Studio Peake brings a playful levity to a London pied-à-terre

‘The place had been turned into a hospital back in the 1960s and remained that way for around 20 years. At some point, the ceilings had been lowered, the fireplace walled over and much of the character had been lost,' laments Sarah, founder of Studio Peake. Such was the state of this Grade II listed London pied-à-terre when her eponymous studio was brought on to oversee its renovation and redecoration. ‘It had been modernised, but in such an insensitive and soulless way.' The brief? To rediscover the property's latent charm.

The initial focus was the interior architecture. Despite being a lateral apartment, stretched behind two grand frontages, its ground floor situation meant it got very little natural light. Entering the flat, it 'didn't feel like you were arriving anywhere particularly special,' Sarah acknowledges, before commenting on the ‘higgledy piggledy’ layout of the rest of the apartment. Bathrooms were a long way from bedrooms, or entered through the entrance hall, which itself was a pokey space. The other issue was that you were forced to look directly into the primary bedroom upon arrival, offering little privacy. Clearly, something had to change.

‘With a leasehold property like this one, you are not allowed to do anything structural with steel beams, and the grade listing (rightfully) meant we had to get permission for everything we did in terms of internal layouts and joinery.’ To a degree, it was a ‘complete restoration’, but as the changes were ‘non structural ones’, Sarah boldly decided not to work with an architect. Instead, she called upon Martin Shortt, a structural engineer, and together with her team, they painstakingly drew every square inch by hand: the beading around the archways, the placement and height of the skirting boards. ‘It was wonderful and very rewarding.'

Undeterred by the strict constraints of the listed building and leasehold, they ploughed on: appending the height of the oddly lowered ceilings and doorways, adding underfloor heating, removing the unseemly radiators, and building a jib door into the primary bedroom from the newly relocated entrance hall. Despite all this, the most difficult part of the renovation was uncovering the fireplace. ‘The client had some old photos, so we knew it had been there, but we just needed to get to it.’ Once located, it transpired that it had been placed a third of the way through the sitting room, awkwardly drawing the eye and cutting up the space. In the end, they built out the wall so they could centre it within the room. Then, and only then, was it time to begin on the interiors.

Whilst the beginnings of this project might have been stressful, there's a real air of nonchalance to Sarah–and her approach reflects that. ‘I did research alongside a planning consultant to advise what would have been there, but I don’t get myself in a tizz about what is correct to the nth degree.' At this studio, it's more about making a comfortable, beautiful space than a historically accurate one. ‘A lot of what I like to do is work with traditional character and architecture, but use bright and modern colour mixed with unusual fabrics to make it more contemporary.'

It was for that precise reason the client chose Studio Peake for this project: a deep appreciation of textiles. ‘This was such a special project for me,' rhapsodizes Sarah, 'as the client wanted something really layered and beautiful. She loves textiles and craft, and that was a huge part of the project: to incorporate textiles as much as possible.’ That brief became the jumping off point in many of the rooms, with the client bringing art and fabrics down from her house in the North of England to incorporate in the London flat.