WOW!talks highlights: Creating Magical Spaces with Katharine Pooley and Suzy Hoodless

What’s the alchemy that creates characterful interiors? As part of WOW!house’s exclusive series of talks, interior designers Katharine Pooley and Suzy Hoodless sat down with Future Publishing and Homes & Gardens’ Sarah Spiteri to talk about how magical spaces are put together.?

For Hoodless, “I know we’ve completed a room successfully when I walk in and want to live there.” Plenty of people would feel that way about the Dining Space that she has created for WOW!house, which she has dubbed “of the earth” for its approach to natural materials. It’s inspired by her home in Cornwall, and is enveloped in a wallcovering of Monterey pines, by scenic painter Adam Ellis, with a bespoke rug from The Rug Company featuring narcissi, wisteria and figs, the plants and flowers from her Cornish garden.??

Pooley feels like she leaves a part of herself in every room, and that is what helps to create soulful, magical spaces. The McKinnon and Harris Courtyard she has designed for WOW!house was the chance to deviate from her usual work, perhaps because of the artifice of its showhouse setting: inspired by McKinnon and Harris’ ‘Dr Johnson’ umpire chair, she has taken the tennis theme and run with it, with a bespoke tennis court rug by Colbourns, monogrammed tennis balls by Anya Hindmarch and vintage tennis rackets. “I wanted to do something more fun – a really creative, theatrical space,” she said.?

For Hoodless, too, her room was about trying something different. “A lot of people say that we’re all about the bright colours. WOW!house was maybe the opportunity to show that we’re not necessarily all about that.”??

Borth designers spoke about how a good relationship with their clients goes a long way to creating a magical finished product. “The chemistry between you and your designer, it’s vital. It’s everything,” said Hoodless, whereas Pooley noted how clients come to her for different reasons: “Some clients are impatient, they just want to get things done. For others, it’s a labour of love. Sometimes people come to you because they don’t know what they want, and need your help.” And Hoodless had a good tip for those clients who don’t know what they want: “I quite often look in their wardrobes. They often have a better idea about what to wear than what they want from their interiors.”?

Clients are also becoming more adventurous, they noted: “People are prepared to be more individual and have gained confidence,” said Hoodless. “Sometimes, clients come to us with too much. Then it becomes more about editing, stripping it back.” And while social media has a lot to do with this new age of adventurousness, Pooley also cautioned against it as a creative force for designers. “We need to have it but it can be a hindrance – it stops you trying to be creative, and do what you think is right. Try to be a leader, not a follower,” she said.?

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