Britain's boldest interior designer - her mantra? 'Go over-the-top'

That phrase again, like a mantra. She repeats it again later, when I ask her what advice she would have for anyone decorating a bog-standard semi on a shoestring: “Don’t be timid. Be bold. Don’t be put off by anyone telling you a room is over the top”. 

She equates her love of red with happiness, feeling good when walking into a room. Diminutive and soft-spoken, she comes across as quite shy in some respects, and not a natural stealer of the limelight. But, decoratively, she has been boldness personified, and encourages others, rich or poor, to do the same. 

“I am a great fan of Victorian Gothic,” she says. “It was a revolt against the prim and proper styles of the Georgian period. Just look at those glorious Pugin wallpapers in the Houses of Parliament. They probably struck some people as over the top in their day, but they have stood the test of time”. 

Kennedy certainly practises what she preaches at her own home in Knightsbridge, which has to be one of the most theatrical properties in the capital, with its red velvet wallpaper, exuberantly hung bed and curtains that were once owned by Rudolf Nureyev. 

Theatricality runs through her veins. One of her five children is the actor Cary Elwes. Another had Grace Kelly as her godmother. All her life she has been in thrall to the Hollywood of the Golden Age – uncompromisingly, unashamedly glamorous. 

Her Mayfair pied-à-terre on Upper Brook Street, which has just come on the market for £2.85 million, is quite restrained in comparison. But it is a fabulous apartment, classic Mayfair, with its high ceilings and wrought-iron balconies. 

“Mayfair has changed a lot in the last 30 years,” says Kennedy. “But for me it holds imperishable memories. One of my very first commissions, which I won in a competition, was to redecorate the Grosvenor House hotel”. 

She has left her distinctive signature all over Mayfair, redesigning 100 rooms at Claridge’s and undertaking commissions at private members’ clubs such as Aspinalls and the Playboy Club.

Wherever you see rich men having fun in Mayfair, there is a fair chance they will be doing it in surroundings designed by Tessa Kennedy.  The Ritz’s Rivoli Bar is done up in an art deco style – about 30 per cent of her designs are art deco – with bold representations of Leda and the Swan at either end of the room.

“I conceived it as a jewellery box,” she says. The room makes extensive use of one of her signature designs – églomisé, or gilded and hand-painted glass. 

After lunch, she takes me downstairs to another of her masterpieces, the sumptuous Ritz Casino, inspired by the iconic Amber Room in the Summer Palace in St Petersburg. Big, bold paintings, done by top Russian craftsmen, stare down from every wall. 

A middle-aged man staggers into the bar with a face like thunder. Within seconds, he is smiling again. In such a determinedly joyful setting, pure Tessa Kennedy, it is impossible not to smile. The queen of over the top has done it again.

Reference: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/luxury/britains-boldest-interior-designer---her-mantra-go-over-the-top/