Since its founding in 2000, Hamilford Design has become a leading luxury interior design studio, renowned for its exceptional and bespoke projects. Based in Notting Hill, the firm has cultivated an impressive portfolio that spans prestigious residences, grand estates and upscale hotels across Europe and the United States. Manuela’s diverse background, which includes time spent in Italy and New York, has inspired her with a flair for creating elegant, timeless spaces that truly resonate with her clients’ unique stories.

We caught up with Manuela to discuss Hamilford Design, her and her team’s approach to their bespoke work and their passion behind client lead luxury design.

 For those who might not have come across your studio before, how would you sum up your design philosophy?

Our design philosophy would be that we don’t limit ourselves to a strict ‘house style’ like some designers do. The design process is completely unique for each project and client, meaning our projects are bespoke and revolve around the client and the space, rather than a copy and paste.

We are very client driven. So depending on what the client wants, we integrate our ideas and guidance into that. We’re not pushing our ideas or what we think that the house should look like based on our previous houses.

We’re a full service design team. We have a construction team in house, so we do the whole pack of planning permission, all the documentation, mechanical and electrical drawings, the lighting plans, landscaping, everything all the way down to the plates on the table.

From conception to completion, our goal and drive is to make it very easy for the client. It can be quite overwhelming when you’ve got multiple people that you’ve got to report to, such as your landscape designer, your architect, your electrician.

Our ethos is just to keep it as easy and relaxed as we can for the client. Driven by the client and keeping it all in house, to streamline the whole process.

What do you believe sets you apart from other luxury designers?

We integrate the client’s preferences and designs and look at ways to integrate our ideas into their luxury design vision. We want the house to always feel like it belongs to the client and it feels like a perfect fit, designed specifically for them. With Pinterest, Instagram and the design industry as a whole, people now have more of a sense of what their style is. It’s our role to help finesse this and help them realise their idea with our vision and expertise.
With the design elements that go into a project, what is it that you look for when choosing bespoke made pieces?

About 80% of the furniture we install is bespoke; it fits in the space perfectly. When you’re out looking for a sofa, you can be 10cm off here or there because of standard sizing. Most of us would take a standard size dining table, but sometimes the standard size just doesn’t work and you don’t want to wedge yourself into a space, so we do make everything bespoke, which doesn’t necessarily mean more expensive. As a matter of fact, a lot of times our sofas are really well priced and the beauty is that we can pick out any fabric. You’re not tied into the fabric selections that suppliers have if you go off the shelf but with us, we can do the whole thing. You can add fringes, you can add leather piping, we can add bronze trim to a bookcase or Marble backing, we can do anything.

With rooms that have higher ceiling heights, you really want to carry furniture as high as possible, otherwise things look short and squat, lowering the overall appeal. Bespoke pieces fit in perfectly and we personally recommend them especially for main areas, like wardrobes. These then look like they were built for the house and this is what makes the difference. I can always tell when someone has done their best by choosing the top stores to purchase from like Harrods, but the sizing just isn’t perfect. There’s gaps in places, lines don’t match up because it’s too short for the ceiling, the colour is just slightly off without the right wood finish making it look piecemealed together. This is why these elements are primarily bespoke.
How important do you feel like the location of the property is to the final ideas?

Location doesn’t hold as much importance as usage of the house. We do a lot of houses in the Cotswolds, so you would automatically assume an English country vibe. When we do these countryside houses, the client wants a little bit of a nod toward the country, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a huge, full on country design. We’ve done many houses where we’ve gone full country, tweed, paisleys, stripes and jute wallpapers as well as lampshades and everything else but, I think what’s driving the concept, is more the usage of the house. Whether there’s kids in the family, no kids, older or younger and budgets as well as the client’s preferences.

How do you feel that the interior flow and the layout of a property contributes to its overall value?

I think it’s huge. I think it’s massive. When you view a house, you can tell when it has been professionally done and people typically will pay for the upgrade. If you’re looking for resale and for long term value, it is so critical. The house is done, it’s already designed, everything fits perfectly and somebody else that buys doesn’t have to do it. It’s daunting to commission bespoke furniture and there are certain budgetary elements involved. I think if it’s already done, then the resale value is just enormous because people just walk in and it’s turnkey.

Are there any features or luxury design elements you would choose to include specifically to increase the resale value?

I think one of our strong points is that we’re very good at spatial planning. Somebody will come to us with a three bedroom flat or a townhouse in London, we come in and ask to look at the floor plans. All of a sudden, we can take a space and actually create another bedroom or open up the living room, make it more open plan, particularly in London. Every room is like a box, whereas we’re all about open plan, that’s really the way forward. People entertain in their kitchen now versus having a formal dining room, you can now open up spaces that used to be the formal dining to be part of the living kitchen space. We try to open up the communal areas, which is the benefit of using a designer. We can take a space and actually think about things that maybe weren’t thought about before.

How do you incorporate family friendly elements whilst maintaining the elegant and luxury edge?

That’s always a tricky one. I think that’s where storage is your friend and you have to create loads of storage spaces, to hide things away. Even if that means coffee tables that have a lift up top as people want to keep an eye on their kids, which means the toys remain in the living room. We have that conversation ahead of time to see exactly where they anticipate their kids will be and what ages they are. We try to create storage so that there’s not all these toys around and spread out everywhere.The same with beds, we include integrated storage to keep things clean and quite vertical, so you keep your floor clean. We always try to have a separate TV area for the kids. If the adults are watching television or entertaining, the kids can sit down with popcorn and you’re not too fussed about them staining the sofa or making a mess. We also use scotch guard, or protectants on the surface of materials, so it’s a lot easier to clean. In the children’s area, or any area that’s going to be high traffic, we tend to use contract fabrics, which are more resilient. It just helps if they spill anything, easy clean up.

What would be your ideal concept?

Textures are key to all my design concepts, I love using wallpapers and layer different finishes to add depth and intrigue. It gives a richness to a house that uses contrast and also makes the house feel bigger.

In terms of concepts, this all depends on the client. I love to combine modern, clean design with ‘classic London’ to create a timeless look. As I mentioned, everything is bespoke, so we design houses that don’t look dated and can grow with the families. We are not influenced by fads or themes, so our work is timeless. We finish properties to a turnkey standard and can source everything from a new build to applying the final touches. However, clients often have antique or heirloom pieces that they want to incorporate, so we’ll build a room and concept around that . But that’s the fun of it!

To learn more about Hamilford Design or see more of their work, you can visit www.hamilfordesign.com or find them on Instagram or Pinterest.

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