"We made some controversial decisions with the space," says Bee Janaye, the 29-year-old founder of up-and-coming design studio Janaye. Bee had been instructed to reconfigure a four-storey London townhouse (in collaboration with an architecture practice) that had previously been divided into four separate apartments into a modern home for one family.
And with the client keen for a "deeply personal forever home", says Bee, she was free from the constraints of designing for resale.
For starters, the largest bedroom in the house, located on the first floor, was converted into a home gym. Another bedroom was sacrificed on the top floor in order to get one main suite with a large bathroom and a walk-through dressing area.
"That bathroom has a walk-in shower and freestanding bath — with space to move around," explains Bee Janaye.
Neutral walls mean that subtle but colorful pieces, like this chandelier, can stand out.
Perhaps most radically, the utility room was moved to the top floor and concealed behind a mirrored door, which has proved far more practical for putting away clothing.
"This house is not a cookie-cutter space; instead, it’s designed around improving the client’s life," Bee explains. "People are shifting their mindsets around interiors and starting to invest in homes that are good for their wellbeing."
Given the property’s fragmented past, there was work to do to create a sense of cohesion. The starting point and design thread throughout was the use of encaustic tiles. Bee’s client was "very specific" about wanting them "everywhere".
Inspired by her travels in South America, she loved their chalky, worn-in feel. The pattern of an encaustic tile is inlaid, rather than stamped onto the surface, "but they’re high maintenance," says Bee. "They stain easily, and they’re hard to lay."
This rich eggplant hue is the perfect deep, vegetal color for a home office — steal the idea here.
It was an inspired choice, though — after designing the tiles from scratch ("based on the client’s references"), Bee ran them throughout the ground-floor hallway ("It draws your eye through the home," she says), as well as most of the bathrooms.
And with their "subtle aesthetic", they lend "a balance of softness" to the stronger design elements in the house.
There was also the client’s statement artworks to place. With this other strong element brought into the design, Bee added calm, neutral colors, "to let these two forces speak for themselves and ensure that the rest of the scheme really melts into it".
The client also wanted dark timber flooring and pale walls, referencing her time spent in Latin America and the Caribbean.
"It’s warm, grounded, and full of personal meaning," says Bee, who opted for a "dark chocolate" herringbone flooring inlaid with brass. "It feels like this golden thread running through the house, and it allowed us to switch up the vibe."
Stylishly light your art with this antique brass Dimmable Picture Light from Pooky.
However, there was also some client pushback — so, initially, it was "absolutely not" to aubergine paint for the living room joinery. The client was also opposed to the bronze glass screen for the main en suite, but "these things have turned out to be her favorite elements, because they bring so much character," says Bee.
"We spend a lot of time getting to know our clients and telling them that this is actually about them, and not about trends," Bee adds. "When you’ve shown a client that level of care about who they are and their story, I think it just innately makes them trust you."
