Working to a tight budget doesn’t mean having to scrimp on style or quality. ‘I relish the challenge of being inventive and creative within fiscal boundaries, making sure each space feels deeply personal,’ enthuses London-based interior designer Orla Read.
It’s certainly the approach she took when rescuing this maisonette from crumbling ruin. First working out the spatial planning and functionality, Orla then layered color and texture into multipurpose spaces to really suit how the family, a couple with two children, likes to live.
While imbued with brilliant proportions and high ceilings (even on the lower ground floor), the actual footprint of the house design across the two stories of this west London garden square apartment wasn’t large.
‘When it was bought, it was a total shambles,’ says Orla of peeling wallpaper, bathroom hardware falling away from the walls, and curtains torn and shredded. There were oddities too, like the ‘enormous staircase at the end of the hallway that gave the apartment a sense of grandeur – yet ironically only goes up to the smallest of rooms, a compact study which used to be the only bathroom in the home,’ says Orla.
She diligently carved out three double bedrooms with bathrooms, large kitchen and living spaces, as well as a utility room, cellar, and bike store, ensuring there were areas where the family could be both apart and together, and where nothing feels too precious. ‘Each room doesn’t feel too personal to anyone in particular, but each one has a special appeal and character,’ says Orla.
The team rewired and replumbed before repainting, reupholstering, and recycling old and vintage pieces. The designer focused on using ‘natural, warm materials – walnut, oak, stone, wool, and linen – and cosseting hues, such as creamy taupe, tobacco, forest green, and dusty pink.’
Working against this earthy neutral base allowed everything else – ‘paintings, heirlooms, lacquered pieces, clever finds from eBay’ – to sing, explains Orla. Certain elements were worth the splurge – for example, the wildly patterned quartzite used for the kitchen countertop and splashback, and the burr walnut lining the kitchen cabinets – while savings were made by using a mix of affordable tiles in different shapes and patterns in the bathrooms, and working with joiner Ed Keyser to cost-effectively customize shelving.
Central to the scheme was creating a knockout kitchen. ‘The clients are both madly into cooking and hosting, so it needed to be convivial but chic, classic but not too fussy, bold and robust,’ Orla recalls. ‘But equally I didn’t want it to feel like a standard kitchen in any form.’
Previously the living room, with another smaller space attached, they knocked through to join the two rooms together, meaning ‘the kids can play and have their friends over, watch TV, get cozy, but they can all be connected directly – and in between the two spaces we created a really cool bar.’
While the upstairs drawing room, laterally spacious and filled with abundant light, is ideal for cocktails and conversation, the lower ground floor – previously a mess of breeze-block walls and no functioning, livable rooms – is now ‘a little wonderland,’ says Orla. Here, the former kitchen is now the kids’ bedroom; plumbing was dug in for the three bathrooms and utility room; the hallway was lined with storage for all the kids’ toys; and two further bedrooms were created.
Art brings a zing to every room. Luckily, the clients had a great collection of art and antiques from their previous home. ‘We’ve blended art that was inherited, some of it grand, some of it not, as well as what they’ve collected over time,’ says Orla. ‘That eclectic balance gives the house energy.’
That liveliness extends to how the family entertains, especially at Christmas, when the fragrance of frankincense, cinnamon, panettone, and bitterballen (a moreish deep-fried beef croquette, a nod to the wife’s Dutch heritage) fills the air. Candles scented with fir, citrus, and chestnut burn brightly, bowls overflow with nuts and clementines, music booms from the record player, cocktails are being shaken, and fairy lights twinkle in every room. ‘It’s very, very festive, and everyone feels welcome,’ says Orla.
