STORY BY MAHMOOD FAZEL, PHOTOS TONI BOWER

The Italian designer Massimo Vignelli once said, “Good design is a language, not a style.” Bowen & Kenneth’s interiors don’t just conjure an artful voice, the homes they furnish become flirtatious conversations that highlight the luxury of living.

Amongst Egyptian chandeliers, French provincial porters chairs and a hand-carved Indian Mandala; a myriad of ornate furnishings illuminate the imagination of designers Johanathan Kenneth McMahon and Samuel Bowen Pridmore, co-founders of the Bowen & Kenneth boutique in Daylesford.

“My grandmother would always tell me; ‘people don’t remember what you say, or what you do...they only remember how you make them feel,” says John, from behind an ivy laced counter, to the sound of crackling jazz drums. Raised in a family of dressmakers, John originally cultivated an opulent design aesthetic with a career in the bridal industry. He ponders, “it’s about the feeling; I’ve always been interested in the sound of the music, the texture of the fabric, the emotion of the look.”

As the pragmatist of the duo, Sam retorts, “John is really quite theatrical.” Sam was raised on a vineyard in Mclaren Vale, “I grew up with the best of the Hills and the ocean. It was a pretty arty area, not dissimilar to Daylesford. Growing up in Adelaide, it wasn’t as progressive as this community. Being gay was harder, there was only one gay club in the entire city so I felt kind of isolated, says Sam. “I decided to visit my sister for lunch on my way to Melbourne, and ended up staying in Daylesford for over a year. Everyone was so diverse and accepting.”

When asked about the Bowen & Kenneth style, Sam explains, “We build a style depending on what the house has to say. We really like when we walk into a house and that house just screams a particular style.”

In 2013, tragedy struck their relationship when Sam suffered a stroke and was forced to undergo life-saving brain surgery. “It was one year into our relationship,” explains John, “particularly because when someone suffers a stroke, and you've got blood in your brain, you don't know where you are, who you are, you barely recognise the people around you. After rehab, I thought life’s too short. I said to him one day, why don't we start something?”

As well as running and designing their own BnB in Daylesford, the decision was made to start a business that would celebrate their love of home decor. They decided to donate a percentage of their profits to the Brain Foundation, helping fund vital medical research into brain injury and illness. Sam remembers, “I just thought, let’s do something special...something that is worth waking up in the morning for.”

Their Time Flies piece immediately springs to mind, a milk-white clock that substitutes numbers with drifting ceramic birds. But their work shines in their interior design, John smiles as he remembers the early response to his work, “people would say it's like staying in a work of art, or living in a painting.”

Bowen & Kenneth’s design principles are elegantly articulated in Hardwood House, a chalet-style alpine lodging nestled on Wombat Hill. “Hardwood house screamed for industrial styling with a log cabin feel,” explains Sam. The sombre palette of Hardwood house is juxtaposed with lush plantation that flowers in the corners of rooms, droops above the sinks and draws the forest outdoors quietly into the mood of the home. Jonathan adds, “We wanted the colours to be muted but the furnishing to be beautiful, so we collaged tonal greys with industrial treasures.”

The Bowen & Kenneth story interweaves their lives with a creative process that reaches for the things most of us just dismiss as dreams, together they tease out the elements that elevate our world into a space that makes life worth living, “It’s just really lovely, knowing that our work makes people happy,” smiles John.

Bowen & Kenneth

03 5348 1678

customerservice@bowenkenneth.com

bowenkenneth.com