Look Up!
For any lover of interior design, there is one date in the Chelsea Harbour calendar that simply cannot be missed. WOW!house 2026, now celebrating its fifth extraordinary year, returns to Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, opening its doors to the public from 2nd June until 2nd July. Room by room, we are invited into the spaces a selected roster of talented designers has transformed into a world entirely its own, each one brought to life in collaboration with some of the most esteemed names in luxury interiors. The Gilded Queen was privileged to take a sneak preview look before the crowds arrived. And there was plenty to applaud.
But here is the thing nobody will tell you before you visit WOW!house. Look up. In a world where we habitually scan ahead; the next room, the next detail, the next beautiful thing at eye level, this showcase insists you lift your gaze. Domed ceilings, tented canopies, coffered panels, painted murals, exotic lighting suspended like jewellery; the ceiling here is not an afterthought. It is, repeatedly and gloriously, the point. We selected seven rooms that moved us most. In each one, the view above told its own story.
The Garden Folly by Studio Enass
Before you have even crossed the threshold, a new addition this year is a detached Garden Folly. Tented, almost as a secret hideaway, offers the visitor a moment of enchantment and adjustment before the full experience unfolds. Its draped canopy conjures a sense of theatre; this is a room that knows exactly what it is doing. Step inside, and the opulent mood deepens with richly upholstered seating and plumped cushions. The antique bronze mirror catches the light above, and the tented ceiling rewards that first instinctive upward glance.
The main facade, a more formal neoclassical statement by Adam Architecture’s Darren Price, has been reformed for this year’s showcase entrance with newly appointed steps flanking each side of the door. Set within arched colonnades that prepare you for what lies within. The formality of classical gardens provides the evergreen strength to the architecture while the scent of Jo Malone’s Blackberry & Bay drifts through the air, lifting the mood and marking the transition from the world outside to the world within.
The Entrance Hall by Francis Sultana
The grandeur of Britain’s great historic houses and the refined elegance of continental interiors have been delivered in the entrance hall designed by Francis Sultana. The space is anchored by a mix of vintage and modern art and furniture in a combination that feels both deeply rooted and entirely alive. It sets the tone impeccably and makes you want to see so much more.
The Turnell & Gigon Group Drawing Room with Albion Nord
“Humbled” Matt Gomez, CEO of the Turnell and Gigon Group, stated the overwhelming sense this room gives. It disarms you. As you reach inside through a small concealed vestibule, the room opens into an octagonal space topped by a magnificent domed skylight created by the exceptional Barr Group. It feels like it has sat there for many years previously and has not been created and installed over the past five days. Albion Nord has created something that feels simultaneously historical and yet entirely alive. The light falling softly from above onto walls lined in hand-blocked linen by Filling Spaces, adorned with bespoke tassel fringe that moves almost imperceptibly in the still air. With every sensory delight from the scent of the Pot pouri from Santa Maria Novello to the touch of the plush central sofas that invite you to sit and simply absorb. A room that honours the handmade at every turn, down to the cushions, each assembled from multiple fabric swatches, each one an act of craft. Each carefully selected piece of furniture is an accompaniment to the arrangement. Nothing competing. Entirely calmly resting on the mind. The cocktail bar positioned discreetly into one of the grand yet understated alcoves, invited you to stay. I did. I looked up. I stayed considerably longer than I had intended.
The Lalique Cocktail Bar with Elicyon
If the drawing room is a drawing of breath, the Lalique bar is an exhale of pure pleasure. Elicyon have rewarded the French dynasty of glass, Lalique with a space that feels like a secret worth keeping. The tone is set the moment you step through the arched doorway. There is something of Eltham Palace about it, a suggestion of the Orient Express en route to Vienna. Intimate, jewel-like, utterly transporting. Lalique’s signature glass is woven into the furniture, the lighting, the very architecture of the space. Not as decoration, but present as a fundamental element. A glass panel from the original Orient Express connects past to present with reassured authority. The stretched silk by James Hare masters the ceiling, backlit from above, glows like a held breath. And for the curious, eight discreet miniature doors conceal delights of Lalique jewellery, hand-drawn playing cards, and chocolates, all tucked into the secret spaces of the walls. The barstools carry intricate marquetry, while underneath the sumptuous carpet resonates with unashamed luxury. The early morning crisp glass of champagne was, frankly, entirely justified.
The Martin Moore Kitchen with Samantha Bartlett
There are kitchens you admire and kitchens you want to live in. The poetry of nature is rooted in the space that Samantha Bartlett has woven into the bespoke kitchen design. A muted green palette with botanical motifs that travel around the room. Another upward reward with a Porta Romana chandelier casting leaf-shaped silhouettes across the ceiling when lit. Martin Moore, celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year, has responded with a bespoke interpretation of its legacy with grained fumed oak, bronze handles, and delicious pale green and blue quartzite representing a kitchen that is simultaneously glamorous and robustly functional. A space made not merely for cooking, but for living, and living well.
The Munder Skiles Courtyard with Richard Miers
Every great house needs a place to pause, and Richard Miers has created exactly that. London plane trees bend gracefully inward from the corners of the courtyard, their presence a gentle reminder of the simple and irreplaceable pleasure of sitting outside within nature. At the centre, a dramatic yet bubbling fountain generates a calming soundscape that seems designed quite specifically to make you slow down. Stone walls, murals and Hector Finch lanterns waiting to cast their warm evening glow complete the picture. The bespoke Munder Skiles bench and lounge chairs are the perfect place to be as the light shifts on the day. For outdoor spaces, this was unrivalled.
The Ca’Pietra Bathroom with De Rosee Sa
And then there was this. And this is the place I wanted to stop entirely.
De Rosee Sa’s sun-drenched space is wrapped in Ca’Pietra stone with rose-tinted Versailles Rouge marble at the double basin, cobbles underfoot, and dramatic quartzite defining every architectural line. A generous Kaldewei bath sits positioned so that, from it, French doors frame a view of an imagined Mediterranean garden and sea beyond. Murano glass wall lights. Aged brass Armac Martin fittings. Warm southern European hues that make the coming of high summer feel not just likely but inevitable.
And then, sitting carved into the marble window frame, a soap dish. That detail. That is the detail that tells you everything about the level of thought in this room. A bathtub caddy that doubles as a drinks table. Hidden pleasures, everywhere.
To sit in that bath, looking out at that view, surrounded by that stone, is not a hard sell. As a lover of baths, it is the most compelling argument for a long soak I have ever encountered.
And in Closing
WOW!house has always been a showcase of exceptional design but its fifth year feels elevated. What unites the twenty-two spaces that make up the whole, is an ambition that screams that every surface has been considered. Every collaboration has been earned. And above all, and literally above all, every ceiling has been treated as an opportunity rather than a boundary.
Look up. You won’t be disappointed.
WOW!house 2026 runs at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour until 2nd July 2026.
