Drama is woven into every room in interior designer Emily Dobbs’s Edwardian London terrace. As soon as you step through the front door, you are hit with a riot of colour and pattern. “I wanted the entrance to be a wall of blooms to feel like I was back in Derbyshire, where I grew up,” says Dobbs. A country girl at heart, she was drawn to the fact that the house has a large wood at the back, enabling a separation from hectic city life.
Dobbs, 39, is a theatre producer, working on star-studded plays featuring actors such as James Norton, Andrew Scott and Lily James. She trained as an actor, but with the birth of her first child, Alfie, now six, she found the flexibility of producing more compatible with family life.
She lives with her three children and husband, Joseph Smith, 52 (also a producer).
However, when Covid caused the curtain to fall abruptly on the West End and Broadway, Dobbs was left to channel her creativity elsewhere. Having completed an ambitious transformation of her former home, a maisonette, into a four-bed apartment, she found a flair for interior design. She began helping friends with their projects before taking the plunge to launch her own business in 2020.
“Interior design felt very instinctive and not unfamiliar from producing,” says Dobbs, who has just completed a huge renovation of a family home in west London. “Interiors, like theatre, are about life and freedom of expression, as well as creating an emotional connection to the space you’re in. I love that adrenaline rush you get, whether it’s from a play or a room, and you finally begin to see it taking shape – it’s beyond thrilling.”
In the hallway is a vibrant wallpaper of hollyhocks, by House of Hackney, with woodwork painted in Farrow & Ball’s Danish Lawn. “Wallpaper is often my starting point for a scheme – and then I experiment with colours that can be extracted from it and woven back into the space. Green is a favourite. I originally painted the whole lower half of the wall green, too, but it was too much. I work like that a lot – sometimes you just have to try it out and see when you’ve tipped the scale.”
While no major renovation was required on the ground floor, the kitchen – with its modern pink cabinet fronts – isn’t exactly to her taste. “For now, I’ve updated the kitchen with Farrow & Ball’s fabulous Arsenic Green, which punches against the pink units beautifully. Eventually I’d like to redo the whole room. I’m a big fan of deVOL Kitchens, which I worked with on a recent project – think antique larders and Belfast sinks, New York meets bohemia. With any house it’s important not to rush; you need to allow the decor to evolve.”
The dining space leads on to the living room, which hasn’t been redone yet. “I have a vision, now the majority of the house is done, and it’s crying out to be painted deep blue,” says Dobbs. “I didn’t want a dark space necessarily, but the hallway is so busy I think it can take it.”
Upstairs Alfie and Bonnie, four, helped Dobbs pick the floral Fairie Garden wallpaper for their shared bedroom, with sky-blue wardrobes and a block of coral orange zoning the sleeping area to create a soothing space. For one-year-old Jude, Dobbs created a simpler space of cocooning mustard yellow with a pop of rust red to contrast the rich walls and frame the window, with vintage finds adding a touch of whimsy.
“A child’s bedroom should always be a sanctuary so they can have that downtime,” says Dobbs. “I also want it to be somewhere magical. I love using papers from Pierre Frey and Schumacher because they have these incredible stories and become something to look at rather than simply being a backdrop. If the kids can’t sleep, they can stare at the wallpaper and be transported to another world.”
In the master bedroom, a mossy William Morris-esque wallpaper, Vine Verde from Little Greene, is flanked by two pillar box-red wardrobes painted in Farrow & Ball’s Bamboozle. “I kind of hated the wardrobes, but I wasn’t going to rip them out as they were useful, and expensive to replace. It’s amazing what a lick of paint will do.” The wallpaper and paint add drama while the rest is a tranquil space. “I’ve got an overactive imagination, so I wanted it to be somewhere I could switch off.”
So what’s Dobbs’s secret to creating a characterful space? “Objects, always. Having interesting pieces that have history or a personal connection. One of my favourites is the chaise in the bay window of the master bedroom – my gran used to sit on it to have her six o’clock G&T without fail. It’s another piece of ancestry, and I find it comforting to sit there and look out at the trees. Also, don’t ever choose anything because it’s in fashion – choose it because you love it. If there’s one place to be free and connect back to that imaginative, childlike part of you, it’s home.”
emilydobbsinteriors.com
