The complete reordering of a large Edwardian detached house in south west London, including replanting its half-acre gardens and the selection of furniture and art with the client.
The ground floor was opened up to provide a series of generous connected spaces for reading, sitting and eating. Through the house, oak joinery provides places to sit – generous window seats in the living rooms, benches in the kitchen and cloakroom, and an upstairs reading area. The main fireplace hearth was extended the length of the room in flamed Purbeck stone.
In the kitchen a 10m-long stainless steel worktop made in one piece runs the length of the space, linking service areas at the front to dining at the rear. A private study at the front has bespoke bookshelves in solid oak.
On the upper floors, bedrooms are carpeted in soft grey wool, bathrooms are in polished plaster with unlacquered brass fittings, and the dressing room clad in untreated cedar. One shade of paint was used throughout the whole house.
Outside, the front garden was enclosed to provide an entrance forecourt. A side garden was walled to provide a quiet gravelled orchard, overlooked by a new loggia limewashed in red oxide and a cantilevered extension in brass and glass.
At the rear, the original wisteria-clad Edwardian loggia was retained, but the formal walled garden was replanted as if an extension of the nearby common, with two lawn clearings and a table of solid Forest of Dean sandstone amid the woodland.
Featured in House & Garden February 2018.
Photography: Alexander James