Bringing the Big Apple home

MAXINE Harrison is every homesick New Yorker's answer to an interior-decorating dream. She trained in England, took New York by storm, and, homesick for the motherland, has returned to work in London for a client base that spans both sides of the Atlantic, with a very clear vision of American style.

So how did Harrison manage this cross-cultural conquest? Simple, really.

While working for British decorator Nicholas Herbert she was sent on a business trip to the Big Apple, fell in love with the place and determined to live there.

She wrote to leading American designer David Easton, whose work she had admired since seeing his home in House and Garden, and asked for a job, which she promptly got. She then spent three years working throughout North America, developing her signature style that she describes as "combining the grace of the Old World with the vitality of the New".

Harrison set up on her own in 1998, and worked for a variety of prestigious clients in and around New York before deciding to come back to London. "I was terribly homesick," she explains. "I missed my friends and family and the British countryside. I once went to a slide show and burst into tears because they showed pictures of the Lake District."

Having started to pick up jobs in London two years previously, she transferred the business to England. A week after her return to the capital, she met her husband and now has a three-month-old baby, Beatrice. She now spends half her time here and half across the Atlantic, sharing the travelling with colleague Tania Husselby.

"My husband is actually from the Lake District," Harrison laughs. "I'm much happier here but now I've got the best of both worlds. I admire the American vibrancy. They like bigger furniture, the look is often much bolder and their taste can be more eclectic. But I also love the English style, and very often it's good to incorporate them. I think I have the energetic, can-do American approach and the slower, more thoughtful British attitude."

This philosophy is clearly demonstrated in American actress Jane Jackson's west London apartment.

The flat was effectively a blank canvas, with impressive high ceilings, original Georgian cornices and parquet floors. Jackson and her husband wanted to stamp some style on it.

"I'd met Maxine in New York through a friend," says Jackson.

"I wanted to use her because although she's English, she knew the American market so well. I wanted a modern spin on traditional English decorating; nothing frilly and no swags."

Harrison began by mapping out a furniture plan and identifying some pieces around which to base a simple scheme, including two large sofas in the living room, a limestone-and-metal kitchen table and a dining table and benches by renowned 19th century carpenter "mouse man" Robert Thompson.

Then she and Jackson worked out a colour scheme to make the apartment warmer and more inviting. A key part of this are the luxurious living-room walls, which are made of ground marble and plaster mixed with pigment, applied layer after layer for a deep patina and then waxed to a soft finish.

The next step was fabrics. Harrison brought her choice to the apartment and she and Jackson went through them together, finally deciding on luxurious textures such as velvet, chenille and silk.

Slowly the look was built up, comprising warm colours, generous- sized furniture, a mix of old (Jackson and her husband are particularly keen on French Thirties antiques) and new, a few specially commissioned pieces and some surprises.

These include a framed antique Chinese tapestry over the bed, a quartet of mirrors in the living room, which offer an intriguing take on the traditional overmantel mirror, and a massive cartoon for an Aubusson tapestry that dominates one wall of the dining room.

Jackson was delighted with the result, which was completed in less than three months. "It has everything that we wanted, eclectic with a bit of whimsy. It's very serene and extremely comfortable and easy to live in."

It's clear that this place does indeed possess both Old-World grace and New-World vitality.

Maxine Harrison can be contacted at MH Design, Bay 2, 1955 Building, 2 Michael Road, SW6 (020 7471 4816).

WHERE TO GET THE LOOK

Antique tribal hangings and textiles: Esther Fitzgerald, 28 Church Row, NW3 (020 7431 3076)

Custom-made rugs: Veedon Fleece, 42 Nightingale Road, Guildford, Surrey (01483 575758)

Dining chairs: Christopher Howe: 020 7730 7987

Dining table and benches: Andy Gibbs Antiques, 01989 566833 Dressing table: B and T Antiques: 020 7229 7001

Fabrics: Italian and French fabrics from Claremont, 35 Eliston Street, SW3 (020 7581 9575);

others from Ian Mankin: 020 7722 0997; Manuel Canovas: 020 8877 6400 and Osborne and Little: 020 7352 1456

Funky and whimsical furniture: Alasdair Brown, 3-4 The Crane Well, The Gasworks, SW6 (020 7736 6661)

Plaster finish: Marmorino by Perucchetti: 020 7371 5497 Sofa: Howard Chairs, 020 7482 2156

Table top: The Mosaic Workshop, 020 7263 2997

Thirties French furniture: Hemisphere, 10 Barley Mow Passage, W4 (020 8742 2533)

Unusual British furniture and antique lighting: Dowell, Bay 2, 2 Michael Road, The Gasworks, SW6 (020 7371 7790)

Wall hanging: Julia Boston, 020 7610 6783

Wrought-iron pieces: Maiden Iron, 020 7394 6566

Copyright 2001
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