MAKING AN ENTRANCE
Hannah Evans was wooed by the magnificent staircase in her London house, which reminded her of the home she left in the American South
An impressive hallway and staircase in this Victorian villa in London persuaded the owner that it was the place for her
While some househunters no doubt baulked at this property’s tiny kitchen, Hannah Evans – a film-maker with a penchant for the theatrical – was hooked by its grand staircase. ‘I just wanted to run up and down it – and I loved the large hallway. Yet I’m well aware you can’t live in a hall!’ she says.
Hannah was missing the spacious foyers common in the American South, where she lived in a house more than five times the size of the west London Victorian villa she moved into in 2018. ‘I wasn’t worried about having less space, as I spent most of my time in one room of that huge house,’ she says.
SPACE CRAFTING
However, creative thinking was required to maximise the living and dining areas for entertaining. Somewhat surprisingly, Hannah opted for large-scale furniture, which covered most of the floor space in the sitting room. ‘It actually made the room look bigger,’ she says. ‘I also went for two sofas, when most people might have gone for one, but my starting point was the ottoman, which I covered in a fabric I’d always wanted to use.’
Working from this centrepiece out, Hannah echoed the fabric’s motif in a grasscloth wallcovering, which also visually enlarged the room. Another
trick was to place arched mirrors, which mimic the shape of the window, on the wall facing the courtyard to make the most of the natural light streaming in.
The multilayered look that Hannah favours is a reflection of her upbringing in Cairo. ‘I lived there until I was seven and remember my mother layering tons of pattern and colour in our home,’ she says. ‘It was like a souk where everything is laid outside together. I think I’ve retained a lot of that look in my taste.’
COLOUR FOCUS
In the dining room, a set of nine enchanting prints by American artist Paige Gemmel inspired the decor. ‘They are all different, but to my eye they work together. They contain stripes, like the fabric on the dining chairs and rug, and the spots you see on the vases.’
While no room in the house is less than colourful, Hannah aimed for a sense of calm in the bedrooms, with cool hued walls. ‘In my room, on the first floor, there was barely space for more than my super-king bed, but the generous French windows leading onto the balcony helped,’ says Hannah. She spent a lot of time searching for bedside tables tiny enough to tuck into the space between the bed and the door to the en-suite bathroom, eventually importing a pair from France.
The sense of space was enhanced in the second-floor guest room via a daybed with a headboard along its width. This less-used space is a riot of colour. ‘I felt I could go for oranges, pinks and blues as this room is flooded with natural light.’
Hannah’s first experience of decorating a house turned out to be quite an eye-opener. ‘What I learnt most is that my visual skills as a filmmaker were so transferable,’ she says. ‘Although I’m writing a new film, I’m delighted to have discovered I can also bring something new to the table when it comes to interior design.’