Katie Glaister's London house is a masterclass in adding personality to an interior
“I rather like the fact that you have this typical 1930s exterior that gives absolutely no clue as to what is inside,” says Katie Glaister, co-founder of interiors studio K&H Design. “It's different, it's fun, and I find the surprise of it puts people into a pretty great frame of mind when they visit.” Katie bought this detached house, perched on a hill on a pretty Wimbledon street, a decade ago, looking for the space and internal width that a detached house of this period provides, but without any particular attachment to the style of the architecture.“I believe that houses should be entirely personal to their owners," she observes, "and to that end I felt it should be completely unidentifiable in terms of its period.” This devotion to embodying the personality of an owner in an interior–a hallmark of her work with K&H Design–has produced an undoubtedly characterful house, full of her own distinctive humour and energy.
When Katie bought the house, it had been lived in by one lady for its entire history. She had been born there in 1936, shortly after it was built, and died there eight decades later. It's safe to say that the house was in need of renovation, and she gutted and redid the main body of the house speedily, but it took seven years before Katie could take on the spectacularly transformative work of opening up the back with an extension. “I had been living with this tiny kitchen just big enough for a cooker and a sink,” she recalls, “and I had to go into the garage every time I needed the dishwasher." The garden was also on a different level to the rest of the house and had to be accessed by steps. The new extension solves these problems in dramatic style, with a double height space dug down so that it opens up straight onto the generous garden and vast, glorious windows that let the light flood in. The fact that the house is on a hill facilitated the volume of the extension, and now the views from the back of the house are visible from the front, with the ground floor linked to the extension by a mezzanine.
The extension is of course the most surprising thing about this surprising house. Katie calls it her ‘lockdown folly’, as she finally started work on it in 2020. “I didn't want to go the usual route with Crittall windows,” she explains. “I wanted to get this schoolhouse feel instead, and I wanted it to feel architectural but also very much decorated at the same time." The room is indeed full of interest and character, reflecting Katie's desire to create highly personal spaces and to work with talented craftspeople in the process. A long refectory table that she had owned for some time has been painted with flowers by the artist Rosie Tatham, while the resin jewels on the spindles of the bannister and mezzanine rail were handmade in London by Margit Wittig. The terrazzo countertops came about when Katie was desperately searching for a professional excuse to visit her daughter in Mallorca during the pandemic, and so decided to commission them from Huguet on the island. There is now all the space Katie could want for cooking and entertaining, something she hugely enjoys, and it is delightfully easy to slip into the garden to cut flowers and harvest vegetables from the kitchen garden.
Travelling upstairs to the rest of the house brings more colourful and comfortable rooms into view. The ground floor holds a family room that opens into a bookshelf-lined study, and a sitting room at the very front. Katie was keen to keep any original features and materials that could be salvaged, including the timber floors, but didn't hesitate to do away with the run of the mill 1930s mouldings and fireplaces. “I don't like removing period features,” she says, “but this isn't a distinguished Georgian or Victorian building, and there were things that didn't really contribute very much.” The drawing room now has a striking chimneybreast clad in deep blue zellige tiles, which draws the eye of visitors entering the house and also adds texture to the room, as do the simply plastered walls.
“I saw this house as an opportunity to play with things,” remarks Katie, and humour is certainly a key element in the decoration. “There's a bit of a woman movement going on,” she notes, with nude forms recurring throughout the rooms, from the bronze breast bookends in the study to the ‘Adam and Eve’ escutcheons (made for No Straight Lines, K&H's product arm) on the bespoke cabinet in the sitting room. Work + Sea's ‘Busted’ wallpaper makes for a lively backdrop to the main bathroom (also home to a collection of colourful bathing hats), though Katie claims that she finds it rather calming. The family room hosts a gallery wall of black and white photographs, “mostly of my female forebears, though the images of my three daughters are in full colour."
“There shouldn't be any right or wrong in design,” Katie concludes. “At K&H Design we just want to make real homes for people, places that are genuinely unique and personalised to them. I wanted my own house to support that quest and serve as inspiration for it.” If the character and vitality that run through this house, so unassuming from the outside, are any indication, we'd say the mission has been accomplished.
Mark Fox1/19From the hallway, a sitting room opens up on the right. Katie removed the original fireplace and clad the chimneybreast in zellige tiles; she also removed the original cornicing, which wasn't particularly distinguished, and created a ‘rhythm' on the ceiling with timber beams. A bronze sculpture by Louisa Forbes takes pride of place on the shelf beneath the fireplace. A throw by Penny Morrison covers the ottoman, and a handwoven alpaca throw covers the sofa. The lamp and shade is by Fiona Macdonald. The rug is the ‘Azaahn’ design by Coral and Hive.
Mark Fox2/19Katie used an old Mulberry fabric in her collection for decades to upholster the window seat.
Mark Fox3/19In a particularly thoughtful detail, a line of quarter size tiles runs down the length of the chimney breast, absorbing the difference from cutting the tiles.
Mark Fox4/19The sitting room looks out into the hallway, which is enlivened by an antique mirror Katie found in Petworth. The ceiling is painted in Farrow & Ball's ‘Oval Room Blue’ gloss ("not an easy task for a decorator", says Katie).
K&H Design created the cabinet in the sitting room for a client, and it will shortly be moving to their house in Sussex.
Mark Fox5/19The ‘Adam & Eve’ escutcheons are the newest addition to K&H Design's collection of furniture and accessories, No Straight Lines.
Mark Fox6/19As you move towards the back of the house, the family room opens up both towards the study (in the foreground), and the mezzanine, which begins to the left. The space in between is papered in ‘Toile de Joie’ in sepia by Ramiro Fernandez Saus, supplied by Chelsea Textiles. The family room is painted in ‘Cinnamon’ by Edward Bulmer, and the armchair is covered in Duncan Grant's ‘West Wind’ design.
Mark Fox7/19The walls and shelves of the study are painted in Edward Bulmer's archive shade ‘Brunswick Green.' The design of the joinery incorporates different sizes and heights of shelf without appearing chaotic. The hand-carved writing table with its leather top is a K&H Design by No Straight Lines piece, as is the rug, which was inspired by the design of the stair runner (see below).
Mark Fox8/19
Mark Fox9/19Margit Wittig’s colourful resin gems are fitted on the ‘lamproom black’ staircase spindles; the raw oak handrail is “the dimension of a good bottle of claret.” The walls are painted in Francesca's Paint's 'French Wash Effect" in truffle. A bespoke stair runner from No Straight Lines (the stockist is Peter Page) helps to tie the colours of the ground floor and the kitchen together.
Mark Fox10/19A portrait by Chica Seal dominates the far wall of the dining area, beyond the refectory table with its hand-painted decoration by Rosie Tatham. The oak and bronze island is a bespoke design by K&H Design, and its worktop is by Pyrolave, made from Volvic lava which is enamelled to provide a wonderful reflection. The pendant lights were handmade in London by Michael Ruh.
Mark Fox11/19The rattan dining chairs are from Birdie Fortescue.
Mark Fox12/19The bespoke terrazzo worktop was made by Huguet Mallorca with pieces of the pyrolave worktop mixed in. The sink is moulded in terrazzo as part of the work top. A sweet blind was made up in Zimmer & Rhode's ‘Saint-Tropez’ pattern and made by Imella Design. The units are painted in Argile's ‘Bleu Cendre’, and a reeded crockery cupboard makes clever use of space in the corner of the room.
Mark Fox13/19The pantry doors feature a reeded design with antique brass trim. Another reeded cabinet above the worktop houses the extractor and provides storage for roasting dishes and chopping boards.
Mark Fox14/19The main bedroom has walls in ‘New Pink' by Papers & Paints. A cushion by Kirsten Hecktermann, which reuses a small piece of old embroidery on a plain linen background, sits on the bed. Shades in Christopher Farr Cloth's ‘Tangle’ fabric sit atop lamp bases by Birdie Fortescue.
Mark Fox15/19Although Katie prefers to avoid wardrobes in bedrooms themselves, they were necessary in this case, and upholstering them in Isle Mill fabric has made them feel soft and peaceful. All the doors are painted in Farrow & Ball's ‘Oval Room Blue’ with a border and handles that hark back to the 1930s.
Mark Fox16/19The wallpaper in the main bathroom is Busted’ by Work & Sea. “I love the art and the depth of this paper and have surprised myself by finding it incredibly peaceful,” says Katie. The vanity was a serendipitous find at Sunbury Antiques market, modified with marble from Mander and Germain by her contractor D3Lux. Lights from Waterworks are fixed on either side of a mirror from Retrouvius. The floor is covered in zellige mosaic tiles.
Mark Fox17/19“My three daughters and I have had quite a few adventures with these swim hats on!” says Katie.
Mark Fox18/19A spare bedroom is painted in Farrow & Ball's ‘Hardwick White’ with an antique tapestry taking up the back wall. The shades hanging on either side of the bed are from Hamimi, hand made by women at the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. The curtains feature the decorative ‘Tulip’ border from Hook Design.
Mark Fox19/19In a further spare room, Whiteworks' ‘Rites of Spring’ wallpaper provides a colourful background, while raffia lampshades from Glassette top the bedside lamps. “These beds were enjoyed by my grandmother and her sister when they were children,” says Katie. “If I stay in this house for long enough, then I hope this is bedroom will be enjoyed by my not-yet-existent grand children!”
