Emma Sims-Hilditch, founder and creative director of the Cotswolds-based interior design studio Sims Hilditch, is known for her distinctive interpretation of the English country house. Drawing on a deep understanding of functionality and design, the Cotswolds-based interior design studio has become synonymous with timeless, characterful interiors.
In conversation, Emma will discuss her career, the evolution of the English country house, and the ideas behind the second Sims-Hilditch book, exploring how thoughtful design can bring together architectural heritage, contemporary living and enduring style.
Following the talk, there will be an audience Q&A and book signing.
10-10.30am - Guest Arrival and Refreshments
10.30-11.30am - Talk
11.30am - Audience Q&A
12pm - 1.30pm - Lunch in the Ox Barn or The Swan
*Talk and lunch tickets include access to the talk, welcome refreshments and lunch in the Ox Barn or The Swan - a £30 allocation towards your bill. Guests may be seated on a communal table - if you have a seating preference, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate you on the day.
Emma Sims-Hilditch
Emma Sims-Hilditch is a British interior designer and Creative Director of Sims Hilditch, the Cotswolds-based studio she founded in 2009. Known for her modern interpretation of the English country aesthetic, her approach centres on the idea that function and form should coexist harmoniously, each informing the other.
Raised in a creative family, Emma was immersed in art and design from an early age, later beginning her professional career in film production, where she developed a strong sense of visual storytelling. In her mid-20s, Emma chose to step away from the film industry and, with her husband John, co-founder of Neptune, relocated to the English countryside. There, they restored a late 18th-century schoolhouse - an experience that sparked a more personal engagement with interiors. Drawing on the practical and creative skills honed during this renovation, she established a curtain-making business from her home, which quickly gained recognition and organically evolved into a full-service interior design studio.
Today, Emma leads a team of over 30 designers, guiding projects that balance architectural integrity with a relaxed, liveable elegance. Alongside her studio work, she mentors emerging talent and contributes to the wider design conversation through international talks and her Create Academy course. When not in the studio, she spends time sourcing art and antiques across Europe - a longstanding passion that continues to inform and shape the studio’s creative direction.
Sims-Hilditch: Beautifully British Interiors
Author Giles Kime, Preface by Emma Sims-Hilditch
Sims Hilditch creates interiors that epitomize the English country house look of today. The firm embraces—in this, its second, book—the best of old and new British design, traditional materials, and a pared-back aesthetic to create stylishly comfortable rooms for twenty-first-century living.
Spanning the extraordinary breadth of the studio’s most recent work—projects in townhouses, historic country manors, and seaside villas—the interiors in this book reflect the design philosophy of founder Emma Sims-Hilditch: Every house needs to work on a functional level before one even considers the decoration. Spaces, from sumptuous entrance halls and sitting rooms to hardworking kitchens and boot rooms, are organized for efficiency and practicality before the design team introduces an abundance of floral and damask textiles, striking colors, both refined and comfortable furnishings, and decorative trims.
This book not only explores the fruits of complex and rewarding collaborations that artfully breathe new life into old buildings but also offers an insight into an exciting new chapter in the fascinating story of classic English country houses. New materials and technologies, paired with traditional decorative devices, reinvigorate a Victorian house in the city, an eighteenth-century country house, a Jacobean manor, an apartment in London’s Old War Office, and many other quintessentially British residences.
