Rugs and design highlights from WOW!house 2025 Design Centre Chelsea Harbour

Denna Jones outlines what stood out at the recent WOW!house

Conventional wisdom says the annual WOW!house at Design Centre Chelsea Harbour upends expectations. WOW!house 2025 is no exception. Carved into the faux ashlar wall of Adam Architecture‘s welcoming façade is the repeated word WOW. Upend Wow and you get Mom—an iteration of the Gen Z term ‘mother’ used to describe anyone who excels with style. In this case, interpret MOM as ‘Mother of Mother’s’ to acknowledge the superlative showhouse and its founder Clare German, CEO of DCCH. WOW!house 2025 features 22 rooms each by a different designer or firm, and within those rooms is a select number of rugs that upend expectations.

‘The Curator’s Room’ by Spinocchia Freund features the work of female artists and designers. A rug with interconnected curves designed by Ashley Stark, creative director of the room’s sponsor Stark, pairs with The Tribute—a hand-knotted rug that highlights 87 female creatives—past and present—whose names are listed at right angles to the rug’s perimeter. Brigitta Spinocchia Freund and Ashley Stark selected natural yarns known for their beauty and durability—’pure alpaca, wool, hemp, cactus linen and silk’. Many of the women honoured on the rug battled the role of women as the ‘decorative’ sex, a concept Birgitta and Ashley deftly upend through their emphasis on the role of rugs as exempla of a room’s ethos.

‘Dedar Library’ by Pirajean Lees features a hand-tufted wool and bamboo silk rug by Jennifer Manners. The rug’s Chladni design—patterns formed on a vibrating surface—echoes the room’s intention to immerse visitors in ‘design, emotion, and sound’. The room’s unofficial title ‘A440 Hz—Connecting in Silence’ reflects ‘the tuning note heard just before a concert begins.’

Peter Mikic‘s ‘Benjamin Moore Dining Room’ features a huge hand-knotted rug that Mikic revealed took his weavers in Nepal three months to complete. Its high-low flatweave canvas with lush pile allows the rug’s monochrome geometric design to highlight the room’s 1970s inspiration.

‘The Gathering Bar’ designed by Toni Black of Blacksheep in collaboration with Shepel London features one of the most imaginative rug designs of WOW!house 2025. Hand-tufted in wool and silk in Egypt by Kahhal 1871, the result of their collaboration is a delightful contemporary interpretation of a traditional Egyptian Mamluk rug. Inspired by a rug in the company’s collection, the pattern and palette were updated to create a joyful pattern where some of the cloud-like motifs can be imagined as Egyptian buildings while others look like frisky spotted Dalmations. Black describes how ‘we chose to collaborate with Kahhal not only for their design expertise, but also for their warm, hospitable approach. Mohamed—the fifth generation of Kahhal 1871—is dependable, conscientious, and industrious, making the entire process seamless for our team’. Described by Black as a ‘snug, joyful space’ (and it is), ‘The Gathering Bar’ upends expectations; the perfect spot to stop and say cheers and santé until WOW!house 2026!