Hospitality Design - July 2016 - 153

The dining room at Amada, New York

The living area at the Soho Hotel's Soho suite

throughout South America, and live in the
South of France. "Design is a bit like acting.
You've got to get out there and live a bit, and
you become better for it," she says. "There is
so much design and so many things coming
at you today that you almost go back to the
things you originally loved. It also brings in
my love of color."
Her vibrant townhouse-inspired aesthetic
has become the signature style for the eight
boutique properties throughout London,
as well as one in New York, of Firmdale
Hotels, the company she and her developer
husband Tim started in the 1980s-take the
blue walls and zigzag-patterned upholstered
headboard at the newly redone suites at the
Soho Hotel; the striped orange couch set in
the renovated namesake suite at the Covent
Garden Hotel; and the pink chairs and gray
and yellow flowered wallpaper in the Ham
Yard Hotel guestrooms. And each design is
enhanced by an impressive collection of art.
The Charlotte Street, for example, features
original pieces by the Bloomsbury Group
of artists, writers, and philosophers, which
included the likes of Virginia Woolf and
Vanessa Bell, while the starting point for the
design of the Crosby Street Hotel in New
York's SoHo neighborhood was art inspired
by the written word. "I love the idea of
people sitting around in art," she explains.
Even with a team of 11, Kemp is handson about every detail. When she wanted
large patches on a couch in the Crosby Hotel,

for instance, she and a friend sewed them on
themselves while listening to '70s music over
one memorable weekend. For the bowling
alley at Ham Yard, she opted for solid maple
floors, instead of plastic. "It's all about the

details," she says. "I like things that are
made to last."
Kemp, who has also written a couple of
design books, has applied that philosophy
to multiple product lines (furniture, fabrics,
bath and body, and plateware) for the likes
of Christopher Farr, RikRak, Chelsea
Textiles, Wedgwood, Anthropologie, and
soon Schotten & Hansen-many used in
her properties. "I love to try new things,"
she says, adding that she is "flattered" when
asked to design collections. Next, she is
putting the finishing touches on Firmdale's
second new build in New York, the 86room Whitby Hotel, opening in December
in Midtown. Expect more color, "fabulous"
art, and a conservatory filled with a doubleheight fireplace, she says.
Kemp couldn't have imagined that
creating one small property with a distinct
sense of place-the Dorset Square Hotel
in 1985-would turn into what she and
her husband have built today. In fact, she
lends much of her success to her greatest
lesson: "Believe in yourself and your original
judgment and stick with it."

A recently revamped suite at the Soho Hotel

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