Mr Maximilian Hurd had a unique request when he was house hunting for his now London home. “I knew exactly what I wanted, which was a house with a hallway big enough to house my favourite painting, originally bought by my parents for our childhood home in Brazil,” he says. “It’s over two metres long and finding a property in London with enough wall space was tricky, but I was adamant that I would not be sending it back into the dreaded storage. So, when I opened the front door and saw the wall, I knew I was home.”

The property is a Victorian workman’s cottage in northwest London – built to help house an expanding workforce during the industrial revolution – and retains some of the original features, with contemporary additions to add space, like a loft conversion and side return added by previous owners. But the singular style has been entirely overhauled by Hurd. “English country house in miniature or, as I once referred to it, Marie Antoinette meets Oscar Wilde by way of a Brazilian bordello,” is his one-line description.

Hurd’s penchant for maximalist, spectacular interiors was born out of a love of the “fantasy” he has spent his career in fashion styling and art directing creating. “I was constantly creating temporary worlds for clothes to live in, so it was a logical next step for me to create something permanent for myself,” he says.

When he secured the house, he reached out to his great friend, the interior designer Mr Benedict Foley (“the most creative person I know”), who guided Hurd through the world of design. “Together, we put together my dream home,” he says. “Although my style is a reflection of me, it is largely based on key elements of traditional interior design, which is why, although the colours in the house can seem wild, the actual pieces and construction of the rooms are very traditional.

“Benedict has an amazing understanding of who I am as a person and that, coupled with the ideas I had for the house, helped create a space that no matter what mood I am in, the house can cater for,” Hurd says. “When I come in, take my coat off, pick up the cats, I am instantly soothed, because walking into any part of my house feels like walking into a safe space in my mind. I always say it is an extension of me. Much like I can tell when one thing is out of place, it can tell when something is wrong with me and it rises to the challenge of comforting me.”

The duo took inspiration from key elements of Hurd’s life. “The colour scheme in the hall and the appeal of bright colours comes from my childhood growing up in Brazil. The more traditional elements of the house come from time spent at my grandparents’ houses in the English countryside, the love of high camp and theatricality comes for a celebration of my own queerness, etc. I wanted the space to be somewhere I could unabashedly be myself, a space where people could come and be like, ‘This is so Max’.”

The colour choices are saturated with meaning, with Foley and Hurd charting out each room on a storyboard to ensure it worked as a whole. “Each colour we chose means something to me: the light blue ceiling in the drawing room was inspired by a Venetian palazzo I fell in love with, the ‘Fake Tan’ in the kitchen is reminiscent of my summer nights spent in the south of France, the orange in my bedroom is the only colour the protagonists in Against Nature, one of my (and Dorian Gray’s) favourite books, can stomach.

“Choosing colour is about self-reflection,” he continues. “Why do you like it? What does it mean to you? If you can answer that, it’s the right colour for you to live with. Just because you saw it on Instagram once doesn’t mean that it’s right for your space.”

Painting is an area that he has no hesitation being bold with, “because, at the end of the day, you can always paint it back”.

On the flip side, it is longevity that takes priority when it comes to selecting his furnishings. “Interiors, like fashion, should be about investing in something that will last,” Hurd says. “Pieces that will stay with you and your family forever. Buy things that mean something to you. People always say to me, ‘Well, I need something for here or something to fill that space’, and then they rush out and buy any old piece of tat, then invariably get rid of it when they find the piece they were looking for in the first place. What a waste. I keep everything and I have got very good at waiting.”

The result is a dazzling treasure-trove of a house filled with meaningful pieces. There is the 18th-century Florentine drinks table in the drawing room, which was the first proper antique he bought for the house – “taking delivery of it was probably the first time I felt like a grown up,” he says. And the mirror in the library, which took a whole year to source, he describes as “perfection… Every time I look at it, I smile. As soon as it was hung up, that room felt complete”.

The aforementioned painting in the hall – the deciding factor in Hurd’s house search – is a wildly vivid depiction of palm trees. “It holds a really special place in my heart, as I grew up with it first in Brazil and then in my family home in France. For me, it is pure joy and is a blast of colour very much needed when I come in from cold grey London.”

It might take pride of place in the entrance hall, but it isn’t the only significant artwork on display around his home. There is also a charcoal drawing of a boy with a dog in the library, which was a gift from his grandmother. “She had it reserved for me since I was a little boy as we share a bond over love of all things canine,” Hurd says.

“And throughout the house, I have various photographs and cards framed beautifully by A.Prin. The frames themselves are works of art and what they frame are little snapshots into my life, little memories preserved forever.”