There have been some memorable Christmas parties in the Chelsea home of Blake and Chad Pike. ‘I go to the flower market and buy miles of garlands and mistletoe and then we have a steel brass band and a drinks party for all our friends,’ says Blake with a breeziness that belies the scale of the operation. ‘It’s become something of a tradition – a highlight of the festive season.’
That the house design so readily lends itself to a crowd is no happy accident. In 2013, the couple – Chad is founder of Eleven Experience, a luxury adventure travel company with lodges in far-flung corners of the globe, while Blake oversees its interiors arm, Twelve Interiors – gave the 1920s home they share with their four children a top-to-toe rethink. ‘We’d already been here a decade,’ says Blake, whose family divides its time between London and New York. ‘But the original renovation had been so poorly done that everything was falling apart.’
