‘It took a bit of time to understand how we were going to work around this narrow, tall building,’ Anna explains. ‘We had to reconfigure the whole house from top to bottom because it was ill-equipped, with poorly-fitted, small storage that couldn’t contain the gubbins that comes with family life.’ This led to the creation of quite an intense technical package, which Anna worked on with a team of trusted tradespeople from Silver Design & Build. ‘The scope for the joinery alone was huge because the client wanted the children to have no cause for throwing coats and bags over the banister. We needed to build in practical and accessible storage everyone would actually use.”
It was in the open plan kitchen dining area at the back of the house that the joinery needed to work the hardest. The clients had specified it as a place where the children could have breakfast, but also as the venue for elegant dinner parties. As such, Anna designed, alongside Devol Kitchens, an island with handy bar stools, as well as a curved banquette that can easily seat between eight and ten people.
The dining table base is from Julian Chichester, with a bespoke oak top made by Anna’s joiners. The fabric used on the banquette is from Rose Uniacke, in the ‘Periwinkle’ colour of her Woven Bottle fabric. The dining chairs are from Pinch, with cushions in ‘North Downs Scalamandre’ by Turnell & Gigon.
The joinery was also absolutely integral to balancing the client’s abstract art collection. ‘The family were coming from Norway to London with almost no furniture but this fantastic selection of art that became the jumping off point for much of the project,’ Anna says. Everything, from the height of the banquette in the kitchen and the mantle in the primary bedroom, to the paint selection, was done to accentuate or counter this collection. One of the most exciting examples of this is the large bookcase that spans one wall in the kitchen and sits opposite the largest canvas in the collection. The design of the bookcase is influenced by mid-century principals, chosen both to ‘knock out any newness in the house and to reflect the client’s Scandinavian heritage.’
The bolder colour scheme throughout the house–a small departure for the studio–was also response to the dramatic, large scale canvasses the studio was working with. ‘The artworks are pieces of scale and very much informed the colour schemes and style of the rooms,’ Anna says. ‘What we always want to deliver is a home for the clients, so we had to step away from what we have done before, approach things from a slightly different angle. Our classical approach wouldn’t work here.’