HIGH CULTURE
Dana and William Hopkins’ remodelled mews terrace has become the perfect backdrop for their collection of exquisite Middle Eastern art and furniture
A mews terrace in the capital is the perfect showcase for a fine collection of art and furniture
An Anglo-american-middle Eastern fusion characterises the Hopkins family home – all thanks to Dana’s Iranian heritage and upbringing in the USA, William’s travels and the years the couple spent living in Dubai. When they decided to move to London and renovate William’s mews maisonette, they wanted to work with an architect and an interior designer who appreciated their eclectic style and a personal recommendation led them to Robert Wilson from Granit Architecture + Interiors. ‘We liked Robert from the start and we were delighted when he was able to visit our Dubai home while over on a conference,’ says Dana. ‘He needed to understand the importance of the art and furniture we’d collected over the years in order to help us concentrate everything down into a smaller house.’ William had owned the mews maisonette for years, but then the couple bought the office space below and decided to remodel
the entire building into a family home for themselves and their children, Emily, eight, Chloe, six, and George, four. ‘We briefed Robert explaining about wanting a sense of openness yet the opportunity to close off rooms,’ says Dana. ‘Space needed to be efficient with as much storage as possible.’
As the ground floor of the mews – once a carriage house – had high ceilings, Robert took advantage of the lofty height in his design. ‘By digging down four metres we were able to fit in
design tip ‘Our architect’s idea to dig the basement and raise the ground floor gave us the mezzanine, an entrance hall and outside storage’
a mezzanine level overlooking the basement family room,’ Dana explains. A rooflight at the top of the house draws natural light down into the basement via a square glass floor on the first floor and an atrium on the ground floor. The mezzanine is the darkest part of the house and Dana embraced this by decorating the dining room a cocooning blue. ‘We saw a lacquered turquoise ceiling in a Dubai restaurant that we both loved,’ she says. ‘Our interior designer, Saskia Blyth of Blyth-collinson, brought in a specialist decorator to recreate the look in a softer, more polished way.’ Elsewhere rooms are decorated white. ‘I associate home with rich, warm decoration because that’s my heritage,’ says Dana. ‘But here, all the spaces communicate with one another and with too much wall colour it would have been hard to know where to begin and end. Warmth comes from our colourful art and furniture instead.’ Nostalgia plays its part, too, and the sofa in the girls’ bedroom is from Dana’s own childhood bedroom. ‘I’m too sentimental to
change the fabric and I like having the continuity,’ she says. Art is equally personal: a stone sculpture was made by William’s brother and the couple felt a connection to Afshan Daneshvar’s circular art formed of handmade boats representing the Syrian refugee crisis.
‘So much about creating a space for a person is about how they live and Robert and Saskia understood that in us,’ says Dana. ‘Robert’s design and Saskia’s expertise on textiles and lighting have settled our art and furniture into our home in a very special way.’