Working from home renovation

Working parents, teen children and a business to run from home.

A derelict Victorian duplex, with good light, but bad everything else.

How would you approach such a succinct brief?

We started, as always, from good layouts.

These provided generous living space at ground floor, with sitting dining areas that can double as meeting room, a separate kitchen, and a home office, while the upper floor is totally private with two children’s bedrooms, master suite, utility space and storage.

We then proceeded repairing, restoring, and removing layers of low-quality finishes that went back to the age when the house was built, in the 1860s.

All new ceilings were installed, just below the existing original lath and plaster ceilings – this is far cheaper than demolishing the existing and provides level flat surfaces that looks beautiful when up lit. The existing floorboards were levelled and repaired and over-boarded with plywood to provide a firm base for the new flooring.

All door openings were made extra tall, to enhance the ceiling height and maximise the light.

When a building has not been touched for decades, experience tells us that all electrical and plumbing services must be all replaced. And this we did, implementing a new energy efficient lighting design - 95% of the lights are now LED – and installing a water softener and a filter to provide purified drinking water and prolong the life span of the boiler and appliances.

Materials and colours form a timeless, neutral palette of natural oak, black stone - Sahara marble and Zimbabwe travertine, and ivory handmade tiles, all tied together by a warm, light taupe tint for all walls and woodwork.

The trick of painting the walls with irregular, wide-sweeping paintbrush strokes instead than with the usual roller, give the walls an irregular texture, very similar to white plaster.

A few built-in pieces have been designed for the tricky areas – under the stairs, in the lobbies in the form of shoes and utility cupboards and for the all-bespoke all-black kitchen, while the rest of the furniture comes from previous homes, local vintage shops, Portobello Market and, in the children bedrooms and the study, Ikea.

Ethnic textiles, mainly Moroccan and West African are dotted in the rooms collected during trips and re-fashioned as bedcovers, curtains and sofas upholstery.