‘As you’ll notice,
I have a thing about blue,’ says a laughing Katharine Howard as we head off on a whistle-stop tour of her house. We pass plump, button-backed blue chairs, basking in the shade of hothouse plants. Swan-necked standard lamps throw pools of light on to fringe-clad sofas. Cobalt ebbs into azure, ultramarine fades into forget-me-not: it’s a palette that, in less confident hands, might feel overwhelming. But here, the effect is bold, glamorous – and as enticing as a deep lagoon on a hot day.
The look sits very well with the architecture of the house. ‘I love spaces that feel relaxed and unstructured, but the bare bones have to be there to make that work,’ says Katharine. ‘The house is early Victorian, on the cusp of Georgian, and the stunning architecture throughout was the biggest draw.’ The interior, which had been previously let to students, was less inviting. Training their gaze beyond the ‘brown, cigarette-burned carpets and scuffed magnolia walls’, Katharine and her husband James envisioned an inviting home that capitalised on the untouched features. ‘The deep cornicing, the lovely tall windows, the marble fireplaces – it was all here,’ says Katharine.
Years of working with top designers, including Porta Romana, has honed her eye for space. ‘Although the house felt large compared with our previous flat, we knew there was scope to make it more family-friendly,’ she says. Over the years, structural tweaks have eked out every spare inch from the original footprint. On the top floor, Katharine raised the ‘charming, but hobbit-height’ ceiling to create a light-filled bedroom, adjoined by a chic bathroom, for daughters Amelie and Aurelie. On the lower-ground floor, the layout was stretched to create the compact, but efficient, office extension and a capacious cloakroom, ‘to swallow up boots, games kit and family clutter,’ as Katharine puts it.
Whisper-blue walls set the tone for the kitchen, where bespoke joinery is offset by brass handles and a Victorian-esque tap. ‘I wanted to avoid an island, as I like to keep the dining and kitchen area separate,’ says Katharine. ‘We cook a lot, but I prefer to keep the culinary chaos out of view!’ She also designed the adjoining family space, where succulent plants draw the garden inside through wide windows. The hothouse-feel is echoed in an over-scaled palm print by the late, charismatic textile designer Michael Szell, which Katharine has lavished on a sofa, lamp shades and curtains. ‘I’ve always been drawn to the opulence of the Eighties – all those pelmets and layers of decoration,’ she enthuses.
Design captured her imagination early. ‘When I was a teenager, I painted my room white with a silver trim – an early stab at modernism,’ says Katharine. She then studied History of Design at Camberwell College of Art, where she wrote her dissertation on this very magazine. ‘It was 1999 and Livingetc had just launched – it was pioneering and exciting,’ she says.
Working in the industry means she has become wary of trends: ‘Although I’m glad that we’re seeing a re-emergence of decorative design,’ she admits, as we plunge into the brooding, cerulean depths of the sitting room. ‘I like the way blue feels both dramatic and calm.’
Like elsewhere, an easy mix of designer objects and antiques has brought the ‘once insipid’ space to life. A velvet sofa, fringed as thickly as a flamenco dancer’s skirt, is Katharine’s design. ‘The upholsterer was rather bemused,’ she admits. Reflecting her love of clean lines, the abstract painting by Jane Goodwin is echoed in toe-cosseting rugs by another client, Christopher Farr.
Does working with design wreak havoc on the budget? ‘You bet! My wish list is constantly evolving,’ Katharine says, smiling. ‘I’ll lie awake at night, my head buzzing with colour, texture, patterns. I wish I could be more restrained… But for me, it’s impossible.’
See more of Katharine’s interior design work at katharinehowardstyle.com