{"id":217594,"date":"2025-10-22T10:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T10:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/217594\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T10:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T10:04:08","slug":"a-handsome-victorian-house-in-london-softly-harmonised-by-thea-speake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/217594\/","title":{"rendered":"A handsome Victorian house in London softly harmonised by Thea Speake"},"content":{"rendered":"

The designer describes the house as the product of a \u2018constant stream of ideas\u2019, but the finished result has just the right air of measured restraint. Thea credits this in part to the fact that they were having to work to constant deadlines, which meant \u2018we were quite focused and always taking one step back to simplify a design choice\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The walls are painted in Paint & Paper Library\u2019s \u2018Stone II\u2019.<\/p>\n

Michael Sinclair<\/p>\n

This sense of coolness and restraint is also a result of the tranquil and warm palette, which has become a signature style for Thea, who honed her eye while working at Rose Uniacke for five years. The hallway<\/a> and kitchen walls are painted in the same colour as the kitchen cabinetry, while the main bedroom is in Edward Bulmer Natural Paint\u2019s \u2018Lilac Pink\u2019. This room is a particularly peaceful hideaway, with the bed positioned so it looks out over nearby Queen\u2019s Park. Textiles were key to creating a calm atmosphere \u2013 from curtains<\/a> in Rose Uniacke\u2019s \u2018Sheer Linen\u2019 to others made from inexpensive artists\u2019 canvas. \u2018It is a large house, so we had to be mindful about where to spend the money, and the clients were thankfully very open to fabric that cost \u00a36 a metre from Goldhawk Road,\u2019 explains Thea.<\/p>\n

On an equally enlightened note, the owners were also happy to move in with just beds, joinery and curtains in place. \u2018You do get the best out of spaces when you let them come together piece by piece,\u2019 she observes. Many of the upholstered items, including the sofa and the ottoman in the family room, were bespoke \u2013 adding to the already good stash of furniture, antiques and art<\/a> that belonged to them. This includes works by Martha\u2019s mother, the artist Annabel Gault, such as the pair of abstract garden paintings hanging over the kitchen table and a crocodile in ink above the beds in the children\u2019s attic room.<\/p>\n

\"Cabinetry<\/p>\n

Cabinetry by 202 Design in the same colour as the walls \u2013 \u2018Stone II\u2019 by Paint & Paper Library \u2013 is enlivened by worktops in Bianco Fantastico marble with distinctive burgundy and green veining in the kitchen. The double pendant lights with opal glass shades are from Berliner Messinglampen.<\/p>\n

Michael Sinclair<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, there is a good spattering of antiques throughout the house, from 20th-century European finds to primitive items, adding a certain richness \u2013 many of them sourced by Thea. Sussy Cazalet, a friend of the owners, designed the wall hanging in the basement family room, creating an earthy aesthetic that embraces the lower light level. \u2018Thea was the magic in the project,\u2019 says Martha. \u2018Her input is what made it special, because she managed to keep all the lovely parts while creating this wonderful atmosphere.\u2019 For Thea, the project marks an exciting turning point for her business and she has now shifted her focus to full interiors projects and consultancy. \u2018Antiques will always be something that I dabble in, but I can easily find a place for everything I source in my design projects,\u2019 she explains. What lucky clients she has.<\/p>\n

Thea Speke: theaspeke.com<\/a> | Martha Balfour: marthabalfour.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The designer describes the house as the product of a \u2018constant stream of ideas\u2019, but the finished result…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,6642,7884,13907,39942,1120,96,35815,56,54,55,35814],"class_list":["post-217594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-city","tag-city-houses","tag-city-houses-with-contemporary-interiors","tag-contemporary-city","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-quiet-interiors","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-victorian-houses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}