'Think About Atmosphere Before Decoration' – How Emma Sims-Hilditch Made a Vast Open-Plan Space Feel Surprisingly Intimate
This month, we delve into how Sims Hilditch made a generous open-plan space feel intimate
What makes a large room feel inviting rather than overwhelming? In Design DNA, we break spaces down to their essential elements, revealing the design thinking behind the layout, materials, lighting, and details that make them sing.
Basements can be tricky spaces to get right, often lacking the natural light and connection of the rooms above. Here, there was another challenge: how do you create a sense of atmosphere in a room that boasts the proportions of a gallery? For Emma Sims-Hilditch, the answer was not to fill it with decoration but to give the volume a sense of purpose and a 'rhythm and intimacy' that wasn’t there before.
'The clients wanted the basement to become one of the most-used spaces in the house,' she explains. Emma resisted the temptation to treat the basement as one large room, instead breaking the open-plan footprint into connected zones for relaxing, entertaining, playing, and Pilates.
A cozy seating area pairs a black leather lounge chair with a supersized green velvet couch, while antique mirrors and layered lighting add depth and character
The house has a subtle mid-century influence, but downstairs they chose to amplify it, creating a 'richer, more immersive interpretation'. The result is 'playful and intimate,' Emma describes, while still feeling connected to the rooms above. The oversized sofa anchors the main seating area, while the games table doubles as a dining table thanks to a removable tabletop. 'They wanted a room that could work equally well for family movie nights, children playing or larger gatherings with friends,' says Emma. Lighting, rugs and furniture placement subtly mark out each zone, while clear sight lines keep the whole room connected.
The timber ceiling provides the visual thread. It became the defining feature of the scheme, introducing warmth, texture and architectural interest into the double-height space. 'With the ceiling taking center stage, the rest of the material palette was intentionally restrained,' says Emma. Rich timbers, natural stone, aged brass, velvet and leather were layered around it, while Bauwerk-painted walls provide a quiet backdrop. Nothing here competes for attention; instead, each material adds its own subtle shift in texture or tone.
A rich timber dining table and rust-red leather chairs complement the olive-green upholstery and timber ceiling, creating a cohesive palette that connects the basement’s living and entertaining zones
In a basement, lighting has to work harder. With less natural light filtering in, Emma avoided relying on a single source, instead layering oversized decorative pendants, wall lights and table lamps. 'Creating multiple pools and levels of warm light allows the atmosphere in a room to change throughout the day and evening,' she says. The effect is subtle but transformative, giving each zone its own character without breaking the flow of the room.
What keeps the room from feeling too polished is the sense that it belongs to the people who live here. Existing furniture and artwork with sentimental value sit alongside pieces that have been curated with art consultants Cramer & Bell, while books, ceramics, and collected objects bring a personal touch to the open shelving. 'We like shelves to reflect the people who live in the house, rather than feeling professionally styled,' says Emma. Leaving breathing space prevents the shelving from looking visually cluttered and allows them to be added to over time.
The double-height basement is divided into multiple zones, with a warm timber ceiling, an oversized olive-green sofa, and warm wood tones bringing intimacy to the expansive space
Scale matters here, too. 'Because the room is so generous, off-the-shelf pieces would have looked slightly lost,' she explains. The oversized sofa was designed specifically for the proportions of the space, giving it the presence to feel comfortable within the architecture. 'Think about atmosphere before decoration,' Emma advises. 'People often focus on color first, but materials, texture, lighting and proportion have a much greater influence on how a room feels,' she adds.
For all its size and guises, this is a room that never feels overwhelming. 'For me, the success of the design is that it creates a real sense of intimacy within such a large footprint,' Emma reflects. Perhaps that is the real trick here: not making a large room feel smaller, but instead making every part of it feel considered enough to draw you in.
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Design DNA is the Homes & Gardens series that breaks down beautiful rooms into their essential elements. Each installment dissects one interior and shows readers exactly what makes it work, from the anchor furniture and layout choices to color, lighting, and styling details.
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