Interior designer Phoebe Hollond launched her eponymous studio two years ago after cutting her teeth under Beata Heuman, the Hammersmith-based Swedish designer whose projects include Adwoa Aboah’s home, which recently featured in one of Architectural Digest’s legendary property tours.
Adding further weight to the lineage, Heuman herself trained under Nicky Haslam, who is Hollond’s “idol”.
Luckily for an interior designer — if somewhat unusually for a millennial Londoner in 2025, Hollond says she has already found her “forever home”.
The 36-year-old snapped up the Victorian house in Shepherd’s Bush eight years ago and has been slowly moulding it from stark white box into a space where the eye dances across intriguing antiques, patterned walls and quirky art.
She has plans to convert the loft and eventually hopes to buy a derelict patch of land beyond her patio to extend the garden.
It was her family home in nearby Notting Hill that attuned her to bold colour. In the 1980s, her mother hired Jenny Armit, an eminent interior decorator of the day, who painted the kitchen walls bright orange and furnished it with yellow chequerboard chairs. “It was really, really mad,” she remembers.
Nonetheless, Hollond learned the value of listening to interior design wisdom early on. “The thing that I learned from Beata that will always stay with me is creating a different feeling in each room,” says Hollond.
And so, embracing the “wonky” nature of the end-terrace property, she avoided an overarching theme and gravitated to an instinctive mix of art, textures and colours.
Hollond has taken her time, attacking each space as and when her budget has allowed.
The recently extended kitchen in the basement is the newest and freshest room of all, flooded with natural light thanks to two expansive rooflights.
The designer avoided hiring a fancy cabinet maker and instead asked her builder to create the cabinets and the pantry doors out of painted MDF.
“It was a good place to save; the worktop is what I spent the money on,” she says, referring to the rich slab of green esmeralda quartzite.
The basement is in marked contrast to her and husband Tom’s bedroom on the top level, which is covered in a textural brown grasscloth and loaded with books.
“It feels like an old artist’s home in there, and has a bit of a dingy vibe, whereas that wouldn’t work down here,” she says. The bathroom, meanwhile, is a blend of old and new, with an elegant console sink and contemporary wall lights.
“I wanted the space to feel like an old Italian palazzo meets a modern New York hotel,” she explains — and it’s a mission accomplished.
The main living area on the upper-ground floor channels a grand-but-cosy feel. Hollond and her small team work from the rear living space where a giant lantern is suspended above a circular table.
“This room was very much inspired by a Jacques Grange Parisian vibe with thick velvet curtains,” she says. A fun feature is the pair of shelves, which she had recessed into the void of the alcoves, and which are topped with giant plaster shells.
The adjoining front snug is wrapped in striped fabric from Claremont and topped with scalloped edges with lemon piping.
The effect is cocooning and circus-inspired without feeling silly, and the TV is ingeniously hidden behind a map-covered cabinet above the fireplace. While it all may sound terribly mish-mashed and eccentric, it’s not.
Another skill Hollond picked up while at Heuman HQ is having pieces of furniture made to specification. Petite glossy units and a striking lacquered dining table are just some of the pieces she has brought to life.
“I rarely buy off the shelf and it was amazing to learn how to design bespoke pieces. That’s what makes a space completely unusual, rather than being like: ‘Oh, you got that from so and so,’” she says.
She has also put her skills to a small collection of wallpaper and fabrics sold through her website; the charming Strawberry Jazz pattern based on an archive V&A print and a vintage teacloth now adorns the landing and staircase since these shots were taken.
Lots Road Auctions in Fulham is one of her favourite places to shop for antiques and art, while Frome Reclamation in Somerset is her insider tip for larger pieces; she found the railings for her patio staircases there and doesn’t get hung up on everything looking too perfect.
“I’m a strong believer that ultimately things are going to feel lived in and maybe get ruined. I quite like it when things age and get messed up,” she says.
What she relishes about her day job is making people happy. “I love the evolution when you first go to a house and you see total chaos, crap everywhere, and there’s no storage… and then you take clients on a journey,” she explains.
Current projects include a redesign of an empty nest in Primrose Hill, a family house in Ravenscourt Park and a hugely experimental home in Notting Hill for a twenty-something actress and producer: “It’s one of the wildest projects I’ve ever worked on — the kitchen is floor-to-ceiling murals and the entrance is completely lacquered in aubergine gloss… it’s really OTT.”
Naturally, clients don’t come to her specifying a stealth luxury look. “My studio mixes a lot of different eras that you wouldn’t normally… it’s a particular style and not to everyone’s taste. But in a way that’s great, because I get people coming to me who want an energetic home,” she says.
Hollond has got the welcoming look mastered thanks in part to an affection for layered lighting. Lanterns and candlelight sconces line the walls — even in the staircase — which add a soft glow to otherwise dark, transitional spaces.
“I love the old-world feeling that they give, especially at nighttime when they’re dimmed down really low.”
She loves to host and, as one of four siblings, the house is often filled with extended family or her two-year-old daughter’s friends.
“I actually love a party and having people here. My childhood home was chaotic, and weirdly I really enjoyed that.”
