House style: Brian Woulfe

Irish-born Brian Woulfe founded his interiors studio, Designed by Woulfe, in 2009, after a career as a professional concert pianist. His passion lies in creating luxurious, liveable spaces with a sense of playfulness, crafting a rich visual identity for private clients, property developers and commercial enterprises across Europe, the US and Asia-Pacific regions. He is soon to launch a paint collection with Argile and a lighting line with Bert Frank.

Where do you live?
My country house is an old vicarage in Oxfordshire. In London I have an apartment in Little Venice, in a Victorian red-brick on one of the big communal gardens. It was important for me to have southwest-facing light. I did a back-to-brick refurbishment to create a wonderful one-bedroom space. I still have the 3.9-metre ceilings: stunning. The work was supposed to take three months – it took nine.

What’s the style of your home?
It’s sort of a reflection of my design process: layered, timeless. It’s comfortable and practical, very much about my dogs – the Woulfe Pack – and entertaining. I wanted people to feel relaxed when they entered the space.

Do you have a signature look?
I try to avoid anything that’s rigid in style: it’s more tailored to individuality. For my home, the idea was to link the interior with nature, capture the aspect over the gardens. It was about the light changing throughout the day. The colour palette is autumnal: lots of greens, oranges, reds and taupe, in natural materials. I try to create something that’s personal to our clients in the same way.

What’s your design philosophy?
With the clients, it’s really to get to know them, spend time with them, see how they live. Who are they? How are they going to use the property – not just today, but in the future? Do they collect anything? Have they inherited anything from parents, grandparents, that they’d like to incorporate? Do they have any art? In that way, you start to pull together a vision board, bringing pieces together, colours and textures and materials that complement the life they lead.

Are there any collectibles on your personal hit list?
Is there a particular piece? No. Does it stop me from buying pieces? Absolutely not. I’ll walk into Dorian Caffot de Fawes on Church Street in London and come out with a couple of bags of accessories and lamps and candlesticks. I’ll try to squeeze them onto my shelves, then say, “Well, these items have to go.” And they end up in the country house or in the office.

Any furniture or textile designers you love?
For textiles, I use a lot of Pierre Frey, Nobilis and Holland & Sherry – they’re our biggest suppliers. For furniture, I love Christian Liaigre and Hamrei, a young designer based in Lisbon who creates stunning products. British designers such as Tom Faulkner and Davidson London would also be go-tos for us. You can’t go wrong with a trip to the Old Cinema on Chiswick High Road, particularly for bar accessories, antiques, glassware and cocktail shakers, and Alfies Antique Market on Church Street is brilliant for silverware.

Do you have any original art in your home?
We commission and we buy – we have a lot of photography. I’ve got to love it, though: I have to be comfortable that I’ll enjoy looking at it for a long time. I remember walking into an exhibition at 14 Cavendish Square in London about five years ago and there was this piece on the wall by Fernando Casasempere, a Chilean artist. It was clay dried out on a bed of wool, then he had used Indian ink on it, and it was framed in steel – mind-blowing. I saw it and I was, like, “I can’t leave without it.” So that has pride of place in the bedroom in London. Almost every client has tried to buy it, but it’s never going to be sold.

Which one object would you save from a fire?
The Casasempere, obviously.

Is there a property in the world you’d love the chance to design?
I really want to do a New York brownstone – a big one. And I’d love to do a boutique hotel. And maybe a ski chalet.

Which of your projects have you particularly loved working on?
We’ve got an incredible project in Copenhagen at the moment. It’s in the early stages, but when I saw it for the first time, my jaw hit the floor. The price tag was even more mind-blowing, because it was so reasonable. It’s a special home, so I’m working with the client to make sure the soul remains. You walk through the door and it gives you this incredible hug. My gut instinct tells me it’s going to be a wow. I also loved working on an enormous villa on the west coast of Phuket. It was a $30 million project, and every bedroom was like an apartment, with a perfect sunset view – the stuff that dreams are made of.

Can you talk a little about your influences?
Travel has played a key role for me. I lived and worked in Asia for six or seven years – when the 2008 recession hit, I packed up and went over there. The abundance of craft and ateliers and specialist trades, particularly in Thailand, is so inspiring. There was a wonderful developer who took me under his wing and showed me how properties are designed, how they’re built, how they’re sold and managed. Getting that experience at that stage of my career took me to a different level.

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