Club house rules
The Soho House brand has been shaping the way we decorate for years. Here, its new design director Linda Boronkay shares her ideas for how to do a room Soho-style
Soho House’s design director Linda Boronkay shares her styling ideas
Linda Boronkay is nestled neatly on an emerald velvet sofa, wearing a navy velvet Zadig & Voltaire blazer and calmly sipping a juice. As the new design director of the lifestyle brand and private club Soho House, she couldn’t be more on-message.
Even if you’re not a Soho member, or haven’t been to one of the 18 international houses, you’ll have been influenced by its style. For since the very first outpost opened in London in 1995 it has been responsible for the most long-lasting and pervasive interiors trends, the
originator of everything that has become the current mood. Leather club chairs? So Soho House. Wood panelling? In its DNA. Kilim rugs? Industrial lighting? Velvet armchairs? All started here.
“Comfort is key,” Boronkay says, having just refurbished the Berlin and Barcelona outposts. I’d use the word cosseted to describe the feeling you get when wrapped up in one of its sumptuous armchairs, legs sprawled across a vintage rug. Ensconced. It’s the sort of uplifting and quietly opulent vibe you want in your own home, a cocoon of texture and softened corners, and seating the colour of mustard, of sun-baked sand, of warmth.
THE DAUGHTER OF AN ARCHITECT FATHER AND AN ART DEALER MOTHER,
Hungarianborn Boronkay was destined to work in interiors, learning the craft by developing hotels and restaurants with designers such as Martin Brudnizski and Tara Bernerd. Her vision is to move Soho House towards a more “feminine”
(in her words) approach, using fabrics such as silk. “I want to be uplifting and bright, glamorous,” she says. Around 40% of Soho House furniture is vintage, allowing Boronkay to indulge her filmic sensibilities. “I find a lot of inspiration from old movies, the set designs of Hitchcock and Woody Allen,” she says. A self-confessed anti-minimalist “which drives my husband – and cleaner – crazy”, Boronkay knows that the club look is harder to pull off at home than it seems, even with the new Soho Home line (of which she has creative oversight), now being sold in Liberty, meaning you can literally buy everything you see (I keep telling her the online store needs to open a wedding registry option, so watch this space for that). “But if you’re brave, just go for it,” she says. Her tips (right) will give you courage – it’s all down to the table lights, apparently – and a feeling of luxury, contentment and wellbeing.