Award-winning interior designer Katharine Pooley creates some of the world’s most luxurious interiors, from Berkshire castles and Mayfair townhouses to hotels in China. She also has a passion for craft and good design that keeps her clients – Richard Branson among them – coming back time and again…
‘Travel is in my soul,’ says the interior designer Katharine Pooley of her eclectic style. In the last few months her work has taken her to Ethiopia, Sudan and Saudi Arabia not to mention a recent quick hop to Italy to source Carrera marble for one of her clients.
A petite blonde, she is dynamically organised and a force of energy who bubbles with a passion to produce faultlessly chic houses for her clients. Houses where people want to live – as in move in right now, today. ‘I make a point of working with the client throughout the journey,’ says Katharine. ‘I travel with them and absorb their taste, there has to be a degree of trust between the client and the designer and it is very important from the start that I work with the client.’
I travel with my clients and absorb their taste. There has to be a degree of trust between us
As 65% of her clients are overseas, that means an awful lot of travelling but she isn’t fazed. ‘Travel has always inspired me. I have a good visual memory so it might be a pattern or a door handle or a building that I see while away, but I absorb the details and at some point they will reappear in my work.’
Recent clients have included family projects for Richard Branson, a hotel in China, a Mayfair townhouse, and a castle in Berkshire that she is just finishing as we speak. ‘That project has been very exciting because I have literally sourced everything down to a tray from an auction.’ It means the client can simply arrive with their suitcases and enjoy the house.
After 16 years working in finance in the Far East, Katharine moved back to London and opened her eponymous interiors boutique in Walton Street in 2004. The store is still there and the changing collections are a luxurious mix of furniture and objets by her own design and sourced from around the world. They include pieces for every room from photo frames in shagreen, to the softest Alapaca throws. Also luxurious tableware including an elegant gravy boat crafted from a Nautilus shell in Indian silver. Throughout it is the quality of the materials and finishes that standout.
The world is a small place but I try to be bespoke. I love to surprise friends with new finds
Katharine’s design philosophy is simple: ‘The world is a small place but I try to be bespoke. I love to surprise friends with new finds.’ But she won’t be tied down to a signature look. ‘Everyone is different,’ she says and she appreciates that different cultures want different things from their homes but the key is that the look is ‘timeless and of quality’.
While she began her design studio in 2005 next door to the boutique, Katharine took the step to open 30,000 st ft store in Doha in 2013. ‘ We have five members of staff there,’ she says and a strong client base has grown in the Middle East with 90% repeat business. But despite her international connections, much of the craftsmanship is done here in England.
‘We have a tremendous skill base of specialists in this country,’ says Katharine, and cites the bespoke cabinet-makers Bill Cleyndert & Co and furniture-maker Richard Baker as two of her favourites. She also sources her linen from the mills in Ireland and horsehair from John Boyd Textiles. In fact her passion for craft and good design has continued in her association with the Masterpiece Fair this July where she will be designing the lecture theatre.
This year alone she will complete 12 projects, and as Katharine’s average project is 45,000 square feet, that is no mean feat but she remains remarkably grounded. ‘I have great support, two great secretaries and 40 staff, she says. ‘My husband brings me tea in the morning,’ she laughs. They have two young children, no nanny and she points out that holidays are sacrosanct. ‘If I need to, I might take the children to see a project because I think it is good for them to see what you do and they are my biggest critics.’ And when they really need a break they head for their castle in Scotland. ‘It is just so remote,’ she says, ‘just sheep for company’ and a necessary time out.
As well as continuing to grow her interior design business her plan is to develop her boutique and there is rumour that a eponymous furniture is not far away as well as the possibility of launching into the US market. ‘I do what I love,’ points out Katharine. ‘Everyday I wake up and I am excited to get to my work.’
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