Lynn Knight
The fashionable face of interior design was muted – in part thanks to Kelly Hoppen’s championing of neutrals – with colour banished in favour of a palette that extended from magnolia to grey via some subdued taupes. Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran – co-founders of Milan-based Dimore Studio – have found their niche creating vivid modern interiors imbued with the rich, maximalist spirit of Old Master paintings. A blue-y sage paint for the walls and hall ceiling; an emerald velvet sofa; a plush red carpet facing off with a mustard chair and a powder blue Lucio Fontana slashed canvas. Her work for Sketch in Mayfair and, more recently, for RED Valentino’s stores in London and Rome, has reframed the shade as a sophisticated neutral and captured the heart of diners, shoppers and Instagrammers alike.
‘I like putting colours in danger…it’s not always easy to achieve.’ A recent commission for Ladurée in Geneva served up a lilac and lime interior that echoed the sweetness of the brand’s famous macaroons. Today Studio Toogood creates all three, including interiors collaborations with Dover Street Market, Selfridges and Hermès, as well as private commissions which employ her unique take on colour.
For Amsterdam restaurant The Roast Room they worked with Studio Molen on a modern design feast blending copper tanks, bronze accents, marble floors and a bright blue ceiling. The young creative – known for his furniture and store installations – renovated a 1920s house in Barcelona, masterfully interplaying natural light, neutrals and fantastical colour to create shadows, shapes and reflections.
Period details are paired with bright all-over tones, while cut outs – interior windows, doorways, stairwells – are emphasised through sudden shifts in shade.
