Matthew Williamson’s life has changed significantly since he bought this two-bedroom flat in Belsize Park in 2012. “I’ve had lots of great parties and dinners here. It’s a good place to pile back to after a night out and I had one party — for my 43rd birthday — when there was music and cocktails. It was at a time when I was knocking around with Paloma Faith and she got up and sang for all the guests which was incredible.”
Now 53, the designer, who was once a mainstay of the London party scene, splits his time between this, his London base, and Deià, Majorca, where he moved with his partner Joseph Velosa, after they welcomed daughter Skye nine years ago. “I still get that rush from London, and I want to get stuff done; in Majorca, I’m in a different mindset.” He comes here for one week every month for meetings and work and his partner does the same thing on a different week. “It’s concentrated time and it seems to work well.”
Williamson’s ground-floor flat, one of six in a converted Victorian block, includes an enormous drawing room, which is where Paloma did her impromptu concert. With high ceilings and the original coving, the space wouldn’t look out of place in a grand, stately home. The designer thinks it was once a dining room, back when the property was a single house, and admits it was what he fell in love with. “To this day, people walk into it and are impressed. It’s a barrel shape and the windows and walls are curved. There’s something special about the way it’s been constructed. I wanted to live here, it had me immediately; I didn’t need to see the rest of it.”
Previously, Williamson was living in a “cute cottage” in the Vale of Health, almost within the confines of Hampstead Heath, but it was the size and space of this flat that made him up sticks and make the move. “This flat was bigger than my entire cottage, there’s a grandeur to the space and the height of the ceilings.” It was previously owned by an architect who was “fastidious and had done the work for us” in terms of major renovations. “The only thing we did was put a stud wall in the front portion of the flat to create two smaller spaces.” But where Williamson saw he could dramatically improve things was with his unique use of colour. “It was white when we first bought it and a minimalist space, and I saw an opportunity to put my own stamp on it. I don’t warm to white; I feel like it creates a harsh backdrop.”
As a result, the drawing room, which can hold up to 30 people, has seen as many colour incarnations as it has famous faces. It was previously sage green but is currently a soft, blush pink. “This colour is very effective for many reasons; its pink, fleshy tones give it a warmth but it’s more modern than beige and grey.” In contrast, the master bedroom, which also has high ceilings and grand proportions, is painted a bold green. Williamson says this flat is a “fantastic canvas to apply colour” and he’s always been very decisive about which shade to go for. “I’m quite instinctive. I find it weird that people can’t find the right colour. I always have a definite instinct about it and think of the colour immediately. I’m glad I have that.”
It’s not surprising that this is something that comes so naturally to the designer, when colour has always been so central in his creative career. His eponymous fashion label, which he launched with Velosa back in 1997, was characterised by bold colours, intricate prints and a maximalist approach, and quickly garnered an impressive roster of celebrity fans, including pals Sienna Miller, Jade Jagger, Poppy Delevingne and Kate Moss. Now Williamson has brought many of the qualities that made his fashion brand so successful to his interiors vision. “I’ve just learnt on the job. I’ve pivoted from fashion to interiors. The process is similar, designing a space to designing a garment. There are many overlaps with proportion, texture and scale that are embedded within me.”
For my 43rd birthday Paloma Faith got up and sang for all the guests, which was incredible
While Williamson’s designs will always have his trademark stamp on them, he admits his style does change. “The foundations are always there but I’m very influenced by where I am, more so than others. At the moment, I’m enjoying warm tones, and I wonder if there’s a Balearic influence. My style is evolving, it was very ornate and very World Of Interiors, an oldy look, but I’m stripping back with the choices I’m making and it’s more rustic.”
A recent addition is an enormous chandelier in the drawing room, which Williamson bought from an antique lighting specialist. “I had it in my New York store and, when [it] closed, I had it flown back to London. It’s from the Seventies and is amber with lozenges of glass, arranged in an upside-down pyramid… I’m pretty sure it will stay with me for many more years to come.” Another favourite piece is an abstract canvas that hangs in the drawing room. “It’s from a company I’d never heard of before called Folk Interiors, and it was really affordable.”
Since moving from Manchester at the age of 18 to study at Central St Martins, Williamson has spent most of his time in and around this part of the capital. “I’m a north London person and have always lived around Hampstead Heath, Primrose Hill and Belsize Park.” He says this area really hasn’t changed much. “I’m not sure if it’s evolved and that’s why I like it. There’s a triangle of shops at the bottom of the road — a baker’s, newsagent’s, grocer’s — and they’re all the same. I do the same things at the weekends I’m here: I walk to Kenwood House and to Hampstead Heath. There’s a familiarity of what’s there and I like the consistency.”
While there’s a stability to his neighbourhood, Williamson says the opposite can be said of London as a whole. “[It’s] hectic … What London represents to me is ambition and adrenaline. You can immerse yourself in so many aspects of it and it gives you ideas.” The designer certainly has plenty of projects in the pipeline. He launched a capsule collection of six rugs with Ruggable last week and has new collections with Pooky and The Pickleson Paint Company in the diary for next year. And much of his work and creativity will be masterminded from his Belsize Park base. “It’s like an old friend and very loyal… It’s gone through the phases I’ve gone through. The interiors are never finished, and I’ll probably tweak them again in a few months’ time.”
Matthew Williamson is the winner of the Andrew Martin International Interior Designer of the Year Award 2024
