MeMories of a bucolic childhood hoMe resonate

rustic
Romance
Memories of a bucolic childhood home
resonate in the bohemian london
retreat furniture designer Julian Chichester
has crafted for his family
Text by Helen Kirwan-Taylor · Photography by Henry Bourne
Produced By Anita Sarsidi
216
ED_11_06_Chichester.indd 2
2/17/10 5:07:07 PM
In the drawing room of designer
Julian Chichester’s West London house, a 19th-century
Chinese ancestral portrait and
a pair of antique English hall
chairs frame the fireplace; the
Paris handblown-glass lamp and
the Regency sofa, upholstered in
Zoffany’s Glyndebourne velvet,
are from Chichester’s homefurnishings line. See Resources.
ED_11_06_Chichester.indd 3
2/17/10 5:07:08 PM
Walking into designer Julian Chichester’s home on a leafy
street in West London is like stepping into a rustic English country
house. The Staffordshire bull terrier belonging to the nanny rushes
past, followed by several blond, tousle-haired children. There is the
faint scent of coffee and toast in the air: A large breakfast has clearly
just ended, and the kitchen sink is full to the brim with dishes, cups, and
flatware. Newspapers are piled high on a well-worn kitchen table.
Strolling into the morning’s chaos is a smiling Chichester, also blond
and tousle-haired, and dressed in rumpled khakis and a wrinkled shirt.
His eponymous furniture collection is glamorous and slightly 1940s
in feel, but this house is the opposite. It is inviting, eclectic, bohemian, and without pretension, a bit like its owner really. Walls are lined
with artwork; in fact, there’s barely a space in the house that isn’t covered in books or photographs or lamps that have yet to be plugged
in. “I can’t help myself,” Chichester says of the decor. “We like to have
familiar objects around us. I buy what I like, and I leave it here for a
while. I admit, I have an auction-house addiction.”
It is hard to imagine that Chichester began his career in the City, the
British equivalent of Wall Street, as a stockbroker. “It was in the days
of the big bang,” says the designer, but the work wasn’t gratifying,
and Chichester soon took off to travel, heading first to Thailand and
Burma. There, he stumbled upon beautifully made and reasonably
priced teak furniture—and, inadvertently, his next career, importing
the pieces to the U.K. He found a partner based in the Far East, Richard Forwood, and together they launched a business.
Sales grew slowly at first, until 1988, when, staring at a photograph
of a glazed-front bookcase, Chichester had an inspiration. Instead
of serving as a middleman, why shouldn’t he design and create his
own pieces? He headed to Asia again, this time to Vietnam, to locate
218 elledecor.com
ED_11_06_Chichester.indd 4
2/17/10 5:07:08 PM
The ticking-stripe sofa is vintage, the cerused-oak Twig
table and oak Danny chair are
by Julian Chichester, and the
artwork includes paintings by
Richard Eurich, Thomas Monnington, and Winifred Knights.
Facing page: Chichester and
his wife, Holly, with their children, from top, Linus, Ptolemy,
and Silvy. See Resources.
ED_11_06_Chichester.indd 5
2/17/10 5:07:09 PM
For kitchen dining, the family uses midcentury Danish chairs and a 1970s American
table; the Victorian glazed-pine cabinet displays a collection of 19th-century glassware,
the mirror-top side table is vintage, and the
leather club chair is a Paris flea-market find.
Facing page, clockwise from top left: In the entrance hall, a Julian Chichester commode and
vellum Frank chair; the gilded mirror is 18th
century. The pine sideboard in the dining area
is vintage, and the Flip standing lamp is by Julian Chichester. On the second-floor landing,
an antique English leather club chair and a Gill
side table by Julian Chichester. See Resources.
ED_11_06_Chichester.indd 6
2/17/10 5:07:09 PM
a craftsman able to execute his new ideas. Almost immediately, he
found the right match. “We just gave him this design, and he came
up with our first piece of garden furniture,” says Chichester.
As it turned out, both Chichester and Forwood had a natural eye for
the work, and over the next five years, they moved slowly from the
elaborate carved outdoor pieces that gave them a start in the business to elegant, more formal indoor items inspired by Gustavian furniture and style masters such as David Hicks and Jean Royère. Design
magazines began covering the line, and soon the duo had an enthusiastic following among high-end decorators.
The next step was opening a showroom in the Old Imperial Laundry,
a design outpost in the Battersea district of London, and by 1995
they had created a complete collection of furniture and lighting—
though neither Chichester nor Forwood had studied design or carpentry. “I just see things I like, come up with a few ideas of my own,
and get them made,” says Chichester, who adds that he finds talking
about his work awkward at times. “It feels unnatural,” he admits.
One of six siblings, Chichester grew up in a rambling country house in
Hampshire filled with weathered furniture and quirky bric-a-brac—the
quintessentially British aesthetic he’s inadvertently re-created here in
West London. When the designer and his wife bought the building, it
had been a run-down residence of tiny rooms. It was totally gutted,
even the roof had to be removed, and over the course of six months,
five bedrooms were carved out, as well as a gracious drawing room, a
dining room, and four bathrooms. In the back, an extension with a wall
of sliding glass doors was added to bring in light and offer an open
view of their verdant English garden. (This plot is the province of Chichester’s wife, Holly, a producer who works in film and commercials.)
elledecor.com 221
ED_11_06_Chichester.indd 7
2/17/10 5:07:10 PM
ED_11_06_Chichester.indd 8
2/17/10 5:07:10 PM
Chichester designed the
fruitwood-and-leather
stools and concrete-top
island in the kitchen.
The sliding glass doors
open onto the garden.
223
ED_11_06_Chichester.indd 9
2/17/10 5:07:11 PM
Today, one enters directly into the drawing room, which is dominated by two overscale sofas, one from Chichester’s own collection—a
piece he calls the Regency—and another which has been in the family
for years. Both are laden with ethnic textiles and cushions covered in
bits of vintage floral fabric collected by Holly. Colors, which range from
soothing grays and beiges to shocks of red and fuchsia, blend together perfectly, like a well-conceived quilt. Arranged willy-nilly are books,
family photographs, and artwork—paintings and sketches of the seaside, as well as portraits, in a mismatched assortment of frames.
Likewise, the furnishings are positioned in a seemingly random fashion, with items like a Victorian pine cabinet, an industrial French lamp,
a 1970s American table, and a battered leather club chair cohabiting
easily, cheek by jowl. “I think they call this transitional in the States,”
says Chichester, “but I prefer eclectic. I love mixing styles. I also think
a house has to evolve and change.” There are pieces from his own
collection in nearly every room—including a vellum-sheathed Frank
chair and Eighteenth Century commode in the front hall, and his Verre
Eglomise silver-leaf mirror in the master bath—but mostly Chichester
favors antiques or vintage flea-market finds.
While it seems counterintuitive, the sprawling, ad hoc look of the
house embodies the same philosophy that informs Chichester’s own
rather polished furniture collection. “My line is quite a mishmash of
styles,” he says. “I am inspired by all kinds of periods, and it’s the same
with my home. It was never planned, it just happened.” n
224 elledecor.com
ED_11_06_Chichester.indd 10
2/17/10 5:07:11 PM
In the master bedroom, an antique Italian sofa has cushions covered in
vintage French fabrics, a collection of
French quilts is stacked atop an English
country-style pine armoire, and the Chinese ancestral portrait is 19th century.
Facing page: A series of Vietnamese
watercolors is displayed above a Julian
Chichester embossed-leather-andfruitwood headboard. See Resources.
ED_11_06_Chichester.indd 11
2/17/10 5:07:12 PM