PICTURE THIS

Photographer turned designer Leonora Hamill brings her discerning eye and love of color to a chic family retreat in Portugal's sunny Alentejo region.

- By LUCY GUINNESS

London-based designer Leonora Hamill doesn't believe in trends. Instead she aims for rooms that “feel as if they have been there forever,” by layering print, color, textiles, and antiques. Half American, half French, born in London but raised in Paris, she's someone to whom this “potpourri” style comes naturally. Her magpie eye is always trained on a chic roster of international dealers and markets. “My paternal grandmother was a great collector who was on Jackie Kennedy's fine arts committee for the White House,” Hamill says. “I like to think I have inherited the gene.”

Since founding her firm in 2016, Hamill has built a thriving practice that crisscrosses the Atlantic. Her path, however, was unconventional. After studying art history at Oxford and the Courtauld, she embarked on a career as a fine art photographer. In 2012 she won the HSBC Prize for Photography for her series of large-format images shot at art schools around the world. The cover of her book was shot in Hanoi, where "I had this sort of epiphany," she says. "I shifted from just looking at objects to understanding the space they inhabited."