A colourful Notting Hill townhouse filled with English maximalism and Eastern influences
“Before I lived in Notting Hill, I had always loved these streets; this little pocket of London,” says interior designer Stella Weatherall. “I was hunting for a house around here - hoping to find something that hadn’t recently been done up - when I heard this one had come up for sale. I got excited before I even saw it.”
Serendipitously, the house hadn’t been touched for 30 years and was in need of some structural help. “When I bought this house I had just finished at Inchbald School of Design. I felt quite confident at first and then quickly realised how much you have to learn on the job,” laughs Stella. “I found the build quite a stressful process as a first timer. There’s just so much choice and so many decisions which felt overwhelming at times. Everyone around me knew that my trajectory was into interior design and it does add a lot of pressure. You want it to be great.”
The main bit of work that the house called for was the new stairs. “They were very rickety and in need of replacement,” says Stella. “It felt like I was doing good for the building rather than ripping something out.” Downstairs, the higgledy-piggledy, old fashioned layout was poorly suited to Stella’s lifestyle, so she reconfigured it to be more open plan, with a spacious kitchen dining area and a second bedroom. “Another structural element we had to focus on was that the first floor was on a few different levels," says Stella. "This had created a bulkhead in the basement, which made the whole downstairs feel like you were walking through a tunnel. We raised the floor to make it more inviting.”
By the time the build had finished, Stella had decision fatigue. “I just needed to hold off for a while and figure out what I was actually drawn to,” she explains. As a result, she lived in the house without much furniture for a long time. “The slow process was definitely the right call. I sometimes wonder how it would have looked if I had rushed it. I would have overbought and bought the wrong things.”
Ultimately, she went back to her roots, looking to her childhood in Manila and Hong Kong for design inspiration. “My colour palette has undoubtedly been shaped by that experience,” says Stella. “There are certain houses I still remember now. My mum’s friend had a house with a lot of bright pink and yellow in it that I always refer back to in my work. It was all bamboo blinds and nothing but seagrass and sisal underfoot. The textures and materials of the place are all embedded in my head.”
“We actually lived in a house growing up–which was unusual at the time but even more so now as more high rises are built,” says Stella. “It was a white box from the outside with not much architectural interest but my parents were masters of making a rental feel welcoming and always decorated in quite a maximalist English style.”
“As I did stuff in chunks, my confidence grew. I realised making mistakes can be a good thing.” In the spare bedroom, which is situated in the basement and gets little natural light, Stella “hastily painted the room blue” which was a “complete disaster.” She needed to adapt her colour palette to England’s more miserable weather and pivot her design direction. “With interiors in the East, the climate and light makes things a little easier. Colours just look better there!” It was only whilst working on a project at Flora Soames that she came across the perfect thing: a Phillip Jeffries' ‘Manila Hemp Pomegranate’ grasscloth. “I fell in love with it. As soon as I committed to the grasscloth, everything else came together.”
Stella, who was working as an assistant to Flora Soames for much of the renovation, credits the studio as “a great place to learn.” “For the majority of the time, it was just the two of us. I learnt a lot about the business side of the industry as well as the creative. When Covid hit, I worked on the design team at Firmdale Hotels for a short time before branching out on my own. This was never my plan, but I’m so grateful for how things have panned out.”
Stella has now been a resident of one of Notting Hill’s most colourful streets for six years. Does she ever get irritated with the influencers who bring pop up tents and a change of clothes to take pictures outside? “No,” she says, “though I do somewhat regret painting my door pink. I’ve had people come up to take pictures in front of it quite often!” Inside the house, though, Stella has achieved an accomplished blend of English sensibility and a fearless attitude to colour and pattern inspired by Hong Kong.
Boz Gagovski1/15Stella's living room is a study in riotous print and colour. The antique library chair is from Alexander von Westenholz, covered in 'Teyssier Hawkeswood Original'. Cushions from Nushka sit on it. The tripod table to the left of the chair was picked up at Kempton. Behind the chair is a rosewood sideboard by Svend Langkilde from 1950s, found on Vinterior.
Boz Gagovski2/15On Stella's coffee table, a lacquer tray from The Lacquer Company displays pretty objects. The chik bamboo blind is from Joss Graham and the collage artwork seen top left is by Huw Griffiths.
Boz Gagovski3/15The ‘Lock Down’ key artwork by Stella's aunt Silvy Weatherall. Above it are faces carved in wood and bought on a roadside in Myanmar, framed by Marcus Wells of Haviland Designs. The small black and white study in ink is by interior designer Caroline Paterson. The Eduardo Paolozzi prints were sourced by her daughter, art dealer, Olivia Paterson
Underneath Stella's extensive art collection sits a small chair inherited from her grandparents in its original upholstery.
Boz Gagovski4/15Stella has chosen an Indian inlaid sideboard as her entrance table, bought from The Old Cinema in Chiswick. The brass lamp is from Timothy Langston Antiques and has been paired with a Penny Morrison lampshade. The snake sconce was sourced by Charlie Porter at Tat London.
The large artwork on the left is by Barcelona based artist Bruno Ollé and was purchased at the Battersea Decorative Fair.
Boz Gagovski5/15The bespoke sofa is upholstered in Rose Uniacke’s ‘Spruce Cotton Velvet’ and is flanked by wall lights from Vaughan with raffia lampshades from Susan Deliss. The wall behind the sofa is painted in Farrow & Ball's ‘Hague Blue’ and inside the bookshelves is Paint & Paper Library's ‘Rhubarb’.
The opaline lamp is antique with a fabric lampshade from Howe and the Italian star pendant is vintage from Norfolk Decorative Antiques.
Boz Gagovski6/15In the nook under the stairs, Stella has made the most of the space with a bespoke bar made by Alfred Newall. The joinery is painted in Farrow and Ball's ‘Radicchio’ in gloss.
Boz Gagovski7/15In the kitchen corner, a mid-century lounge chair with blue velvet cushions sourced through Decorative Collective and shipped from Modern Times Berlin sits. The yellow plates are from a market in Provence and the blue bowl was picked up in Kyoto on Stella's honeymoon in Japan. The woven wall hangings were sourced from Quindry on Lillie Road.
Boz Gagovski8/15The kitchen units are from Devol in a bespoke colourway and the worktop is made of zinc.
Boz Gagovski9/15The plate rack in the kitchen is from Stovold & Pogue and the artworks are by Silvy Weatherall and Jack Penny.
Boz Gagovski10/15The primary bedroom is painted in Farrow and Ball's ‘Setting Plaster’, complemented by the large headboard in ‘Tashkent on Silk’ by Robert Kime. The bedspread is from Birdie Fortescue. The bedside tables are from Lorford’s Antiques and the lamps are from Soane with Nushka lampshades.
Above the bed, Stella has created a charming gallery wall. The central collage piece is by Huw Griffiths, the botanicals are from Matilda Goad. Two drawings of costumes for Anthony and Cleopatra by Oliver Messel hang either side of the bed.
Boz Gagovski11/15The bed valance has been made from The Cloth Shop's ‘Heavyweight Linen in Raspberry’. The curtains are also from The Cloth Shop, made in an organic weave. The bamboo blinds are from Color & Co, the rug is Francesca Gentili.
Boz Gagovski12/15Stella has hung plates by Makoto Kagoshima, a ‘Je t’aime’ plate by Florence St. George and artwork by Rose Electra Harris in the corner of the bedroom.
Boz Gagovski13/15In the spare bedroom, the walls are covered in Phillip Jeffries' ‘Manila Hemp Pomegranate’ grasscloth. The headboard fabric is Christopher Farr Cloth's ‘Lost and Found in Indigo’. The large lumbar cushion is ‘Tansy’ fabric by Robert Kime. The bedspread is Anthropologie and the bedside lamps are Pooky.
Boz Gagovski14/15In the upstairs bathroom, the floor tiles are from Popham. The shell artwork is from Timothy Langston antiques, the trio of fish were sourced from Lonika Chande, the Venus plate is by Pollyanna Johnson.
Boz Gagovski15/15The walls of Stella's study are painted in Edward Bulmer's 'Dutch Orange' and the blind is in ‘Susani Red’ by Robert Kime.
