My latest project sees me working top to bottom on a large 1930s home in Ealing, West London. Starting on the ground floor, my first first phase includes the front room and large kitchen diner. My brief was to echo the history of the house while injecting modern touches for a very modern client.
Front room:
I could picture the possibilities of this room as soon as I first walked in; it had really good bones, a stunning fireplace and lovely windows to the front. My client is one of those methodical mathematical types and really struggled seeing how it would look. But after talking through my mood board (above), he was brave enough to go with my instincts. He wanted a nod to a gentlemen's sitting room, didn't really know about a colour scheme and had to be nudged, very gently of course, towards wallpaper.
Because he had no furniture in the room I had a complete blank canvas. I wanted it to look dramatic but stylish, and my only real direction was the settee and chairs had to sit high enough off the floor to allow his robot vacuum to do its job.
Thankfully, that pale blue and salmon colour scheme went very quickly and made way for an Art Deco style wallpaper and warm grey walls. For furniture, I went for mango wood cabinets from Atkin & Thyme, cream boucle wingback chairs from Dunhelm. The grey, velvet sofa and large footstool were from City Sofa.
My favourite comment was one of my client's friends described it as "very Sherlock Holmes". Job done!
Kitchen/diner:
I wanted to continue the black, grey and beige colour scheme, but my client didn't want this room to look too fussy so I went easy on the accessories. Before I got to work, I advised getting rid of the boardroom-style dining table and chairs, and replacing them with a softer button-back velvet option - with matching bar stools - from Furniture 123 that immediately injected more style into the space.
To create a more zoned area, the rather strange block of blue made way for the same warm grey as the sitting room to give the ground floor a more cohesive feel. This was carried along the wall and into the alcove area, which was dressed with a large abstract canvas, plants and candles.
Finally, working round the large white leather corner sofa in the living area, I dressed it with cream and beige textiles (and a sheepskin throw hid a long-standing stain!).
