As the daughter of de Gournay founder Claud Cecil Gurney, Hannah Cecil Gurney grew up immersed in a world of glorious hand-painted wall­paper. Today she serves as director of the company, and the London apartment where she lives with her husband, their four children, and two dogs, serves as the dreamiest laboratory.

The three-story, Victorian era home is located in Battersea, London just a short distance from the de Gournay London showroom and Battersea park. Working without a designer, Hannah has made full use of de Gournay’s hand painted wallpapers throughout the property – creating a spectacular showcase for her family company’s bespoke products that also meets the functional requirements of a growing family.

The home’s most recent update showcases new installations of ‘River Scenes of Benghal’ in the drawing room – a scenic design of India’s historic waterways hand painted onto gleaming gilded paper – and the ‘Belvoir’ Chinoiserie in the master bedroom – a hand painted recreation of a 300-year-old Chinese wallpaper from Belvoir Castle in the UK.

Extensions to the property now showcase ‘Little London’ within a basement playroom – an illustrative scene of London filled with animal characters and spanning custom joinery – the hand embroidered ‘Fyodor’ wall upholstery on Claret coloured linen in the adjoining utility room – depicting a trailing vine and bird pattern – and the ‘Cecily’ Chinoiserie on Pink Xuan paper in the new nursery: a perfectly pretty garden scene, named for Hannah’s new baby daughter.

Photography by Christopher Horwood courtesy of de Gournay.

To see previous iterations of Hannah’s spectacular home, please click here.  We also highly recommend de Gournay’s exquisite book, de Gournay: Hand-Painted Interiors.