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Aug-Sep15
SOUTHSIDE SHOWCASE
very distressed leather, but the dog
has properly ‘antiqued’ it for us!” she
says. Hilary has given the sofa a quirky
contemporary touch by adding Donna
Wilson’s foxy cushions in blue and
orange, which match the homespun,
embroidered orange cushions on the
upcycled armchairs.
One of the most striking pieces in
the room is an unusual wooden cabinet
that sits behind the leather sofa; it’s a
70s-style sideboard that wouldn’t look
out of place in Don Draper’s office, but
the top has been painstakingly etched
with paintings of tiny buildings, and the
striped cabinet doors fit perfectly into
Hilary’s colour scheme.
Unsurprisingly, it’s not a coincidence:
“This cabinet is by a designer called
Zoe Murphy who’s based in Margate,
Kent; she sells not only through
Liberty’s of London, but I’ve also seen
her pieces in Lane Crawford” says
Hilary. “We talked about what I wanted,
I showed her my colour scheme,
and she produced the cabinet – it’s
beautifully painted and inlaid with
colourful materials”. Naturally, the
top of the cabinet, like every surface
in the apartment, is adorned with a
selection of carefully placed objects –
Hilary collects glass, and has a large
collection of vintage coloured vases
from now defunct Whitefriars Glass,
amongst beautiful candlesticks, bowls
and her signature lanterns.
C o n t r a s t i n g a n d b r i l l i a n t l y
complementing the mid-centur y
modern vibe is an assortment of fiercely
contemporary artworks, ranging from
a huge and striking piece entitled
Floriculture
by Lisa Creagh, to
Aquarium
by Chinese artist Zhou Hongbin – a
pair of large photographs of frantically
swimming rabbits. Hilary found both
artworks at Hong Kong’s Affordable Art
Fair, and commissioned a third piece
fromartist Robert Platt at London’s Frieze
Art Fair. “I was reading Simon Schama’s
Landscape and Memory
, and I told him
his art really remindedme of discussions