Creators of playful worlds
With House of Kin’s designs, it’s hard to tell where the play ends and real life begins.
We believe in four-storey slides, impossible surprises hidden behind small doors and designing spaces for children and families that challenge the norm
Friends and founders
Anna and James met while creating the world’s first family members' club, Maggie and Rose.
Spotting a gap in the family design market, they thought up House of Kin so that they could carry on designing and building epic play-led spaces for kids and their families, in all the play-needing places that kids end up - like hotels, nursery schools, retail centres, museums and even doctors’ surgeries.
Bring on the play! They cry. But make it good, like, really good.
Meet Anna
Anna began her career in hospitality and never really left it; she just started looking at it differently, from a child’s height.
Named by The Hotel Guru in The Telegraph as the youngest hotel general manager in London, she spent her early career running restaurants, bars and hotels before finding her way to Maggie & Rose, as manager of London's original family members club.
Fifteen years there - studying interior design at Chelsea College of Art, becoming Head of Design, and leading the international rollout across London, China, Singapore and Hong Kong - gave her what she describes as an MBA in family design.
Now, through force of habit, she simply can't unsee the friction points and operational faults in a space that could so easily be fixed.
As the steady hand of House of Kin, Anna’s project management skills are on point, and her almost impossibly high standards for operationally sound yet creative family and children's design mean she spots in her sleep what others often miss.
While she continues to bring a rare mix of designer’s eye and human instinct, her harshest and most honest critics will always be her two children, who have taught Anna more than the Chelsea College of Art ever did about functional family design - and what kids do, and don't, like.
Meet James
James doesn’t see a room; he sees a story unfold.
Studying at the National Film School of Ireland means he’s trained his eye for visual narrative and is fluent in the art of making an audience feel something.
Leading with feeling and that sense of world-building now the creative heartbeat of every space that House of Kin designs.
Before co-founding House of Kin, he was producing bespoke, high-stakes events for global brands like Google and Facebook. James then went on to meet Anna at Maggie and Rose, where highlights include installing 200 disco balls for a children's disco room in China, building shop displays from wine crates before anyone thought that was cool, and conjuring immersive family environments from the most unexpected spaces.
James’ deeply creative superpower is the ability to see a space as a cinematographer sees a scene. So that every design project begins with a narrative, not a floor plan.
What goes on inside James's mind is, by Anna's own admission, occasionally terrifying in the best possible way. He turns everything into something beautiful. He always has. He always will.
“We went to House of Kin with the idea of creating a multi-generational classroom – a space where children, parents, and grandparents could come together to learn and create. Anna and James brought our vision to life with incredible thoughtfulness and creativity. The result is a truly unique space that feels warm, functional, and inviting for every age. We couldn't be happier!”
Private residential clients, Windsor
