; while off to the side is a red velvet-lined nook with two sumptuous velvet armchairs where one can retire with a friend after dinner, pull across the curtain divider and “catch up on all the hot gossip”, as Moyler puts it.

The designer teamed up with the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) to find British artisan makers to craft bespoke elements such as the thatched ceiling – an earthy counterpoint to the glamour of the rest of the room – and a folded-fabric wall artwork.

The Legend Room by Nicky Haslam and Colette Van Den Thillart

Nicky Haslam and Colette Van Den Thillart created a contemporary salon for socialising at WOW!house 2023 - Effect Magazine
Nicky Haslam and Colette Van Den Thillart created a contemporary salon for socialising at WOW!house 2023 (Photo: James McDonald)

Nicky Haslam, along with Colette Van Den Thillart, aptly occupies what is known this year as the Legend Room – a space conceived as a contemporary salon, intended for socialising and leisure. As he puts it: “This room has no dedicated role, but it needs to have diverse areas to suit diverse activities: reading, studying, gaming, eating, chatting.”

There is typical Haslam inventiveness aplenty here: fabric-wrapped bookcases; half-height cabinets that act as subtle room dividers; a pair of fauteuils inset with mirror glass and upholstered in floral fabric; and neoclassical plaster-style columns (fashioned, in fact, from foam). The unexpected pièce de résistance is a media unit with a supersize TV screen and an array of equipment resembling the deck of a spaceship – a reference to Haslam’s current obsession with AI.

Drummonds Principal Bathroom by Barlow & Barlow

Lucy Barlow and Joshua Sear created a bathroom suffused with 1970s space-age glamour, including a Paco Rabanne “space curtain”- Effect Magazine
Lucy Barlow and Joshua Sear created a bathroom suffused with 1970s space-age glamour, including a Paco Rabanne “space curtain” (Photo: James McDonald)

Seventies space-age glamour is also the inspiration for Lucy Barlow and Joshua Sear’s spectacular bathroom, where classical furniture by Drummonds is teamed with luxurious elements including a mirror-glass terrazzo-style floor, a Paco Rabanne “space curtain” and a rocket-ship freestanding lava lamp. The earthy-coloured tadelakt-look walls, created by a specialist, help to ground the fantastical scheme.

Fromental Courtyard Room by Maddux Creative

Maddux Creative designed a courtyard room at WOW!house 2023 incorporating metallic wallpaper and embroidered silk linen (Photo: James McDonald)

When coming up with their scheme for what has become known as “the 3am room”, Scott Maddux and Jo Le Gleud were given free rein of the Fromental archive, which informed the bespoke wall-coverings they designed specially for the space – some of which are metal-effect papers, others hand-painted and embroidered silk linen.


The overall effect is of a cosy, comforting space that encourages the visitor to linger – a sensation heightened by the pair of curved George Smith sofas that face each other at the centre, inviting conversation, and the well-stocked gold Tom Faulkner cocktail trolley.

Colony by Casa Luiza Principal Bedroom by Natalia Miyar

Natalia Miyar created a stunning green bedroom with her characteristic flair for wallpaper and colour at WOW!house 2023 in Effect Magazine
Natalia Miyar created a stunning green bedroom with Naturalmat bed and her characteristic flair for wallpaper and colour at WOW!house 2023 (Photo: James McDonald)

The mood in Natalia Miyar’s dreamy bedroom is soft and serene – as the designer herself describes it: “The perfect bedroom ambience is calming and cocooning, with enough character to keep it interesting.” Known for her use of bold colour, here Miyar has stuck to one – green – but incorporated it in 15 different shades.


The botanical wallcovering by Colony sets the tone, and the Naturalmat canopy bed, draped with Colony fabric, adds to the enveloping vibe. The odd unexpected touch, such as the Reinaldo Sanguino ceramic chair, stops the look from becoming too matchy-matchy.

Dining room by Martin Hulbert Design

Martin Hulbert and Jay Grierson created the embodiment of the long lunch in their dining room at WOW!House 2023 - Effect Magazine
Martin Hulbert and Jay Grierson created the embodiment of the long lunch in their dining room at WOW!house 2023 (Photo: James McDonald)

Designers Martin Hulbert and Jay Grierson are fans of the long lunch, and their relaxed yet sophisticated dining room is one where one can easily imagine such a convivial event taking place. The palette is soft and the look is laidback: four custom-made square tables topped with buff-coloured handmade ceramic tiles are set with hand-painted crockery, and surrounded by comfortable chairs (with arms – perfect for a lunch that stretches into dinner). Cream linen curtains (hand-stitched by Hulbert) waft at the windows; and pieces of antique furniture including a beautiful Welsh dresser are teamed with contemporary hand-carved Windsor chairs to bring soul to the space.

Gosling Library by Tim Gosling

When this year’s WOW!house closes, Tim Gosling’s library scheme will be transported to his French home ­­– an eighteenth-century chateau in Normandy. His concept for the tapestry-lined room was inspired by the Palace of Versailles, and here the influence of the Hall of Mirrors can be seen in the large mirrors that sit atop the four corner bookshelves (two are antiques, the others are reproductions that Gosling had made to match them). The designer’s extraordinary attention to detail comes through in elements such as the bespoke games table that sits at the centre – the sycamore backgammon points are taken from engravings of garden statues at Versailles.

Martin Moore Kitchen by Henry Prideaux

Henry Prideaux blended putty-pink with a gold moiré ceiling and passementerie in this Martin Moore kitchen installed at WOW!House 2023  in Effect Magazine
Henry Prideaux blended putty-pink with a gold moiré ceiling and passementerie in this Martin Moore kitchen installed at WOW!house 2023 (Photo: James McDonald)

You don’t often find passementerie in the kitchen; but this is no ordinary kitchen. The trimming in question is a deep red Samuel & Sons fringe that lines a panel in the gold moiré-papered ceiling, and picks up the colour of the paint used on the woodwork trim around the room – a pleasing contrast with the putty pink cabinetry. The marble worktop is another talking point here, with striking veins of green, grey and pink – along with the three amber chandeliers by Pure White Lines that hang above the island, and the strategically placed disco ball that makes this undoubtedly a party kitchen.

Home Bar by Tala Fustok

Interior designer Tala Fustok created a decadent home bar at WOW!house 2023 (Photo: James McDonald)

A party space of a rather quieter nature is designer Tala Fustok’s decadent home bar – set, somewhat unexpectedly, for breakfast – or “breakfast on the moon”, as Fustok describes it. The ceiling and walls of the dark, decadent room are draped with backlit Casamance fabric and the space is designed to a galactic theme: stars and planets decorate the Tim Page rug, and the bespoke bar cabinet is inset with a moonscape in a Verre Églomisé finish. The glowing moon-like Vaughan pendant is the perfect finishing touch for this otherworldly space.


De Le Cuona Bedroom by Christian Bense

Christian Bense channelled earthy tones in this beautiful bedroom at WOW!house 2023, which the interior designer describes as “the lovechild of a safari tent and a Bloomsbury apartment”, (Photo: James McDonald)

While several rooms at the WOW!house are preoccupied with outer space, Christian Bense’s bedroom for fabric house De Le Cuona brings things back down to earth. Described evocatively by Bense as “the lovechild of a safari tent and a Bloomsbury apartment”, the room nods to the South African roots of both the designer and the fabric house, with natural textiles and an earthy palette of khaki green, burnt orange and soft neutrals holding sway. English architectural details such as the Georgian-style wall panels bring sophistication, while details such as the saddle-leather straps and buckles on chairs, cushions and curtains make characterful touches. The room is intended, says Bense, to be “an exhale and a moment of calm” – a role it fulfils with ease.

WOW!house runs until Thursday 6 July 2023 at Design Centre Chelsea Harbour

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