Last week, on August 17th interior decorator and antiques dealer Robert Kime died at home. This is a true loss to the world of design and decoration. Robert Kime was a quiet yet vital force who will be greatly missed. He was a constant presence on the pages of The World Interiors. In 1982 the farmhouse he shared with his beloved wife Helen was photographed for the fourth ever edition of the magazine; an early example of the undecorated look for which he would become known. He was a great accumulator, collecting objects not for their value but for what they represented and for the stories they told. His rooms were rooted in history, they were worldly, romantic, layered and utterly lacking in pomposity, arranged with a lightness of touch and an incomparable ability to rejoice in the ordinary. As Hamish Bowles wrote, ‘his alchemic genius turned cottages and palaces into welcoming and convivial havens of comfort, and treasuries of eclectic furnishings, textiles and objects and pictures’. The homes Kime made for himself, and indeed for his clients, were distillations of a curious, thoughtful and passionate man with a singular vision and an enduring love for that which he did so well. Robert Kime LVO, antiques dealer and interior decorator, was born on February 7, 1946. He died on August 17, 2022, aged 76. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues at @robertkime. Photography: James Mortimer A house on one of William Henry Playfair’s landmark Edinburgh terraces, designed by Robert Kime and featured in The World of Interiors’ October 2007 issue.