Founded in 1992, in 2022 Taylor Howes Designs celebrated a significant anniversary year. Under the stewardship of founder and CEO, Karen Howes, and the Creative Head of Studio, Jane Landino, the interior design practice in the heart of Knightsbridge has become synonymous with couture-like room schemes and exceptional homes.
The practice’s in-progress projects illustrate not only its international scope but the heights of the work the team of nearly 30 designers is undertaking. This includes a chalet in Switzerland, a French-Moroccan style palace in the Middle East and a 67,000 sq/ft new build house in Essex. All of which is hot off-the-back of the studio completing an 18,000 sq/ft new-build in the Cotswolds and its first major hospitality project, Chateau Denmark, in London, which has received international press for its hedonistic and punk-rock inspired rooms.
Working closely with entrepreneurial clients to understand their nuances and realise their designs, the studio specialises in delivering ‘true design for living’
Also in the capital, the team are heads down on delivering the super-prime rental apartments within Knightsbridge Gardens, a development that’s slated to finish in 2023. Inspired by the heritage of the surrounding area and its place in fashion and royal history, the new apartments celebrate British interiors with furniture, colours and accents reminiscent of design houses such as Burberry and William Morris.
Meanwhile, September 2022 will see the studio complete its second project with property company REDD, which will bring to the market 7 Charles Street. This follows 51 Mount Street, a turnkey 1,500 sq/ft apartment interior designed in collaboration with Tanya Baxter Contemporary Art. Recognising the relationship between art and interior design, Taylor Howes enlisted Tanya to place collector-level pieces within the property, elevating the finished apartment further.
For Karen, her enjoyment has always been as much in the business side of interiors as it is the actual designing. Working closely with entrepreneurial clients to understand their nuances and realise their designs, the studio specialises in delivering ‘true design for living’.
‘Attention to detail has contributed to our success and we are progressive in nature as a design studio,’ says Karen, who cites the energy and creativity of her team as a constant source of inspiration.
Client projects aside, 2022 has seen Rest Nest – the charitable initiative founded by Karen and the studio which endeavours to redesign and improve the break room faculties for NHS nurses and key workers – make further ground in a significant roll-out scheme across the Imperial Healthcare Trust in partnership with NHS Charities Together. Most recently, the studio redesigned the staff room on the A&E ward and children’s intensive care unit at Charing Cross Hospital.
Commenting on next year, Karen says: ‘As I look ahead to 2023 and what it has in store for the studio it would be easy to get overwhelmed, but I am immensely proud of all that we’ve achieved and I will see next year as the year of gratitude. Not just in business, but more broadly for a lifetime spent in the world of design and its wonderfully brilliant community. In the wake of the pandemic, it’s important to give back and the work we do daily enables us to do just that.’
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