An interior designer conjures up a fresh and colourful London house for her first solo project
The relationship between interior designers and clients is a complex one. There are some clients who, in what can only be read as an incredibly flattering move, give a designer carte blanche and are keen to be guided by their eye and experience. Some come with a little more baggage – perhaps a disparate mix of heirlooms that have been passed from one generation to the next and need to be incorporated, or some very clear ideas on what the colour palette should be in every room. And then there are those rare clients who have excellent taste and are keen to embark on a real collaboration.
Such was the case at this early Victorian house in Peckham where the owners asked the interior designer Honor Devereux to help them transform the four-floor space into a colourful and layered family home. Honor, who honed her eye working for Camilla Guinness, Cindy Leveson and Steph Hill Designs, has been friends with the owners for years and counts this as her first proper project, having set up on her own in 2018. ‘It can be nervewracking when personal and professional lives mix, but it was such fun working together and we all just threw our all into it,’ explains Honor. ‘They were the dream clients and we were completely aligned in our ideas.’ Both of the owners are creative: he works in property, while his wife Tintin MacDonald worked in fashion for many years, before founding Felt Collections in 2021, a platform that offers a thoughtfully curated mix of contemporary craft and artworks.
The house itself required a rethink. ‘We stripped everything back and started again,’ explains Honor who started working on the project shortly after the owners bought it in June 2019. On the whole, the layout – with the kitchen on the lower ground, the sitting room and study on the ground, and bedrooms on the further two floors – worked well, but Honor made a few prudent tweaks. On the first floor, a spare bedroom at the back became an ensuite bathroom for the main bedroom, giving the owners their own suite, with space for a dressing room. Now the house has three bedrooms, although there is still scope, Honor explains, to create more by extending into the loft.
The basement required the biggest rethink, as it was split up into three dark rooms with an old white conservatory at the end. Honor – keen to create a convivial space for the owners to entertain friends – decided to open it up, creating one large space that now contains the kitchen, a dining area and relaxed seating area, and replacing the plastic conservatory with Crittall doors. It was, she admits, a challenge to crack the floor plan for such a long space, but she carved out areas for each element. A British Standard kitchen, featuring a joyful chimneypiece tiled top-to-toe in orange zellige tiles from Habibi Interiors, runs along one side, while the dining area, with a built-in banquette in Christopher Farr’s ‘Japura’ fabric, sits at one end next to a picture window that provides views of the garden. The relaxed living area is at the front of the house, with an L-shaped olive green sofa – a piece from the owners’ previous home – defining the space.
And so to the fun bit: decorating. The owners came armed with many pieces from their previous home, as well as a handful of textiles they had collected on their travels abroad and a fantastic art collection. ‘These pieces,’ Honor explains, ‘were often the starting point for rooms’. Take the ensuite bathroom where a gauzey throw, fashioned into a blind, establishes the palette for the room and is complemented by a red bath and green tadelakt walls; or in the main bedroom where a blue rug from Morocco inspired Honor’s choice of Guy Goodfellow’s ‘Setterfield Stripe’ for the headboard and his ‘African Weave’ in walnut for the curtains.
In the double length sitting room and study, a painting by Delia Hamer, now hanging above the study fireplace, was the starting point for the room, and it is picked up beautifully by the walls that are painted in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Setting Plaster’ and the red gloss bookshelves, painted in ‘Ruby Fountain 2 Red' – ‘my absolute favourite red,’ admits Honor – by Dulux. ‘I really think that artwork sings against colour rather than white backgrounds,’ she Honor. ‘It feels friendly and soft, and I joke that it’s another reason why there is so much colour in my projects. It’s at the forefront of everything I do and my taste can be quite maximalist,’ she says.
That said, if this project is anything to go by, she also knows how to get the balance right to create spaces that are both rich and elegant. In the basement kitchen, for instance, she called on specialist painter Molly van Amerongen to apply a soft pigment wash to the walls, which provides a calm backdrop to the more colourful elements in the space. ‘It gives the walls texture and just helps soften the entire room,’ Honor explains. During the renovation, the owners had a son and his room sits at the top of the house. ‘They all love the sea, so we papered it in Cole & Son’s ‘Whimsical Melville’ paper,’ explains Honor. It is the only instance where wallpaper crops up the in house, although it represents one of the other strands in Honor’s work: along with her mother, she runs Mond Designs, which launched in 2020 and produces exquisitely pretty wallpaper designs featuring botanical motifs.
Honor was working on this project for just over a year, and – with their friendship entirely intact – the owners are thrilled by the outcome. ‘We all worked so hard on it and benefitted hugely from each other's ideas,’ Honor explains. ‘It really was a dream to work on this.’
Owen Gale1/11With walls in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Setting Plaster’, the elegant sitting room features a blue sofa from Arlo & Jacob and a large coffee table that the owners bought at auction from Lots Road. The large white rug underfoot came from a Morocco sourcing trip, while the blind is made up in a yellow gingham from Turnell & Gigon.
Owen Gale2/11Double doors, which were already in place, divide the sitting room from the study, which features built-in shelves that have been painted in Dulux’s ‘Ruby Fountain 2 Red Gloss’ – one of Honor’s favourite shades of red. The cane and metal chair was bought by the owners in Cape Town when they lived there and was woven by the blind makers at Cape Town Society for the Blind. The rug was another find from Morocco.
Owen Gale3/11A chimneypiece, tiled in zingy orange zellige tiles from Habibi Interiors, acts as a focal point in the kitchen. The units are from British Standard and have been painted in ‘Borough Market’ by Mylands.
Owen Gale4/11The dining area opens out onto the garden, which was overhauled by garden designer Tilly Dallas. The grey armchair is the ‘Utrecht’ armchair by Cassina, while the Louis Poulsen pendant was a wedding present to the owners. Cushions, made up in fabrics including ‘Lost & Found’ by Christopher Farr adorn the banquette.
Owen Gale5/11In the relaxed living area next to the kitchen, a print by artist Tanya Ling sits above the fireplace and picks up the tones of the kitchen cabinets. The L-shaped olive green sofa came with the owners from their previous home and is originally from sofa.com.
Owen Gale6/11In the hallway, white walls are complemented by Tim Page’s ‘Claremont’ runner, which is finished with pink whipping. The colourful rug was picked up from Morocco.
Owen Gale7/11Walls in Paint & Paper Library’s ‘Plaster I’ provide a calm backdrop to the main bedroom. The headboard and valance are upholstered in Guy Goodfellow’s ‘Setterfield Stripe’ in denim, the colours of which are picked up in the blue and white BasShu quilt. The green ceramic bedside table was another Moroccan find.
Owen Gale8/11The curtains in the main bedroom, made from ‘African Weave’ in walnut by Guy Goodfellow, pick up the colours and patterns of the Moroccan rug. The chest of drawers was sourced from Vinterior.
Owen Gale9/11A spare bedroom became a bathroom to provide an ensuite to the main bedroom. The red bath, painted in ‘Charlotte’s Locks’ from Farrow & Ball, picks up the reds of the rugs in the bedroom.
Owen Gale10/11The starting point for the ensuite bathroom was a tasselled throw, which was turned into a blind. The walls are in green tadelakt and the arched shower cubicle was inspired by Moroccan architecture.
Owen Gale11/11In the spare bedroom on the top floor, a textile wallhanging by Netherlands-based artist Vicky Pylorides provided inspiration for the rest of the room. The walls are painted in ‘De Nimes’ by Farrow & Ball, while the headboard is upholstered in an antique Turkish suzani. The bedside table is from Ceraudo and the glass table lamp is vintage.
