The Colourful World of Luke Edward Hall

In the idyllic countryside of Gloucestershire, things move at their own pace in the dream home of Luke Edward Hall and Duncan Campbell. We find ourselves seated in the kitchen, sipping coffee and nibbling on a piece of cake, discussing the mishap that forced the couple to rebuild their house when, suddenly, the doorbell rings.

“Oh, it’s my tea cosy!” says Luke Edward Hall.

After a ten-minute negotiation over the post-Brexit customs fees accompanying the delivery, the tea cosy is finally in hand.

“It’s from the Swedish interiors company, Svenskt Tenn,” Luke explains, adding, “It’s so difficult to find a good tea cosy these days. We have a favourite one, but it’s knitted to look like a Christmas pudding, so we realised we needed something a bit more versatile. And we’ve taken the task very seriously.”

The renowned British artist and designer Luke Edward Hall is known for his bold use of colour and playful patterns. Despite his teenage fascination with old houses and antiques, a career in interior design wasn’t always on the cards.

“I worked in the cafe of a National Trust Tudor country house on Sundays as a teenager, and whilst at art school, Duncan and I sold antiques online, along with our best friend. So, I have been interested in the beauty of old things for a long time. However, I didn't really consider working in interior design until after I left art school, where I studied fashion design. I met the architectural and interior designer Ben Pentreath and began working for him”, he recalls.

The bathroom in Arsenic green.

An Artist of Many Talents

In 2015, Luke set up his studio, and since then, he has worked on projects ranging from hotel interiors to collections for brands like Habitat and The Rug Company. And since 2019, his interior design insights have been shared through his Financial Times column.

Luke’s work also covers fashion. There are Chateau Orlando pieces in numerous parts of the house, from the brand he created in 2022, including clothes as well as homeware. He wears a lot of it himself, and it’s been another way to express nuanced queer identity.

Colour has been a key theme for the rural home, mixing centuries of queer culture with antique objects.

“When I was about 15, I was buying a lot of books on paganism and folklore,” he says.

“I grew up in Basingstoke, which is a nice but very regular suburban town, and those books were like entering into another world. Just as discovering the Greco-Roman universe was.”

When he was designing last year’s autumn/winter Chateau Orlando collection, he looked to West Cornwall, spending several days in a friend’s cottage on the coast.

“I became immersed in local folklore,” he says, “in mummers, mermaids and ghostly galleons. When I was young, I had a kind of craving for the pastoral, ethereal and the strange. I didn’t grow up in the country, but I knew that I would get there eventually.”

The house in the Cotswolds is a peaceful oasis, where the couple unwinds after a busy workweek in London.

The Search for the Perfect Countryside Home

The journey to their countryside retreat began with a search for a vintage-style folly. The London-based couple longed for a place to escape to on weekends. Instead of folly, they found the cottage we’re now sitting in – a haven for relaxation, shared with their two whippets, Merlin and Dragon. Nearby, Luke also has his studio.

In many ways, the cottage has served as a mood board for one of Luke’s latest projects – illustrating the book 300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love in the Ancient World. The book, a collection of homoerotic texts from classical Greco-Roman literature, is translated for a modern audience by acclaimed author and poet Seán Hewitt.

"My editor at Penguin, Richard Atkinson, came up with the idea of an illustrated book about myths, and early on we decided to focus on queer culture. Seán worked on the translations, handed them to me, and I illustrated them,” says Luke.

Inspired by British folklore, Cecil Beaton’s photographs of 1920s aristocrats known as the Bright Young Things, and playful elements of ancient Greece and Rome, Luke Edward Hall’s work is always infused with whimsy.

“It comes from my childhood interest in mythology. Later, when I worked with architect Ben Pentreath, I learned about classical buildings and design, which blended with my fascination for myths and legends. I started playing with shapes and motifs on paper and ceramics. That’s where the inspiration for the curtain I designed for the English National Opera came from – depicting a scene from Orpheus. It also informed the ceramics I created for Ginori and my fabric collection for Rubelli.”

The wallpaper in Luke and Duncan’s bedroom is ‘Rosemain’ by Christopher Moore.

There’s a glossy thread of queer culture and hedonism that runs through much of what Luke loves, and it’s present in their Gloucestershire home, from a Kate Bush-printed candle to a gigantic book of Andy Warhol illustrations in the pink-painted bathroom to a rare Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition poster hanging in the other bathroom. Their bedroom features an antique red raincoat hanging from the wardrobe door, alongside floral Christopher Moore wallpaper, striped linen fabrics, and undergarments peeking from antique dressers – all reminiscent of a vintage Bruce Weber photoshoot.

“There’s a lot in the house that reminds me of the art in the book – like busts and columns. It’s a mix of classicism, baroque, rococo, and a bit of mid-century. I like objects that are a bit theatrical. We recently bought a large 18th-century side table, and I often daydream about the life it led before it came to us. If nothing else, I’ll make up my own story – and that’s what matters.”

Pea green Carimate chairs surround a French farmhouse table.

Always On the Lookout For Auction Bargains

Every corner of the home is filled with intriguing details, from antique chairs painted green to delicate figurines – and, of course, all the porcelain dogs. The couple reveals that their list of ongoing searches on auction sites is long.

 “There are always things we’re on the lookout for – interesting majolica, grotto furniture, intaglios, Venetian glass, and anything shaped like a whippet, obviously,” says Duncan, with Luke adding, “I’m constantly hunting for ceramics like creamware and agateware, painted Gothic furniture, Italian silver giltwood… The list goes on!”

The couple's journey to rebuilding the home was almost comical were it not for the near disaster it caused.

“I came home late from a work trip to Florence to find that the kitchen had caught fire. The smoke had spread through every room, so we had to take everything out, clean it, and then refurnish the whole house,” Luke recounts.

“The fire started because a framed photograph of a cowboy fell from the wall, sliced through a lamp cord, and sparked. It feels like magic stopped the whole place from burning down. The one good thing about the accident was that it made us rethink what we wanted to keep in the house. When we first moved in, it was stressful, but this gave us the chance to revise things and work more with colours.”

Colour has been a key theme for the rural home, mixing centuries of queer culture with antique objects, like pieces from Cecil Beaton’s best friend, Oliver Messel. In this house, Luke Edward Hall has created his own magical world, inspired by an eccentric 1920s, blending both classical and irreverent influences. It’s a home for both tea cosies and decadence.

The home is a mix of different styles, colours and historical periods.

If you could live in another historical period, which would you choose?

“So many! We both love the classical world, so Ancient Rome would be on the list, as would Renaissance Venice,” says Duncan, with Luke adding that he “wouldn’t mind zipping back to Elizabethan England.”

“But that’s mainly because I’d like to wear the clothes...”

A Shared Interest In Interior Design

Duncan Campbell, also a designer and co-founder of the acclaimed design studio Campbell-Rey, clearly shares Luke’s passion for interiors. But do they share the same taste?

“There’s a lot of overlap, obviously, but I also think it’s important to have your own interests and design heroes. Luke loves the Bloomsbury Group, Oliver Messel, and Cecil Beaton – the way they transcended genres and moved between art, design, costume, and set design. I’ve always been interested in designers and architects who created entire worlds, from the architecture down to the furniture, like Josef Hoffmann, Dagobert Peche, Piero Portaluppi, and Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann,” says Duncan.

Duncan Campbell, also a designer and co-founder of the acclaimed design studio Campbell-Rey, clearly shares Luke’s passion for interiors.

“We like many of the same periods and styles – baroque, regency, gothic… We share a passion for grotto furniture! And we love colour and pattern. Duncan has his practice, and I have mine, and our work is very distinct, so we enjoy working together with our home. Naturally, of course, we have our own interests. I love theatre props and scenery, heraldry, and the Bloomsbury Group, while Duncan is more drawn to the Vienna Secession,” adds Luke.

For the couple, the home has become a shared design project.

“We’re lucky that our careers allow us to pursue different kinds of design individually, but we also get to work together on the places we live,” says Duncan.

The sturdy cupboards are in a golden syrupy 1970s tan.

How do you inspire each other?

“We’re always showing each other our projects, asking for thoughts and advice, and talking about artists and designers from the past, or books we’re reading… I feel really fortunate that we work in the same universe, but we have distinct aesthetics and separate projects. It’s the best of both worlds – we understand each other, but we’re also able to express our individuality,” says Luke.

Duncan agrees.

“It’s an ideal situation – we create independently but share and enjoy the process together. Running your own business is often challenging but also a lot of fun, so it’s wonderful to understand each other and offer advice while still having our own creative outputs.”

Text and photo: Mark C. O’Flaherty/Living Inside Editing: Sophie Tisell