See How This Designer Brought Her Own Colorful Style to a Furnished London Rental Home

Brooklyn-based textile designer Hana Getachew used her own products (available at West Elm) and clever design touches to bring personality to a temporary space in London.

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October 19, 2022

By: Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason

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Photo By: Oliver Gordon

Textile Designer Hana Getachew Brings Her Work Home With Her

When describing Hana Getachew, "worldly" is a good word to start with. The Ethiopian-born interiors-turned-textile designer, founder and creative director of the Brooklyn-based Bolé Road Textiles brand, has spent the last nine months living in London. There she shares a three-bedroom, mews-style home with her husband, Brian, and their 4-year-old daughter, Gelila.

A Bold Family Room That Required Some Tweaking

From the moment Hana landed in London, it was a match made in heaven. “The second I arrived I was so enchanted with our neighborhood, Chelsea, and London in general,” the designer smiles. Part of the instant infatuation was the home she and her family would occupy during their stay: a newly renovated, fully furnished three-bedroom house. It was perfect for the family’s yearlong stay, but there was one problem. “I almost vetoed this apartment because of the oxblood sectional in the family room,” Hana confesses. “It's just not my vibe, but my husband convinced me that a sofa shouldn't be a dealbreaker.” Coming to terms with the offending piece meant removing cushions — “They were just a little too stiff and saggy,” she laughs — and topping the whole arrangement off with a selection of her own pillows. “I was wondering if our pillows could even work in the space since there was already a lot going on color-wise, but it did. I even used our bed runner as a throw!”

Neutral Colored-Pillows Make for a Cool and Cozy Living Room

Directly across from the family room, a cozy, chic living room presented another sitting area with a completely different color palette. “It was kind of a weird design challenge,” she muses, “the two halves of the living space having different color schemes. One is warm and intense, and the other is all cool, muted tones.” Again, all it took was a designer’s eye and a bit of editing. “We rearranged the seating a bit so it flowed better, moving the armchairs in near the green settee, which is actually a futon.” All that was left was to add the finishing touch. “I kept the living room more muted, with some of our neutral pillows. I love how it all came together in the end. The two halves are somehow cohesive and it feels warm and inviting. Challenge complete.”

A Built-In Living Area

A fully furnished home comes with its share of upsides, but the downside is that it can be hard to feel like the space is really yours. Even the pieces that fill the bookshelves behind the living room futon came with the house, so they connect to the space, but not necessarily to the occupants. “The strange thing about this home,” Hana confirms, “is almost none of the pieces are ours. So the challenge was making this temporary home feel like our own.” Focusing on the positives, Hana made changes where she could, bringing in textiles from her own brand to add the dual flavors of the family’s Brooklyn home and the designer’s Ethiopian heritage. “Mostly I just updated the accessories, the rugs, pillows, bedding and outdoors.”

A Cheerful Infusion of Color In the Dining Room

The kitchen and dining room combo on the lower level uses the same warm/cool duality of color palettes as the living and family rooms upstairs. “The kitchen’s cool cabinets, subtle blue tint, and marble backsplash and shelf completely offset the intense warmth of the dining area,” says Hana. Another of Hana’s favorite spaces, the colors of the dining room are especially treasured. “These amazing orange chairs just sing to me,” she smiles. Another feature she loves is the room’s access to a small atrium, which fills the room with light while accentuating the decor of the interior. “The green pendants pick up the lush green of the palm just outside.”

A Stunning Open-Plan Kitchen

Despite the charm of the bedrooms and bathrooms, it’s the kitchen, with its adjacent dining room, that claims the crown for being the most used room in the house. “This is the space where my family spends the most time,” says Hana. Technically a basement, the distance between the two spaces and the living rooms, located on a higher floor, has brought some welcome alterations to the family’s daily routine. “Our New York home really made it easy to eat in front of the TV,” she explains. “But here, with the living room upstairs, we just cook and eat, do work and homework down here. And there’s a playroom just down the hall.”

Designing a Vibrant Work-From-Home Space

For Hana, out of the country doesn’t mean out of the office. With a popular brand to oversee and new collections to plan and promote, a work-from-home space was an absolute must, and this home did not disappoint. Originally a nursery, it only took a few key design decisions for Hana to get the office space she needed. “I switched out the crib for a desk, but I kept the toddler bed as extra seating,” she says. While the eye-catching, toucan-patterned wallpaper is likely the room’s biggest visual moment, Hana found places to add her own point of view, lining the newly appointed daybed with her pillows and bed runner. But even her textiles can’t overshadow the room’s biggest feature: “The best thing about this space is the outdoor access,” she says. “I love that you see a peek of our pieces (and the wild yellow table) outside.” With space, color, toucans and fresh air from outside, this office is everything a world-traveling design entrepreneur could ask for. “This is the best work-from-home situation I've had since 2015.”

Designing a Vibrant Outdoor Lounge

The outdoor area is one of the crowning achievements of this already impressive home. An intimate, walled-in oasis, the combination of open-slated fencing along with the stately brick walls allows for privacy without feeling penned in. Meanwhile, greenery drips from every wall and spills from every pot, contrasting the neatly tiled floor and striking a balance between the feel of a garden and an outdoor living space. It’s also one of the areas where Hana was able to have the biggest design impact. “We already had some seating but by using the pouf and a new fiery yellow table, we were able to get three separate seating zones. It just makes it so cozy and inviting.”

Brightly Colored Pillows Add Color and Texture Outdoors

“What I love most about this home is the amount of light it gets through the atrium, skylights and outdoor space. It’s so lovely. I also like the quirky aesthetic and color palette of the architecture; it’s pretty unexpected but harmonious.” In this temporary home, the designer is able to enjoy her space inside and out, especially with the addition of her very own textiles. Hana’s line of pillows, handmade in her home country of Ethiopia, are now available at West Elm.

How to Design a Stylish Children’s Room

One of the advantages of having a mom with design experience is that you’ll always have the best room. For Gelila, the result is this adorable little space. Filled with bright, happy pink tones, pops of blue, white and green, along with some very cool built-in architecture, it’s just the kind of space to make sure that a young girl always remembers her year in London.

Pretty in Pink Main Bedroom

The bedroom is one of Hana’s favorite rooms in her London home, ranking alongside the living room and primary bathroom. “Bedrooms and bathrooms totally make the home,” she opines. In this room, bedding from Hana’s textile line is a perfect match for the color of the bed frame. One of her long, lumbar pillows pitches in, the bright colors and intriguing patterns collaborating to make the bed the unrivaled focal point of the room. The small rug Hana added next to the bed is the perfect finishing touch.

Statement Tile in the Bathroom

Given Hana’s outlook on bedrooms and bathrooms, it makes sense that those offered in this house are fantastic. “We pretty much picked this place because of the amazing kid’s bedroom and the sumptuous bathrooms,” she explains. In particular, the primary bathroom, attached to the bedroom, has a special place in her heart. “They call them ‘en suites’ here,” she beams. But fancy vocabulary isn’t all this room has to offer. The amenities are even better. “Heated floors, heated towel rack, standalone tub, walnut cabinets … I don't know if I'll ever have any of these again,” she exclaims. But for a designer, nothing in this room is more exciting than the colors. “I love the pink and orange tiles!”

See How This Designer Brought Her Own Colorful Style to a Furnished London Rental Home

Related To:

Shop This Look

Textile Designer Hana Getachew Brings Her Work Home With Her

A Bold Family Room That Required Some Tweaking

Neutral Colored-Pillows Make for a Cool and Cozy Living Room

A Built-In Living Area

A Cheerful Infusion of Color In the Dining Room

A Stunning Open-Plan Kitchen

Designing a Vibrant Work-From-Home Space

Designing a Vibrant Outdoor Lounge

Brightly Colored Pillows Add Color and Texture Outdoors

How to Design a Stylish Children’s Room

Pretty in Pink Main Bedroom

Statement Tile in the Bathroom

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