The Edit · London
A selective, sourced guide to the deepest chapter in the tradition: English country-house decoration, antique textiles and rooms that look collected, not decorated.
If old-world interiors have a capital, it is London; much of the language of the English interior was written here.
Faded chintz, the studied imperfection of a room that looks as though no one decorated it, antiques placed as if they had simply always been there: this is what Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler set down nearly a century ago, and London has been working in it since. Several of the names below are not only decorators but working antique dealers, which is the surest sign of the thing itself.
The list follows the Standard: each name is here for a body of antique-led work, with sources noted and caveats stated plainly. Inclusion is editorial and unpaid.
Where English country-house decoration begins.
The house, founded in the 1930s, that turned faded grandeur into a discipline: needlework, soft colour, and antiques arranged so the decorator's hand disappears. Through John Fowler's partnership with Nancy Lancaster it shaped the English country-house look, and many later English decorators have worked in its shadow.
The collector's decorator; antique textiles as a first language.
Robert Kime Ltd. continues the world of its late founder: antique textiles, old rugs, furniture and objects, rooms assembled with the ease of long ownership rather than display. The decoration arm, Kime Decoration, carries it forward.
Antiques dealer, furniture-maker and decorator.
His interiors begin with the architecture of a room and are built up in genuine period pieces; he was, in his own telling, born into the antiques trade. The practice runs from Yavington Barn in Hampshire, where showroom, antiques business and workshop sit under one roof.
Half a century of understated, art-conscious decoration.
A studio founded in 1964, long associated with historic houses and serious collectors: architecturally literate interiors in which antiques sit beside modern work, never over-designed. It continues across London, Paris and New York.
Generous, collected country rooms.
The studio of Henriette von Stockhausen, who holds a master's from Sotheby's Institute in antiques and the decorative arts: English country-house interiors layered with antiques and a continental eye; comfortable grandeur rather than show.
Quiet, well-travelled classicism.
An architect-trained designer and former director at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, whose restrained, comfortable rooms set English structure against antiques gathered from further afield: understatement carried with confidence.
A dealer's eye, colour-confident and eclectic.
A designer with a dealer's instinct, who started in antiques at sixteen and kept his own shop in Notting Hill: characterful, colour-confident rooms in which strong period and vernacular pieces are mixed with ease. "I can't imagine doing a house without most of the furniture being old," he has said.
London decoration with continental polish and an antiques-house inheritance.
The partnership behind Paolo Moschino Ltd. (formerly Nicholas Haslam Ltd.), running a studio and London showrooms that sell antique and vintage pieces alongside their own collections: traditional rooms given a continental, twentieth-century inflection.
Designers are selected for a body of work in which old objects carry the room (period furniture, decorative arts, original surfaces, patina and provenance), not for fame, billings or press. Where a designer sits at the edge of the standard, the caveat is stated rather than hidden. Inclusion is editorial and unpaid; no designer pays to appear. The full method is set out in About & Editorial Policy.
Last reviewed: June 2026. If an entry is wrong or out of date, the corrections page explains how to tell us.
Who are the leading antique-led interior designers in London?
Vecchio Lusso's London edit names Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, Robert Kime, Max Rollitt, Mlinaric, Henry & Zervudachi, VSP Interiors, Guy Goodfellow, Adam Bray, and Paolo Moschino & Philip Vergeylen. Several are working antique dealers as well as decorators, which is the surest sign of genuinely antique-led work. The list is selective and editorial: each name is here for a body of work built on period furniture, antique textiles and historic rooms, not for fame or billings.
What defines the London, or English country-house, style?
The English country-house manner, set down by Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler nearly a century ago, prizes faded chintz, soft colour, antique textiles, and the studied imperfection of a room that looks as though no one decorated it. Antiques are placed as if they had always been there rather than arranged for effect. It is the deepest and most influential chapter of the antique-led tradition.
London is the deepest chapter, but not the only one. The full reference runs from Paris and Milan to New York, Los Angeles and beyond.
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