Westminster Duplex
View gallery
This wonderful bilateral apartment in London had been our clients’ family home for many years. A treasure trove of artwork, antiques and curios, we wanted to make sure our designs complemented the clients’ existing collections while creating rooms that worked for modern-day living, easy entertaining and an expanding family.
Our initial brief was to give the drawing room a more contemporary look, and to create a flexible scheme that could be both formal and comfortable. With its impressive existing architectural features and generous ceiling height, the main reception room had stunning views over a cathedral square and an enviable amount of natural light to make the most of. We decided to use a soft palette for the backdrop, interspersed with jewel tones for a lift. Bespoke fitted joinery units were designed to work with the period features of the room but were made in a light oak finish for a more modern feel.
Similarly, in the study, we designed a pair of display cabinets to house the clients’ collection of china. Perfectly proportioned to the room, these were designed to work alongside some of the more impressive pieces of furniture from the clients’ collection. We used walnut for its warm tones and had it traditionally French polished to give it the feel of an original antique. We chose handblown glass for the doors for the same reason, providing the most lovely, dappled reflections of the light pouring in from the windows.
The brief expanded to include bedrooms and a TV room for the younger generation. Although still of the same proportions, these rooms were north-east facing and became quite dark at certain times of the day. With this in mind, light materials were used throughout, even when choosing the veneers for the joinery. Wallpapers – some hand-painted, some textural – brought a warmth to the rooms and made them feel like luxurious sanctuaries. Practical storage solutions were employed throughout the property, particularly in the TV room with its abundance of books and toys.
