It was a magazine feature that won London design studio The Vawdrey House this project. The homeowners, a couple with three teenage children, spotted a previous design by the practice, and asked its team to transform their recently bought property into a forever home. The sprawling Arts & Crafts mansion, built in the early 20th century, was an enticing prospect, boasting a grand carriage drive and half-timbered Tudor Revival façade.
The north London home was more challenging than it first appeared, however. It contained a warren of dark, disconnected rooms, not suited to the building’s grand proportions. The clients, who love entertaining, aimed to inject “personality and joie de vivre”, and create a welcoming space for family and friends. “They didn’t want the house to feel like a typical home in any way,” says Sophie Chapman, associate at The Vawdrey House. “So, for example, they didn’t want the kitchen to look like an everyday kitchen. The whole house had to feel like an experience.”
Fixing the disjointed layout was fundamental to the studio’s concept. Its first decision was to relocate the staircase from the front of the house to the centre. In its former place is a double-height entrance atrium with book-lined shelves, which creates an abundance of light as soon as you enter. The new staircase is the centrepiece of the home, a classic sweeping design in oak that serves as a gallery for the family’s collection of contemporary artworks. At ground level, this space is brought up to date with marble-mosaic flooring, while the first-floor landing has been transformed into a cosy library with Soho Home armchairs, overlooking a huge window above the entrance.
This Tudor Revival project, explains Chapman, was less about preserving original features and more about “giving the house the right style, so it sat comfortably in its own skin”. To enhance functionality and the flow of light, two large extensions were added to the rear of the property. One, which is 14 metres long, houses the kitchen, dining room, and a snug overlooking the garden. “Creating an indoor-outdoor connection was a major theme of the design,” says Chapman. “In the kitchen, floor-to-ceiling doors flood the space with light. These are complemented by a suspended storage unit with hanging plants above the island.”
Decorated in dark-stained oak with touches of brass, dark green marble and polished concrete, the kitchen and its leather-upholstered breakfast nook are both robust and elegant, equally suited to daily use and hosting guests. In the adjacent snug, fluted black concrete wall panels add a sense of drama, contrasting with a cosy log burner and Timothy Oulton sheepskin chairs. “At the opposite end of the home, a second, smaller extension houses a new gym,” adds Chapman. “Thanks to its cantilevered corner pocket door, the homeowners have immediate access to the garden, which emphasises the home’s indoor-outdoor feel.”
The studio wanted the landscape and the architecture to connect seamlessly, so they created a garden between the two extensions which brings the planting right up to the dining-room doors. “This helps to bed the extensions into their surroundings and enrich the views,” says Chapman. The façades of the new structures feature handmade black bricks, black pointing and black ribbed metal cladding, all of which complement the original architecture and the bold interior décor. Jewel tones, such as turquoise, obsidian green and ruby red, are core elements of the latter, alongside charcoal-grey accents and dark parquet flooring for a hint of industrial glamour. “Pockets of deep colour highlight key features throughout the house,” adds Chapman, who notes that the décor upstairs – including a master suite that runs from the front to the back of the home – prioritises calmer, spa-like colours, inspired by boutique hotels.
The home’s extensive use of bespoke joinery forms another visual link with the exterior cladding. “It creates a journey through the house, with hidden gems along the way – from the storage in the hallway to the walk-in wine-tasting room and bar that flank the dining area, and the ribbed timber cabinets in the bathrooms and dressing rooms,” says Chapman. “Practical spaces, such as the powder room and home cinema, are concealed behind jib doors – easy to keep open day-to-day, easy to close when entertaining or switching off in the evenings.” Like all of The Vawdrey House’s work, this project balances “spatial clarity with soulful warmth” – and in its mix of practicality and handmade details, it honours the home’s Arts & Crafts roots.
