From a charming flat in bustling South Kensington, Hannah Cecil Gurney moves to a fanciful home in Battersea with her growing family to start a life anew
For five years now, Hannah Cecil Gurney—the daughter of Claud Cecil, the man behind the handmade wallpaper company, de Gournay—has been living in a 190sqm home with her husband Eddie Harden, their children and their dog. The property, situated a stone’s throw away from attersea Park and Gurney’s workplace, is a perfect fit for her growing family. “[We] had outgrown our small flat in South Kensington,” she tells us why they decided to move to a new house. While she and her husband adore the location of their flat in South Kensington, they feel the place is not practical for raising children and keeping dogs. “We needed more space and we wanted to be in a quieter residential neighbourhood. South Kensington has a lot of hustle and bustle. Battersea is calm and relaxed but also close to Chelsea where I work and where my husband and I love to hang out with friends,” she says.
The family moved into the Victorian-era house they bought without changing anything. They were simply excited to have more space, something they did not have living in a flat. “We didn’t care that no renovation or decoration had been done. We were in no rush and we had the rare luxury of time. Because I work in the Interiors world, I was full of ideas for how I wanted to decorate my home. I was also excited to try and do it myself and get some insight into being on the other side of the equation,” Gurney says, confessing that she would have been “a nightmare to work with”. By the time she started the renovations, the family had lived in the house for a couple of years. “Spending time with the house first gave my family and I such clarity with regards to what needed changing and what did not. We knew our routines and how we used the space to suit us perfectly. Once I started decorating, answering only to myself meant I could change course and redirect the creative as many times as I wanted… [It was] dangerous but liberating! The result was a mad rush of colour and vibrancy—a reflection of my character in some ways and a reflection of how I want my home to make me and others feel: happy and uplifted,” she admits. As an advice to those who would like to decorate or renovate their homes themselves, she says, “Design it to fit you like a glove. You want to walk in through your front door and feel like the interior is welcoming you. My tip, where possible, would be to experience a space as much as possible before finalising how you want to decorate it. As you get to know a space, your feelings about how it should be renovated are likely to change.”