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.

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.

A City Apartment

For a London legal couple, with a strong interest in early 20th century European design, we entirely remodelled this apartment in a handsome Grade II building in very heart of  the City, overlooking the Tower of London.  Combining two apartments into one, we completely replanned the internal layout of the flat, in the process persuading our clients to move from a nominal three bedroom apartment to two – but with a suite of fantastically designed, architectural spaces as a result.

Following quite a lengthy process to obtain building and listed building consents, we commenced work which was comprehensive – new finishes and joinery throughout, complete rewiring and re-servicing, before we started the decoration process.

The apartment has a rich blend of colours, a palette that draws from pre-WW2 apartments in Vienna or Berlin, with stubby olive greens and dark chocolate combined with white walls and flashes of colour.  New parquet floors were installed throughout. The furniture and artwork was drawn from our clients’ ecclectic collection and a custom-designed burr walnut bookshelf made for the drawing room, which cunningly conceals a TV in the lower cabinets.

We have subsequently worked on the design of an early 20th century apartment building in Prague, for the same owners – an equally happy process.