HAPPY ALL OVER

With the world’s most beautiful hand-painted wallpapers as a backdrop, it’s no wonder this house is a generous, vibrant, maximalist masterpiece

- Gillian Welsh

Can you imagine living in a house where every inch is embellished with sensual ornamentation – not in a garish or overpowering way, but so effortlessly and gracefully it feels completely natural? In this home, near London’s Battersea Park, there’s not the merest hint of taupe or beige or plain understatement. Instead, it is a wholehearted celebration of deep jewel tones, lavish materials, gilded textural walls, rich pattern and texture. “There’s so much character in a room with colour and detail,” says owner Hannah Cecil Gurney. “It makes living in it all the more pleasurable.”

This is a woman unafraid of decoration – no surprise, really, when you learn that her father, Claud, founded de Gournay, one of the world’s leading wallpaper and fabric houses (the only company, in fact, that still hand-paints and hand-embroiders all its designs). The beauty of craft and the power of colour were impressed upon her from a young age, and her home, where she lives with her husband, three children and two large dogs, is a tribute to the wonderful artistry of her childhood.