Home Comforts: Benedict Foley and Daniel Slowik’s expertly designed digs

Dealers, decorators, designers, dandies – is there anything Benedict Foley and Daniel Slowik don’t do beautifully? Benedict – rarely seen sans silk cravat and navy painter’s smock – is something of a style savant. A whizz at framing (read his tips here), he’s also a fabulously fun colourist who knows the value of a good leopard print and, when it comes to blinds, what qualifies the right amount of ruffle. Daniel, meanwhile, is cut from different – though no less delightful – cloth. Ex-Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, he speaks the language of the country-house look fluently: historically informed, context-led, rich yet understated.

Such style has, of course, been brought to bear at home too, which the couple share with “a large number of ceramics”. They split their time between Hackney, in a late Regency flat constructed in the 1830s as part of the De Beauvoir town development, and a cottage in East Anglia’s Dedham Vale, built in 1804 as one of a pair of mill workers’ lodgings, “so it’s relatively modern for an area known for its Tudor timber architecture,” Benedict explains. It’s here that, when not tirelessly working on new schemes for clients, stocking up their covetable cache of antiques or, in Benedict’s case, designing his next frame or wall bracket, the couple can normally be found rehanging their near-endless collection of pictures, as he explains below. We’d never have guessed.

My most recent home improvement…
We’ve just rearranged a couple of rooms at the cottage to absorb some new-to-us-but-old furniture. With Daniel and I both being designers, it’s hard not to want to keep changing things.

The latest addition to my wardrobe…
Practical additions. A scarf for Daniel from Château Orlando, a dressing gown for me from Sir Plus (it’s navy, for a change!)

The most useful item in my kitchen…
An extra-large Le Creuset casserole. I’ve had it since I was 22 and it’s still doing the business! Although Daniel is now in charge of cuisine, as I’m normally in the studio every minute I can be.

What’s always in my fridge…
Tarragon mustard from Beaune, and champagne from our neighbour Pete, who’s a wine merchant – and a lifesaver when the rack is empty.

The prize bottle in my drinks cabinet…
A rude bottle of limoncello – think: phallic with tricolore colours – a tourist atrocity from Amalfi. I can’t stand the stuff but the bottle is a hoot! It was given to us by my friend Derek, who knows how to make me laugh.

Hanging on my walls…
This would make rather a long list. I rehang all the time, but lately I’ve been playing around with things on a series of wall brackets I’ve designed for A. Prin.

The knick-knacks on my mantelpiece…
A pair of lapis-blue Victorian spill vases in the form of chanterelle mushrooms – extraordinary things – as well as an 18^th-century Worcester tea bowl and saucer with a chip (it looks like someone took a bite out of it), a peppering of postcards from friends, and probably a glass of something that’s been forgotten about.

The books on my shelf right now…
I never got round to building shelves, so the whole library is in towering stacks on the floor. Currently at the top of the pile are my friends Nicolò Castellini Baldissera and Guido Toroni’s Inside Milan, John Cornforth’s Early Georgian Interiors, and John Julius Norwich’s A Short History of Byzantium in three volumes.

The music on my stereo…
Amanda Lear.

Growing in my garden…
Not much – it’s currently underwater. But we will have the most amazing self-seeded hollyhocks later in the year. I try and let things grow where they’re happy. Gardening is a bit like decorating; you don’t want things to look too contrived.

Hidden away in my cupboards…
All my antique stock that I’m waiting to photograph for Foley & Prin.

On my to-do list…
See above!

Further reading

A. Prin

Foley & Prin

Daniel Slowik

Benedict on Instagram

Daniel on Instagram

Photography: Boz Gagovksi