SPACE MISSION
Two young designers rise to the challenge of turning their small London flat into a happy, art-filled home.
rising London design stars Luke Edward Hall and Duncan Campbell share a three-roomed flat in a converted Victorian terrace house in Camden, north London. Hall is an artist and designer concentrating on illustration, fabrics, ceramics and select interior design projects. Campbell runs a creative consultancy and design partnership with Charlotte Rey, working with brands such as Bulgari and Bentley. They launched their brass and marble table collection, Thierry, in Milan this year. Here, they talk about their personal aesthetic and those who inspire them most.
It used to be more or less a student flat.
campbell I bought the apartment 10 years ago; Luke has lived here for eight. I bought it from the guy who still lives upstairs. It had been badly chopped up into flats in the 1980s, so I had to put right a lot of the boring stuff like the electrics and plumbing. There was a tiny kitchen in the alcove where I now have my desk, with a long breakfast bar dividing the room, so I switched it around to make a dual dining-sitting space. I also put in a false ceiling for spotlights, which I’m not sure I would do again. The decoration has evolved over the years.
hall We have been layering and adding to it since then. It will never really be finished. campbell When I moved in, I started with lots of inherited pieces. Now it’s a combination of proper design pieces, stuff from eBay and junk shops, a few nice antiques, treasures picked up on our travels and inexpensive sofas bought online. We’re lucky to have huge windows. If we crouch down, we can just about pretend we’re living in a treehouse. campbell We have big gardens on both sides, and get light all day, with the luxury of living close to the heart of London. It’s a challenge to keep the apartment ‘working’.
campbell It’s only three rooms, and the dining/living area is where we work, eat, cook and entertain, so we have to be organised. It forces us to constantly edit what we have. hall It’s fun not to be too neat, like stacking books around the apartment, rather than putting everything away. campbell We’re fast running out of surfaces to put things on — we’ll have to start building some shelves! Many people thought we were mad to paint the walls in this dark green colour.
campbell I originally started with off-white, then we tried a less brave coffee colour. Everyone thought the green would make it look smaller but it doesn’t. It feels particularly cosy with lots of candles in the winter and at night. It’s fun to mix things up.
hall Here, it’s about a collection lovingly curated over time, not a perfect design showcase. It feels timeless.
campbell We’ve learnt not to have a whole room of one period of furniture; it’s vital to live with a mix. The strong, calming proportion and symmetry of the Victorian windows works with the reduced lines of our mid-century pieces. hall I like the way a little bit of steel cuts through the darkness of the low-lying vintage leather chair, and the mix of pale pink marble and the rosewood legs [of the dining table] softens the hints of brass around the room. We’re both inspired by creators who blur the lines between art and design. hall Jean Cocteau, Picasso, David Hockney and the Bloomsbury Group are all big inspirations — decoration didn’t need to just be a painting. Also interior designers like Madeleine Castaing and Dorothy Draper both liked the ‘more is more’ approach. campbell Mid-century designers like Gio Ponti, Josef Frank and Paola Buffa achieved amazing finesse with the simplest forms. I like the playfulness and wit of Fornasetti. I love it when you can’t work out how something was made. Italy is our favourite destination to pick up unusual things on our travels.
hall There’s a tiny shop called Rigattieri [in Venice], which sells ceramics shaped like animals and vegetables. We are drawn to anything animal-shaped — dogs, octopus, fish. We’ve always been creatively inspired by the pursuit of beautiful things.
hall It’s about creating things that are colourful and special; things we wanted to own. I started doing fabric for myself because I couldn’t find what I wanted. For my ceramics, I have a potter up in Scotland who works on platters, bowls, plates and vases for me, which I then paint onto. I love how you end up with something that’s like a little work of art but that is also a useful object. Everyone loves a picture but it’s great to have something to hold. campbell I love working with makers, not just learning about how they create things but also helping them to keep going. I’ve been working in Venice with Marcantonio Brandolini from Laguna B — they’re famous for the patterned handblown glasses that look like pieces of melted rock candy melted into them — because his mission is to build up a real network of artisans. Our apartment is perfect for entertaining.
campbell We love to cook so when friends come over, it’s easy for them to pitch in and get involved over a gin and tonic. hall This is very much our home, filled with all the stories about who we are and where we have been over the years. Our friends always say that it feels calm and centred; they love being here. It’s a happy place. VL Visit campbell-rey.com, lukeedwardhall.com