A Chelsea Apartment

We designed this apartment for an Anglo-Asian family with a penchant for traditional English interior decoration but with a strong sense of colour and pattern. Occupying two floors of a Chelsea Mansion block, we started work by remodelling the architectural framework of the building – where two apartments on two different floors had been very poorly connected with a hideous glass and metal spiral staircase in the early 1980s.  We reconfigured both floors entirely to achieve a properly detailed Victorian staircase which had a huge impact in opening up the volume of the apartment and making it feel significantly larger than before.

Elsewhere, lowered ceilings were removed, and architecturally authentic mouldings and details restored; a simple new kitchen and bathrooms designed and missing details replaced. Together with our clients we developed a richly coloured decorative palette with warm yellows and orange colours on the ground floor, a bold acid green gloss paint on the kitchen walls, and a more restful and traditional scheme in the bedrooms, with beautifully made traditional curtains and upholstery.

Working to an extremely tight timescale, the renovation was completed in time for a happy first Christmas in London.

Elgin Crescent

For a happy former client, we were delighted to help on a new project in the heart of Notting Hill, restoring and upgrading one of the boldly coloured 19th-century townhouses in Elgin Crescent.

Following a significant programme of architectural redesign – the house had been very poorly renovated by a developer, and our task was to put back an interior will a suitably authentic historic character – we moved on to design the interiors throughout the tall townhouse. We were inspired to create a layered house that blended the spirit of today with the best of 1970s and early 80s English decoration – hessian walls, Morris & Co wallpapers, traditional joinery – an atmosphere that the house had perhaps been inherited from a stylish aunt rather than having a top-to-toe, bland renovation so beloved of the Notting Hill Estate Agent.   A strong sense of colour and pattern abounds throughout, but with the hope that this interior will look as fresh and interesting in thirty years’ time as it does today.

An Artist’s House in Chelsea

This magical 19th century townhouse in Chelsea is made special by its extraordinary garden location, and by the first floor artist’s studio that provides an astonishing interior to an otherwise unremarkable house.

When we first arrived, the building was in very poor condition and required significant remodelling and renewal, including completely new roofs, new side extensions and an entirely new street elevation.  We worked closely with planning officers at the Royal Borough to agree a strategy for the design and remodelling that provided significant additional accommodation but presented a suitably quiet face to this leafy and untouched street.

As with many of our remodelling projects, we went on to decorate the new home in its entirety for our interesting client, with her quiet taste and beautiful collection of pictures.  The design combines a simple, almost minimalist aesthetic with arts and crafts furniture and textiles, soft grey and white walls and intermittent splashes of colour and pattern.  The house is filled with light and has an amazing sense of connection to its green and peaceful garden.