A surreal, unexpected and wildly imaginative interior for an east London house by Rachel Chudley
In the early 2010s, a back room at Cob Gallery, NWI, played host to a series of buzzy and anarchic group shows called Guts for Garters, run by a pair of young curators called Rachel Chudley and Cassie Beadle. Part gallery and concept store and part immersive theatre, it saw performances and works by unknown artists, with both established collectors and dealers brought together around a theme - dreams or anatomy or surrealism. Works by the likes of Grayson Perry and Leonora Carrington were shown alongside newly commissioned pieces created by students from the Royal Academy of Arts. But the thing that set Guts for Garters apart was the world-building. 'I would cook up the room around all of this artwork,' recalls Rachel. Although she did not realise it at the time, these shows were allowing her to refine a delicious, non-conformist visual language, or - as she puts it herself - 'a platform to attract other like-minded creatives'.
The writer and performance artist Rachel Snider saw one of the shows and asked Rachel Chudley if she could help with the flat in Dalston she was living in at the time: 'The shows were put together in a stylish, fascinating way. She has a multidisciplinary approach and a playfulness that I love. There is always something surprising in her work, but she's very sensitive and collaborative, so you never feel like you're being oppressed by her way of doing things.'
'I had studied at The Courtauld Institute of Art and trained in interior design in America,' explains Rachel Chudley. 'But the Dalston flat was my first solo job - I always feel that I got into interiors through the back door. I was very lucky.' Friends of Rachel Snider saw the flat and commissioned the interior designer to decorate their own house. Work spiralled from there. Over the next decade or so, she built a reputation as one of the design world's most exciting new talents, creating brave, beautifully executed interiors at odds with any kind of formalised style. Her particular gift is storytelling, using colour, texture, pattern and furniture to create a portrait of her clients. It is a method in some ways more akin to set design than traditional decorating, though the homes she creates are no less practical or comfortable for it.
Ten years after the first Dalston project, Rachel Snider got back in touch. She was living in an Edwardian house in east London with her doctor husband James and their baby daughter. Architect Luke Chandresinghe of Undercover had recently finished reconfiguring the house for the couple, turning the loft into a main bedroom with an en-suite bathroom, designing a new kitchen and new bathrooms, and creating a perfect canvas for the interior designer to help the couple to put their mark on the place.
As the two Rachels are not the kind of people to work from a Pinterest board, so began a process of creative collaboration. Rachel Snider, who was writing her soon-to-be-published debut novel during the renovation, would pass the designer chapters for her to read, which would in turn spark an idea for the house.
Conversations about films, theatre, clothes and music would crystallise and take physical form. The study, with walls battened in yellow fabric gathered in bloomer-like ruffles, was designed to look as if, in the designer's words, 'her brain had exploded in there'. A tiny downstairs loo painted in Jasperware blue and dripping with intricate hand-applied plaster fruit and flowers, was inspired by the ice palace in David Lean's 1965 film Doctor Zhivago. A dressing table in the main bedroom, which is covered with tassels so fine they had to be brushed and trimmed like hair, was made as an homage to one belonging to the actress Mae West.
Rachel and James had accumulated quite a serious collection of artworks, buying instinctively and early from the studios of young artists who would later go on to have commercial success. 'It's our love language,' Rachel says with a laugh. ‘For birthdays and anniversaries, we often give each other work.’
Many of these pieces served as the jumping-off point for room schemes. The velvet curtains featured in the luminous drawing of Judy Garland by the artist Nina Mae Fowler were extended by red curtains along the walls of the dining room. When closed, these cut off the dining room from the kitchen and create a cosseting space for dinner parties. The cloud-like swirls of pink in the Faye Wei Wei painting at the back of the double sitting room inspired extraordinary curtain pelmets and are echoed in the designs of the rug and sofa. 'They are ultra feminine and voluptuous, and it makes you realise how little you see those kinds of shapes in furniture design,' observes interior designer Rachel. 'They work as a counterpoint to the Joe Sweeney columns, which are a symbol of masculine, Classical beauty, but still (of course) a little bit wonky.'
Very little of the furniture in Rachel's interior design projects is off the peg. Chairs, tables, lamps, headboards and textiles are often created with a roster of makers and craftspeople with whom she has established creative partnerships. Roy Coles of Black Barn Sofas, the man responsible for the curvaceous pink sofa, was Robert Kime's upholsterer at one point. The wooden star-spangled columns in the shape of palm fronds that frame the bed in the main bedroom were carved by Matthew Pack, a specialist in restoring items of historical significance.
Where pieces are not bespoke, they are usually sourced from the studios of emerging makers. 'It's hard to surprise our clients, because they tend to be people with a great knowledge of design,' says Rachel. 'A particularly pleasurable part of my job is finding makers they haven't heard of.' This project features a supporting cast of avant-garde pieces that ooze personality: a winged lampshade by millinery studio Hurtence; a yellow lamp by the Italian designer Jonathan Bocca that presides over the sitting room like a benevolent alien. It is the furniture that communicates: shape as language, colour as dialogue. 'This house brings us such pleasure every day,' says Rachel. 'It's the film set for our lives. An adventure that's a home'.
Rachel Chudley Interior Design: rachelchudley.com
Simon Upton1/7A Wendy Bevan photograph is displayed above two sculptural works on the mantelpiece (from left): Blood Head by Franko B and After St Lucy by Serena Korda (her piece The Flavian is on the plinth in the corner).
Simon Upton2/7A gilt mirror and a framed Valentine's Day card made by the owner stand out against the downstairs loo's walls in Rachel's 'Soft Blue'.
©simonupton3/7The snug's walls and ceiling in Pierre Frey's 'Festival' linen and a Nordic Knots 'Tiger' rug set off the custom-made sofa and a ‘Cascadence’ pendant light by Ango. The table is a vintage piece from Heal's featuring a London scene by John Piper.
Simon Upton4/7The background of Nina Mae Fowler's framed drawing of Judy Garland, I Could Go On, has been extended across the wall with red velvet curtains that can be drawn to delineate the space. Queenie Ingrams painted the ceiling with a floral design based on the owner's wedding veil and a favourite art deco rug. A table made by Fowler & Co is teamed with Hans J Wegner's ‘Wishbone’ chairs and a banquette in velvet and leather
Simon Upton5/7In the main bedroom and bathroom, palm frond columns by Matthew Pack and a bed canopy in Charles Burger's rouille/jaune 'Toile Rayures De Vizille' showcase an embroidered velvet headboard and a bedcover and cushions in bespoke Kayll fabrics. Walls in Sone's 'Qajar Stripe in the bedroom and Cole & Son's ‘Cambridge Stripe’ in the en-suite bathroom create a visual link between the rooms. The bath is The Water Monopoly's 'Jennings' reproduction.
Simon Upton6/7
Simon Upton7/7In the child's room, 'Dinosauria' wallpaper and a bright floral on the chair cushions, both by House of Hackney, create a playful feel. The bed with its original fabric, a painted chest and framed art, including Arthur Rackham illustrations, were all second-hand finds
