Western Aesthetics Infused with Eastern Design Principles Inside Alice Crawley’s Home
Get Inspired by Alice Crawley’s Unique Home in Central London
Photography Ursula Armstrong
Influenced by a decade spent in Southeast Asia, interior designer Alice Crawley has transformed her Notting Hill house, where she lives with her husband and their three children, into a vibrant and captivating space. Her London home narrates the tale of her experiences in Hong Kong and Vietnam while also reflecting her unique design philosophy. For Alice, the essence of design goes beyond mere functionality or aesthetics; it lies in the ability to breathe life into every space. She believes a room’s purpose extends beyond its basic function or appearance; it resides within its character. By infusing Western aesthetics with Eastern design principles, Alice brings a distinctive and original touch to her approach. Her remarkable talent lies in her ability to transform any empty canvas into a vibrant and inviting home.
Tell us about your home?
Our home is a terraced 5-bedroom Georgian townhouse in the heart of Notting Hill on a quiet leafy street just minutes from the busy Ledbury Road/Westbourne Grove crossroads. A stone’s throw from Portobello Road and the vast green expanse of Kensington Gardens, it was initially the location that drew me to this area, but as soon as I set foot in this house, I had that feeling that we can all relate to when you know this is it. It was not a straightforward purchase by any means. I had my offer accepted and then declined due to the unpredictable course of covid, and just as I was about to move back from Hong Kong with my two daughters, I was approached again by the seller and jumped at it. We completed it ten days before our arrival back on English soil!
The house itself had recently undergone a lot of very clean and practical renovation. Since we had to move straight in, I primarily focused on the interior decoration with few structural changes. The only thing I did immediately was to close off the open-plan ground floor into a drawing room and a study – I have a slight (personal) phobia about everything being open-plan when you have a young family, we need walls and our own space to hang out! The rest of my energy was dedicated to bringing colour and life (the entire house was painted Farrow & Ball’s ‘Pointing’) to our home, spending money on fun stuff like joinery and marble, wallpapers and lighting.
Tell us about your family home Arniano?
Arniano is an isolated farmhouse an hour and a half south of Florence, where we lived full time and where my sister and I went to school until she was ten and I was thirteen. When my parents Jasper and Camilla bought it in 1989, it was derelict and had no electricity or water. They had decided to find a larger house than the one they were living in Greve, a small town in the lush green enclave of Chianti. They looked at dozens of properties before settling on Arniano, which they fell in love with the moment they absorbed the 360-degree views of Montalcino. And once they had opened all the shutters and realized that the rooms spanned the width of the building, allowing light to come in on both sides, they were sold. It is an 18th-century podere where in the past, rural families lived together upstairs, and the animals lived downstairs. The house is long and wide, with vaulted brick ceilings on the ground floor and high ceilings with massive wooden beams upstairs. Today, there are mown lawns, rows of cypresses, olive groves, a herb garden, and several shaded terraces, but back in 1989, the house say in the middle of scrubland, every outhouse tumbling down. My parents undertook the not underwhelming task of knocking down dividing walls, opening up new doorways and installing plumbing to turn Arniano into our much-loved family home and the beautiful house it is today.
How would you describe your design aesthetic?
I’m blessed that my mother, Camilla Guinness, is an interior designer, and I have always been surrounded by beautiful interiors and objects. What she did at Arniano and the nearby Villa Cetinale is very inspiring. She has taught me a love of bold colours and textiles, especially on a crisp white background. For example, in our apartment in Florence, we’ve placed a huge red antique ’suzane’ on a white-washed wall above our sofa, which is clean and white but covered in an array of bold cushions in various fabrics. Mixed thoughtfully and harmoniously with pictures and carpets, this can create a sense of complete comfort and cosiness. I have also very much inherited her love of red and white stripes. I find my mother’s talent for design very inspiring. Watching her work is inspiring as you can see her conjuring up images of what things should look like in her mind’s eye and with such ease. People underestimate what a talent that is.
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Alla mina tidiga barndomsminnen är från Arniano, där mat och allt som hör där till var en stor del av min uppväxt. Min mamma (som hävdar att hon lagt förklädet på hyllan) var och är en fantastisk kock. För henne är smaken lika viktig som det estetiska.
A chest of drawers by Trove by Studio Duggan, ”Pink ground” by Farrow & Ball as wall color.
Chairs surrounding the dining table from Vietnam.
How much has your upbringing in Italy impacted your choice of career?
Hugely, most of my earliest memories from my childhood and adolescence are from growing up at our family home Arniano. Spending all my formative years in Italy meant that food and its rituals are melded for me with family, lovely surroundings, and nature. My mum claims to have hung up her skillet now but was and still is a wonderful cook, having a knack for imbuing any dish or dining situation with beauty and glamour, as well as lots of flavours. The food was always Italian, with some English classics thrown in. I remember roast red peppers painstakingly peeled and laid out in alternating canary yellow and ruby red on round plates and finished with perfectly spherical juicy balls of mozzarella placed at their centre. Broad beans would be shelled into beautiful blue or green-speckled Tuscan bowls, accompanied by wheels of fresh pecorino made by our local shepherds. Being surrounded by the incredible produce of Italy and producers of amazing ingredients for so many years made me obsessed with food and how to bring out the best in whatever ingredient you may have to hand.
Who are your favorite artists?
I love etchings. My favourites are by Samuel Palmer, who made dreamy nighttime landscapes in the 19th century, and Jason Hicklin, a contemporary artist who makes incredible dramatic landscapes of the Scottish coast. I also love colour and bold lines, so I love Matisse, Picasso, Gauguin, and David Hockney.
Tell us about an art piece or object that means a lot to you?
I own a painting by my cousin Elliott Puckette, an amazing abstract artist working in New York. Her work looks calligraphic and comprises exquisitely executed fine lines usually etched into gesso with a razor blade. The work I own is on a block of wood which has been washed with a midnight blue gesso and has a bright white line swooping around the surface of the wood. I find it romantic and soothing. It is one of my most treasured possessions.
What are you looking for at auctions?
Interesting and unique pieces. It’s always very exciting to find a surprising or unusual piece of art or furniture - which often only happens at auctions.
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My approach to design stems from a simple belief that every space needs to be brought to life. A room’s purpose is not just its function or how it looks but its character – and it’s bringing that character to life that makes a space a home.
The sitting room is painted in custom paint colour by Rachel Chudley Color Studio. A central painting by Lynn Chadwick.
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Someone told me the other day that you tend to live around the colours that you dress in, I’m not sure whether that means I wear a lot of pink and red, but I would certainly say my interior style at this stage of life and in this home is quite bold and playful much like my dress sense!
Any book you recommend for the summer?
I have just finished reading the most fantastic book called “The Choice” by Dr Edith Edgar, which is an astonishing story of a woman’s survival during the holocaust and how she managed to free herself from her trauma through the power of choice and positive thinking, making it her life mission to help as many people as possible choose freedom and halt the cycle of psychological suffering. It’s an unbelievable story focusing on the power of thought, and there is something we can all take from that.
To Alice’s instagram
