A young designer's deeply cosy Georgian flat in Bristol

‘Everything I know about decorating I learned from my mum’, says Kate Cox of HÁM Interiors. The Henley-on-Thames-based design studio is very much a family affair. Started by her parents Nick and Pamela and brother Tom in 2011, Kate joined the business after graduating from university. Having spent their childhoods visiting antiques fairs and junk shops, it seemed a natural progression in 2020 for them to launch the furniture design and antiques arm to the business, Studio HÁM. They are purveyors of warm, eclectic interiors and nowhere is this aesthetic more abundant than Kate’s own flat, a two-bedroom, one bathroom apartment which occupies the top floor of a Georgian building in the pretty Bristol village of Clifton. ‘I’d never been to Bristol before we decided to buy the flat’, says Kate. ‘It was a whim.’

Until the move, she and her husband were living in London, and the two were commuting to Henley and Wales respectively. In search of somewhere closer to both workplaces Bristol, with its Georgian architecture and leafy cobbled streets, felt like an easy compromise. Though the flat was tired and in desperate need of work, Kate could see that the bones were good. ‘I gravitate towards traditional architecture, so it was exciting to be able to find somewhere like this, with high ceilings and huge windows. In London we’d be living in a shoebox for the same price.’

Working to a strict budget the project was a slow burn. The interiors are a melting-pot where her interest in historical design rubs up against a magpie-like instinct to collect art and objects that don’t take themselves too seriously. There are no rules here: if she loves it, she’ll find a space for it.

A Studio HÁM sofa anchors the living room which is packed with interesting, inexpensive pieces picked up second hand. The armchairs were both eBay finds; a brass ship was found at a steamboat fair in Henley; and several old black and white photographs - bought for 40p each - have been re-framed. ‘I could keep layering forever,’ says Kate, who has a revolving door of furniture and artwork coming and going. A favourite is a black and white Mario Testino portrait of Kate Moss, which travelled with her from London. ‘I like the contrast it has with my antique paintings.’

Kate knew she wanted the living room to be yellow the moment she saw it. ‘I painted huge blocks of different shades all over the walls and we lived with them there for weeks’. Eventually, she chose Farrow & Ball’s ‘Sudbury Yellow’ as a, ‘bright but not overpowering’ backdrop to her collection of objects and art.

The kitchen required the biggest overhaul. ‘I used to dread cooking because I didn’t want to spend any time in there.’ Formerly a ‘lino-covered hell’, she took down the wall cabinets and floor-to-ceiling cupboards, and replaced them with open shelving and light reflecting metro tiles. Wanting to introduce some texture to the room, Kate took inspiration from country house kitchens and added a curtain under the sink in a fabric by de Le Cuona. The floor was transformed with terracotta tiles and the worktops were replaced with a mixture of white marble and black granite. ‘I don’t want everything to be perfect and matching.’ Tucked away in the corner is an enamel-topped dining table.