World Of Wonder

De Gournay heiress Hannah Cecil Gurney’s home showcases both her vibrant personality and her family’s wallpaper business perfectly

- Karen Tee

When it comes to style, there is one designer whose aesthetic is truly timeless, as Hannah Cecil Gurney discovered in the course of decorating her home in Battersea, London. For her living room, Gurney, the director of British wallpaper company De Gournay and daughter of its founder Claud Cecil Gurney, used a chocolate brown wallpaper inspired by Coco Chanel; the chinoiserie design perfectly sets the formal yet homely mood for the space.

“It is based on the famous Coromandel screens in Coco Chanel’s iconic Parisienne apartment,” she shares. “Our wallcovering is a beautiful reinterpretation and conjures a similar atmosphere to those screens. Everyone told me chocolate brown would be too dark but they were wrong—the room feels light and bright. The chalky white design and apricot accents keep the wallcovering bright and happy.” Combined with peach silk curtains and a deep blue velvet sofa, all by De Gournay, space “feels super luxurious and is beautiful in the evening light,” she adds.

Gurney and her husband Eddie Harden, who owns and manages his family’s Welsh estate, moved into their three-story house four years ago. Although not a designer by training, Gurney knew she wanted to be intimately involved in building the home of her dreams for her three-year-old son George, newborn twins Oscar and Scarlet, and two dogs. “I lived in it for several years and this meant that I really understood how to furnish and decorate it for the way my family, and I wanted to live in and enjoy it. Now the space we live in suits us perfectly.”

COLOUR THEORY