The WOW!house at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour

The WOW!house Exterior

Turnell & Gigon Group Drawing Room by Albion Nord

Schumacher Dining Room by Max Rollitt

WOW!house is a legitimate name for this decadent spaceship that lands every year in the Design Avenue at Design Centre Chelsea Harbour (DCCH). For those unfamiliar, there is something both beguiling and bizarre about DCCH, a white and glass building that was born in the late 80s, the architecture is brittle and bright with hard edges – a time when sky scrapers and shopping centres were du jour. 

Showrooms for some of the world’s most luxurious interior brands are housed here, those with integrity, history and craft… beautiful spaces with exquisite fabrics, wallpapers, lighting, furniture, each with their own character and so much eye candy for those into interiors. So that is the juxtaposition, a fairly soulless building, a relic of the 1980s, is literally brimming with beauty too. 

And that is where WOW!house takes it to the next level, it’s a distillation of the whole of DCCH. If money were no object, what you might / or might not do in a whole house. There is a slightly surreal element to the experience of exploring these curated rooms, entering through the Georgian facade (with wobbly glassed windows), you are transported to another world. 

It is genuinely immersive. Each room has their own evocative atmosphere, scented by a particular Jo Malone fragrance; the sensory stimulation is also auditory, birdsong, music – disco, jazz, different genres to complement the interior, plus the murmurs of other visitors. Visually there is A LOT to take in, as you meander through these cleverly connected rooms, each threshold intricately designed, an aperture into another world.

It is true there is something incredibly detached from reality about the whole thing – decadence and opulence that is on display for a month to inspire awe BUT it is also genuinely a fantastic and unique offering, a ‘wow’ that this can be pulled off.

I have so much respect for all the designers and crafts people that create these rooms, the teams behind the scenes too. The work involved, the collaborations, the vision to make this happen is vast and the results are spectacular. Even if a particular interior is not your personal taste, it is still wonderful and curious to step into the enveloping space that has been created by enormously talented people.

The room that I found I didn’t want to leave was the glorious Schumacher Dining Room by Max Rollitt. Not only for all the beautiful antiques, but it is such an inviting, cocooning space, the formality of grand house furniture, fabrics and design punctuated by carefully considered, fun interventions – an arrangement of scrunched up paper and white ceramic vases in the cabinet, little pictures and notes pinned to the mirror and perhaps most wonderful of all the under-table children’s den. The party in this room is inclusive, for all ages. 

Other delights to look out for:

• The blockprint linen fabric on the walls in Albion Nord’s Drawing Room for the Turnell & Gigon Group, with a tassel cornice
• The cheeky combination of fabrics in the Zardi & Zardi Withdrawing Room by Sean Symington Design – leopard, paisley, gingham, a Flemish tapestry and floral wallpaper. 
• The sheer graphic boldness of the Benjamin Moore Minhwa Salon by Young Huh will stop you in your tracks.
• A fairytale bedroom by Mary Graham and Nicole Salvesen – still can’t escape the childhood desire of a four poster and there is tea tray set-up and a bookcase full of good reads to get stuck into. 
• The colour palette in Studio Duggan’s glamorous salon, loved the carpet scroll that curled its way around the room’s perimeter. The adjacent bar had some lovely zellige floor tiles, combined with olive coloured velvet banquettes, with pretty oak art deco tables .

Every room tells a story, a narrative for the fictional clients that it is designed for, the creative process, imagination, reading the ‘backstory’ for each design is fascinating, also spinning your own ideas about who might live here is fun too. 

On until the 2nd July, for interior aficionados I can recommend a visit and the Lots Road pub is a great spot for a little lunch, drink and debrief afterwards!