8 minute read
FRESH START Interior designer Liv Wallers helps create a cosy townhouse interior with an inviting, sociable feel.
FRESH START
Downsizing from a family home in the country to a London townhouse provides the perfect opportunity to experiment with colour and pattern
FEATURE SERENA FOKSCHANER PHOTOGRAPHY RACHAEL SMITH
LEFT In the drawing room, Pineapple Frond wallpaper by Soane Britain brings warmth to the first floor setting. The armchair is covered in a striking linen by Teyssier called Hawkeswood and the sculptural Bologna table lamps are from Vaughan Designs. ABOVE The marbled lampshades from Rosi de Ruig subtly echo the colours in the room scheme.
ABOVE The Blanchard Collective chairs in the dining area have been resprayed in grey gloss and have seat cushions made from Christopher Farr’s Woven Ribbon fabric. The table is from Tom Faulkner and the engineered wood flooring is from Element 7. ABOVE RIGHT Replacing brick walls with glass has transformed the Victorian townhouse at the rear. The garden design is by Rebecca Veselka and the pots are by The Chelsea Gardener. F or most of us, downsizing from a much-loved home will provoke mingled, bittersweet emotions. On the one hand, the big move can feel like an adventure: a chance to jettison the clutter and begin a new life in fresh surroundings. But anticipation is usually accompanied by the emotional wrench of saying goodbye to a home where every room is resonant with memories – anniversaries, birthday parties and family gatherings – all those rites of passage moments that mark our lives. Closing the door on this for the final time is rarely easy.
Victoria and Julian Jackson would agree. They experienced this gamut of feelings when they decamped from their rambling thatch-clad cottage in Hampshire to a neat Victorian townhouse in West London. For the couple it was a case of coming home. “We’d lived in London before we moved to the country to bring up our children. When they began to leave, we found ourselves missing having things on our doorstep such as shops and theatres. We also craved being closer to work and social events,” says Victoria. Over the years, the couple had tweaked and perfected their former home, turning the soaring sixteenthcentury barn into a comfortable family space. “Of course, we felt a great deal of sadness at the thought of leaving a home we had made and loved,” Victoria says, “not least the garden, which we had spent so much time designing and planting.”
At the same time, Victoria and Julian’s tired yet well-kept new townhouse, set in a quiet stucco-fronted terrace, offered the chance to start from scratch. Needing professional input, they turned to interior designer Liv Wallers, who had spent several years working for doyenne of classic English interiors Joanna Wood before co-founding design studio Yellow London with fellow designer Cath Beckett.
Liv’s training enables her to flit easily between designing homes in the country and town and her style sits easily between contemporary and classic, so she grasped the brief instantly. “Victoria and Julian wanted their home to be cosy and inviting, with space for friends to stay and for the different
The timeless kitchen by Mark Plant Kitchen Design is teamed with a Lancaster Kitchen Downlight by Vaughan Designs. The colourful oil painting of Kouloura Bay in Corfu is by Richard Hewlett.
In the newly created lower-ground-floor sitting room, a Roman blind in vibrant Penelope linen ikat fabric from Teyssier co-ordinates with the dusky pink Truman Junior sofa from Andrew Martin and the colourful array of cushions from Jennifer Manners and Susan Deliss. The ottoman came from Victoria and Julian’s previous home and has been covered in a Colefax and Fowler fabric.
generations to meet,” she explains. “They didn’t want a modern house. They wanted it to feel lived in, and a little bit different.”
Before starting work on the new house, there was the business of distilling a lifetime of possessions to get on with. Here the Jacksons struck lucky. The American couple who bought their Hampshire home were beguiled by its rural, English charm and offered to buy almost all the furniture and curtains on the spot. “They bought all the pieces we could replace and those which wouldn’t fit in London,” says Victoria, “or that we didn’t have a particular tie to.”
Nonetheless, Victoria remembers a poignant moment when surveying the contents of the dining room, which was dominated by their cherished table. “We could seat 16 people at that dining table, and we loved hosting parties, but there was no way it would fit into our new house. I miss that piece of furniture the most, as I have such happy memories of friends and family gathered around it,” she says.
“Part of my job was to recapture the sociable and practical feel of their last home, where all the generations could congregate,” says Liv, who began by reaching into the rafters to add a new top storey, where light now flows in through dormer windows. This space is now a self-contained, indulgent, pink-painted suite for Victoria and Julian, softly embraced by sloping eaves. The original three bedrooms, with their welcoming layers of print and pattern, are for guests and family.
Downstairs, the kitchen was moved from the lower ground floor to the ground floor. It was designed to echo the practical and timeless feel of the house, and includes an airy, glazed-wall dining area. Meanwhile, on the lower ground floor, the floorplan was altered to include a cosy sitting room and a library area leading to Julian’s office. Liv persuaded him to relinquish his old mahogany desk in favour of a more streamlined built-to-fit design. Removing the brick wall at the back of these two storeys and replacing it with a glazed wall has brought light and leafy views to previously gloomy parts of the interior.
There are reminders of the couple’s last home everywhere. Liv worked closely with Victoria to pick possessions that would shine in their new setting. There is a vivid oil painting of a Greek bay hanging in the kitchen which, as well as adding a shot of colour, serves as a reminder of special family holidays, and
ABOVE Julian’s office on the lower ground floor opens onto the secluded garden. A bespoke bookcase, painted in Farrow & Ball’s Eating Room Red, provides ample storage for the couple’s collection of books. The repainted tall cabinet and orange armchair, with a Robert Kime cushion, are from the couple’s previous house and work perfectly in their new setting.
ABOVE LEFT In the main bedroom, the intricately patterned Songbird headboard fabric, from Bennison, ties in with a soft pink bespoke wall colour by Benjamin Moore. ABOVE RIGHT Cleverly designed to maximise space in the main bedroom, a bespoke dressing table has been tucked in beside the new wardrobe. A favourite chair has been re-covered in Tatting Stripe by Bennison. RIGHT Pleated shades in Cairo fabric by Anna French have given the Vaughan Design lampbases from Victoria’s previous home a new lease of life. To see more of Liv Wallers’ work, visit yellowlondon.com various pieces of furniture have been given a new lease of life with bold upholstery. Victoria was thrilled to be able to use the deep ochre, pineapple-adorned Soane Britain wallpaper she had longed for in the drawing room. It brings warmth and works perfectly as a backdrop to the layers of contrasting colours and patterns in the furniture and furnishings.
Part of Liv’s role was to gently nudge Victoria out of her comfort zone and experiment with things she might not have thought of. “Their last home was countryish but clean-lined,” Liv says. “Here we’ve used a great deal more colour.”
There were times when Liv encountered resistance, such as a moment of polite tension when she suggested marbled lampshades for the drawing room. “I thought ‘absolutely no way’ when I saw the photos,” laughs Victoria, “but then I saw the real thing, and knew Liv was absolutely right. They draw on all the colours of the living space, and everyone comments on them. I’d never have dared use such a lot of colour and pattern if I’d done this on my own. I appreciate how much comfort and cosiness all these layers add to the house.”
Two years on, Victoria can look back to the day of the move with equanimity. “At first, I felt numb and exhausted. As we left our old house for good, I was really tearful and upset, but once we hit the motorway, a sense of excitement set in. I knew it was time to start the next chapter.” n
Liv has opted for a bold approach in this compact guest bedroom with the dramatic Cairo pattern from Anna French covering every surface, creating a cocooning feel. Clever bespoke storage either side of the bed even has room for clothes. The pretty cushions are from Penny Morrison.
