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HOMES & INTERIORS
FRANCIS SULTANA: The AD100 designer on his favourite projects S I N C E F O U N D I N G H I S E P O N Y M O U S P R A C T I C E I N 2 0 0 9 , F R A N C I S S U LTA N A H A S B E C O M E O N E O F T H E W O R L D ’ S M O S T S O U G H T-A F T E R I N T E R I O R D E S I G N E R S , A M A S S I N G A H I G H - N E T- W O R T H C L I E N T E L E T H AT S PA N S T H E G LO B E .
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A S H E S E T S T O W O R K O N A N E W H O T E L P R O J E C T I N C A P R I , T H E M A LT E S E - B R I T O N D I S C U S S E S H I S I N S P I R AT I O N S , D E S I G N P E T P E E V E S A N D L O V E O F A R T
f ever there was an argument for letting your children watch too much television, then Francis Sultana is it. It was shows such as Dallas and Dynasty that inspired the interior designer’s very first project, his aunt’s house in Gozo, Malta, which he designed, rather remarkably, when he was just seven years old. “I was already being influenced by interior design as a little boy,” says Sultana. “Malta was very heavily socialist at the time and we didn’t have very much; those TV series were like opening a window into a world of success. I always say to my friends now, be careful what you let your children watch because they could end up like me.” Something tells me such parents wouldn’t be too upset if that turned out to be the case. An AD100 designer who founded his eponymous studio 12 years
Words: Ellen Millard
“Sultana has become one of the foremost interior designers for the super-rich, working with clients such as Madonna and Annie Lennox” ago, Sultana has become one of the foremost interior designers for the superrich, creating homes and superyachts for clients such as Madonna and Annie Lennox, as well as commercial spaces for brands including jeweller Fawaz Gruosi. When he’s not orchestrating projects in New York, France and the UK, Sultana LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
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is designing his furniture collection, which is updated annually and starts from £4,000 for lighting, or curating exhibitions at David Gill Gallery, whose eponymous founder is his partner in life and work. Sultana’s role as the gallery’s artistic director allows him to satisfy his passion for art, which is intrinsically woven into his interior design concepts and informed by his positions on the boards of the Design Museum, the Serpentine Gallery and PAD London. Projects in the pipeline include the Hotel La Palma in Capri, which is due to open in 2022, and several furniture and accessory collaborations in the UK and France, the details of which are yet to be revealed. In between meetings, we caught up over Zoom to discuss his influences, his favourite projects and keeping his clients’ spiralling creativity in check.
