![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/HGUK_ESloane_Garden_464_HR-production_digital.jpg\"\/)
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The Victorian house was extended at the rear to create a spacious kitchen with arched French windows providing plenty of natural light<\/p>\n
Lucas Allen<\/p>\n
Like so many things in life, the purchase of this house in Chelsea came down to a twist of fate. \u2018It had belonged to the aunt of a friend, who had mentioned she might want to sell,\u2019 says the owner. \u2018When we were gazumped on a house nearby, I asked if this was still the case.\u2019 (There was an element of schadenfreude, too, as the gazumpers have yet to move into their house four years later.)<\/p>\n
The couple exchanged on the property the day before England entered its first lockdown and tasked designers d\u2019Erlanger and Sloan with taking it back to the brick. \u2018It was beautiful, with huge windows and high ceilings typical of Victorian houses<\/a> in this area,\u2019 Emilia d\u2019Erlanger says. But the 1980s decoration<\/a> was tired. Over two years, she and design partner Anna Sloan transformed it into a warm, vibrant and playful home for the couple and their young family.<\/p>\n In the open plan kitchen, tadelakt walls matched to \u2018Portland\u2019 by Edward Bulmer Natural Paint set off the owners\u2019 colourful artworks and an expanse of mirror, with a Collier Webb picture rail above. A bespoke sofa, upholstered in Tissus d\u2019He\u0301le\u0300ne\u2019s \u2018Dolly\u2019 wool in cumin, and a pair of vintage Danish safari armchairs are arranged around the Paolo Moschino \u2018Mina\u2019 coffee table. An antique lamp from Timothy Langston sits on the wooden Moorish-style occasional table.<\/p>\n Lucas Allen<\/p>\n The interior design studio has offices in London<\/a> and Nashville in Tennessee (where Anna has lived since 2017) and works on residential projects in Britain, Europe and \u2013 increasingly \u2013 in the US, where its contemporary take on classic British interiors<\/a> is finding an eager new audience. Having employed the duo to reshape two previous homes, the owners knew it was a good partnership and that d\u2019Erlanger and Sloan would deliver what they wanted: warmth, texture and familiarity. \u2018And also enough character to challenge us,\u2019 says the husband. \u2018They encouraged us to take a few risks and the result is a house that\u2019s not boring, but is not trying too hard either.\u2019 It feels traditional but with an edge \u2013 the grandeur characteristic of this part of Chelsea is still palpable, but softened.<\/p>\n Structurally, the biggest part of the renovation was reconfiguring and extending the lower-ground floor. A jumble of dark rooms and passages was turned into a boot room, cloakroom, utility room and playroom, with internal windows and glass doors added to give sight- lines between the kitchen and playroom, and bring in lots of natural light. The original kitchen has been extended, the ceiling raised and three arched double doorways created, leading to the garden. Much of the family\u2019s time is spent in this airy, bright space, where subtle texture is provided by slightly undulating tadelakt plaster walls that chime with the Bedouin feel of the snug behind the sitting area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Victorian house was extended at the rear to create a spacious kitchen with arched French windows providing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,39079,50817,308,93,50816,61,60,8590,63633,120081],"class_list":["post-258931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-city-houses","tag-city-houses-with-contemporary-interiors","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-houses-packed-with-colour","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-london-houses","tag-modern-houses","tag-victorian-houses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/HGUK_ESloane_Living1_482_HR-production_digital.jpg\"\/)
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