When the client first contacted us about this Holland Park house, it was intriguing to find it perfectly preserved with the original wallpaper intact, and a layout from the era when the kitchen was banished to a tiny annex off the dining room. Connecting the galley kitchen and dining room into a unified living-dining space and installing a huge skylight over the stair well to flood light through the three floors of accommodation were key interventions in this quest to revitalise the property.
We have worked on a number of these 1950’s properties in the area where a significant proportion of the small footprint of the house was originally designated as a garage, testament to the reverence of the motorcar at that time. With the car sensibly banished from the house, we were able to create a calm and functional study in this space, with glimpses to Holland Park through the new window and smart hidden joinery storage. Personal touches abound, in the refreshed incarnation of what was the client’s childhood home. These include a bespoke fireplace by the clients’ husband, the sculptor Johannes von Stumm, and decorative flourishes to the cloakroom, displaying the client’s call sheets from Ballet productions gone by. These elements were curated as part of the complexly colourful interiors scheme under the discerning eye of Lonika Chande and her team, with whom we worked closely.