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PHOTOGRAPHY James Merrell

PRODUCTION Mary Weaver

WORDS Fiona McCarthy

LIVING ROOM‘I looked at a colour chart with my then four-year old and she pointed to that yellow – there was no technical way of doing it,’ says Suzy of the almost neon yellow architrave.

Architrave painted in Trumpet, Little Greene. Marble fireplace surround, Jamb. Vintage wall lights, Guinevere. Vintage sofa, Børge Mogensen

coloursInterior designer Suzy Hoodless’

imaginative use of colour has transformed

her terrace home from bleak to chic

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LIVING ROOMCreating this recreational area between the living room and the kitchen allows for a large built-in bookcase for ‘all my magazines and design books, plus my husband Erskine’s record collection; you know, life,’ says Suzy.

Bookcase painted in Bone China Blue, Little Greene. Vintage chandelier, George Smith – try Vinterior. Zero-In table, Barber & Osgerby for Established & Sons. Vintage armchair, Les Couilles du Chien; upholstered in Pueblos linen-mix, Pierre Frey. Early 20th-century Chinese rug, Talisman ‘Even on a bright, sunny day, the rooms can be

quite dark, so it really needed colour,’ says interior designer Suzy Hoodless of the alluring hues in the home she shares with her husband Erskine Berry and their three children, Misty, eight, Myla, seven, and Arki, five. Cobalt blue and dramatic red chime with dusky pink and pale grey to punctuate the interior of their ‘tall, thin’ terrace house in west London.

‘Maybe it’s because of the kids, or maybe it’s just that I’m attracted to bright colours,’ Suzy muses. It’s certainly become a part of her signature style, self-described as ‘unique, confident and characterful’, which she has applied to collaborations with the likes of Osborne & Little and The Rug Company, interiors for Scottish lodges and Barbadian beach houses, and the newest Mayfair outpost of the women-only members’ club AllBright.

Her home has become ‘a sor t of big laboratory; all the biggest mistakes I’ve made have been for myself,’ says Suzy, laughing. ‘For a client, I’d have come up with the most precise plan and installed everything in days.’ Here, it’s taken seven years. ‘We’ve renovated it completely the wrong way – we started with the top-f loor bathroom and then worked downwards, room by room.’ She sighs.

A f ter buying the four-storey terrace almost eight years ago, Suzy was immediately drawn to ‘its space and seemingly endless f loors’, she says. ‘I just wanted to create a sociable home that would work for a family, but could also be shut down at night, and not filled with billions of plastic toys everywhere.’

First, she tore out all of the MDF, a legacy of a previous owner’s DIY over-enthusiasm

double-aspect ground-floor room ‘to create a cosy but proper living room at the front and a sitting room/playroom in the middle’, Suzy explains, and knocked out a ‘hopeless lean-to’ at the back of the house. By lowering the kitchen level from that of the sitting room, they created a large kitchen-diner. ‘It has made all the difference to the way we live,’ says Suzy.

Not least , it gave Suz y the space to accommodate a table big enough to seat her vintage Hans Wegner Wishbone chairs, bought years ago in Sweden, which she’s been faithfully taking with her ever since. ‘They’ve been the bane of my life, because 10 of them is quite a lot, but they’re really wide, deep and comfortable,’ she says.

Suzy’s use of colour ‘doesn’t necessarily have to be bright; it can be muted, too’, she says. So here, a powerful shock of incandescent yellow around the architrave, linking the front living room to the middle sitting room, instantly saves the two spaces from becoming ‘too polite’. Cabinets painted a saturated blue bring an otherwise pared-back kitchen to life, and the combination of pink and grey with a shot of deep rouge in the master bedroom creates a cocooning space. ‘Colour is an easy way to create a dramatic effect,’ says Suzy.

Against this backdrop, classic designer pieces collected over many years lend an eclectic, personal touch. ‘It’s perhaps lots of things that shouldn’t really go together, but somehow they do,’ she says. Certainly in Suzy’s world, there’s never a dull moment.

See Suz y ’s interior design projects and products at suzyhoodless.com

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“I just follow my instinct and

do my own thing; to me, it feels like a natural, normal way

to live”

(‘My mother was horrified as I ripped out every cupboard. She said, “You’re going to need lots of storage.” I said, “Not this kind of storage,”’ quips Suzy), and she redid the second-floor bathroom, installing a bath and tiling the room in a gorgeous glossy turquoise. It is now an ideal bathroom for the little ones.

When Arki was three months old, the couple decided to completely transform the g rou nd f loor. ‘I tota lly ig nored my own professional advice and didn’t move out while we did the building work,’ admits Suzy. Instead, they created a makeshift kitchen on the top floor – with a one-ring hob from John Lewis – and ‘rented a cottage in the country, where we’d go every weekend and I’d cook up a whole lot of meals on the Aga to bring back in Tupperware and reheat during the week’.

They opened up the space by removing some walls and lots of doors, divided the

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KITCHEN‘I can’t imagine life without it now,’ says Suzy of the bold, matt Yves Klein-style blue used to paint the cabinets. The bespoke, industrial wall shelving set against a clean backdrop of Carrara marble and white tiles lends a lightness to the space.

Wall shelving, The French House. Cabinet handles, Schoolhouse (US) – try Swarf Hardware. Blinds, Woodnotes. See Style Takeaways (page 80) for paint colour

KITCHEN -DINERThe kitchen and custom-sized dining table were designed to accommodate Suzy’s vintage Hans Wegner chairs, bought many years ago. The black limestone flooring reflects the dark woodwork of the chairs. ‘The darkness of the floor feels dramatic, but it’s also very grounding,’ says Suzy.

Wishbone dining chairs, Hans Wegner for Carl Hansen & Søn. Dining table, Another Country. A331 Beehive pendants, Alvar Aalto for Artek. Nero Parquet limestone flooring, Lapicida

home profileTH E OWN E R S

Interior designer Suzy Hoodless, her husband Erskine Berry, who works in property

management, and their three children, Misty, eight, Myla, seven, and Arki, five.

TH E P RO P E R T YA Victorian terrace in west London. The ground

floor comprises a double-aspect living room and a kitchen-diner. There is a study, utility

room, master bedroom and bathroom on the first floor, two bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor, and a bedroom on the third floor.

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STUDY‘The room started with the Eames chair and then the desk,’ says Suzy. ‘It’s a quiet place that my husband and I escape to.’

Walls painted in Hicks’ Blue, Little Greene. Blind, Kravet – try The Swedish Fabric Company. EA108 Aluminium chair in Grass Green/Ivory Hopsak, Charles and Ray Eames for Vitra. Similar vintage rosewood desk, Pamono. Snoopy lamp, Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni for Flos. Framed picture of giraffes at London Zoo, taken by Suzy on her iPhone

KITCHEN -DINER‘The wall cabinets that used to be here just felt a bit dull. With these, we can see what we’ve got, and as light and air can filter through, it makes such a narrow house feel wider,’ says Suzy.

Mercury MCY1000DFSD range cooker, John Lewis & Partners. Tolomeo Faretto wall light, Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina for Artemide. Cushion in Saddle Blanket linen-mix, Mulberry Home. Similar fiddle-leaf fig tree, Patch

PLAN

K ITCH E N - D I N E R

G ROU N D FLOOR FIRST FLOOR

LIVI N G ROO M

LIVI N G ROO M

STU DY

MA STE R B E D ROO M

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MASTER BEDROOMThe walls and wardrobe doors are painted the same shade of porcelain pink. ‘It’s a calm, clean and soothing colour,’ says Suzy. The sheepskin chair lends a luxurious, sculptural element to the room.

Walls and wardrobes painted in Temple, Paint & Paper Library. Bedhead upholstered in Chevron Strie velvet, Schumacher. Tolomeo wall light, Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina for Artemide. Bedside table, Carl Hansen & Søn. Bird lamp, vintage. Some People Have Children (Space Monkey) artwork, Tracey Emin. The painting is of Erskine’s family home. Similar sheepskin armchair, Ziggy, Heal’s. Curtains, Designs of the Time. Table lamp, In Da Cottage

home truthsI CAN ’ T L IVE WITH O UT…

Fever-Tree’s Aromatic Tonic Water; I’m not fussy about what gin goes with it.

TO U NWI N D…Swimming is so good for my head.

N OTH I N G B E ATS …Being by the sea. I dream of learning

to sail one day.

M Y F I R ST TH O U G HT I N TH E M O R N I N G I S …

What I’m going to cook for dinner that night. In another life, I’d have been a cook.

S ECR E T S H O P P I N G D E STI NATIO N?

Collen & Clare in Southwold.

FAVO U R ITE M OT TO?Be yourself.

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