A Harmonious Heritage
Sims Hilditch’s apartment at The OWO is for “leaving the hustle and bustle behind”
Sims-Hilditch has brought a slice of the countryside to SW1 for a recent project, one of the private residences at landmark development The OWO. Formerly the Old War Office, the Whitehall building, steeped in history, now includes London’s first Raffles hotel plus 85 residences that enjoy incredible amenities in the heart of the capital.
Although the practice works across both city and country, the effortless way that Sims Hilditch taps into the modern needs of the rural-dweller has become its calling card. It’s not that the 245 sqm lateral apartment at The OWO feels like you’ve just stepped in from a bucolic setting: it’s more that “you’ve left the hustle and bustle behind,” says design director Gemma Holsgrove. “It has that sense of freshness, and peace. You can come in, and breathe.”
The colours used are delicate and on the feminine side, with blush pink, berry red and sage green paired with soothing neutrals. “Rather than go too far down the country route and create too much of a juxtaposition with what is a really impressive building, it was more about using a soft palette and natural materials,” says Holsgrove.
Colefax and Fowler’s understated ‘Ditton Stripe’ wallcovering sets the scene in the hallway, perfectly balancing the formality of the architecture and the more informal feel that Sims Hilditch was after. from here the space steps into a large living-dining room, framed by tall windows. ‘Lin’, a linen-effect wallcovering from Arte, has been used on the walls, mimicking the soft, cocooning feel of fabric-lined walls. Larsen’s ‘Kyoto’ embroidered fabric in ivory, used on the back of a pair of swivel chairs and paired with pink satin for the seat and inner back, brings a sense of the handcrafted.
Holsgrove explains how the studio put a lot of care into the lighting in this room: “We’re on the courtyard side of the building, which doesn’t get a lot of natural light unless it’s high summer, so we were conscious of making sure there was loads of light – table lamps, double sconces on the walls, a ceiling light with lots of bulbs. And when you manage all that with a lighting system, you can tailor that down to a lovely soft evening ambience.” The chandeliers anchoring it all are Vaughan’s classic ‘Stratton’ design, with linen shades. A study area off the living room, closed off by sliding doors, has no windows – but Sims-Hilditch has played up to that with deeper, moodier colours and marble-topped mahogany joinery.
The practice worked with a few galleries to select the artwork, often choosing up-and-coming names (although there are some Picassos in one of the guest rooms): “We wanted to maximise the art, to make it feel really lived-in,” says Holsgrove. Around the breakfast area in the kitchen, a pair of embroidered artworks from Winchester gallery Mylo hang on Pierre Frey’s ‘Arlesienne’ wallcovering, their nut-brown colours perfectly echoing each other.
Indienne and chinoiserie fabrics have been used to add pattern and colour in the bedrooms: Lewis & Wood’s ‘Indienne’ in a muted sage green was chosen for the master bedroom and dressing area, which, with its painted bone-coloured bedside drawers and pleated lampshades, might be the most ‘country’ that this apartment gets. There’s a shot of all-out exuberance in the power room: rather than shy away from the boldness of the striped marble vanity and bronze detailing (part of the existing base build, by 1508 London), the studio has instead amped up the drama by adding Schumacher’s ‘Fox Hollow’ wallcovering on the main part of the walls and Edward Bulmer’s ‘brick-coloured ‘Pompadour’ paint on the ceiling and the top of the walls.
This project had an astonishingly quick turnaround time, just eight weeks, so suppliers were carefully chosen who could accommodate this. They include Robert Langford, a Design Centre showroom known for servicing particularly tight timetables: several pieces have used been across the apartment, including the living area’s swivel chairs and the bedsides in one of the guest rooms. “It’s so useful having everything right there, and everybody being there,” says Holsgrove about the Design Centre. “Being able to see everything in person you can really look at a product and check that it’s going to be good enough quality. And you can have some honest conversations about your timeframes – a few of the showrooms were really great on this. It also meant that we were working with a wider network who could help: showrooms would say. ‘well, we can’t do it, but we know somebody that can.’ It felt like they all had our interests at heart.”
If you’d like to see Sims Hilditch’s work in person, the practice’s founder Emma Sims-Hilditch will be designing the Courtyard Room – styled as a country boot-room – at WOW!house 2025, the Design Centre’s unmissable summer showhouse. Book tickets here.
Arte, Second Floor, Design Centre East
Colefax and Fowler, Ground Floor, South Dome
Lewis & Wood, First Floor, Design Centre East
Pierre Frey, First Floor, Design Centre East
Robert Langford, Second Floor, South Dome
Schumacher, Ground Floor, South Dome
Vaughan, Ground Floor, Design Centre East
