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Houzz Tour: A Listed Townhouse Gains Colour and Period Character
Before and after photos show how professional interior design has beautifully transformed this Georgian home
When interior designer Adam Knight of Nefarious Design first saw this central London townhouse, it hadn’t been redecorated since the 1990s and the mainly white, blue and grey palette wasn’t nearly colourful enough for the new owners. “These clients love colour, art and textiles,” he says. “They needed a space with character.”
As you’ll see, that’s indisputably what they got: Adam estimates the house now has more than 70 different colours in it, including hand-painted friezes, plus plenty of pattern and texture. He also filled the historic property with antiques and helped the owners to find beautiful ways to show off their collection of textiles and art.
As you’ll see, that’s indisputably what they got: Adam estimates the house now has more than 70 different colours in it, including hand-painted friezes, plus plenty of pattern and texture. He also filled the historic property with antiques and helped the owners to find beautiful ways to show off their collection of textiles and art.
Here’s the dining nook as renovations began. The cabinet seen on the floor had previously hung on the wall.
This is the view of the adjoining kitchen from the dining nook as work began. It was a good-quality kitchen, so Adam kept it, but nevertheless managed to give the room a new feel. “We’re big on sustainability, so I loved that,” he says.
Ask your designer if they use Houzz Pro software: tools, such as 3D Floor Plans and Mood Boards can help you to easily visualise designs for your space.
Ask your designer if they use Houzz Pro software: tools, such as 3D Floor Plans and Mood Boards can help you to easily visualise designs for your space.
What Adam did change were the previous dark worktops. “[We chose] marble [worktops] and, because the owner loves cooking, we got a stainless-steel [surface] in the mix, as well,” he says.
He also added a stone upstand and marble mosaics in the niches, as well as repainting the walls and covering the chimney breast with zellige tiles.
Kitchen, Bulthaup.
He also added a stone upstand and marble mosaics in the niches, as well as repainting the walls and covering the chimney breast with zellige tiles.
Kitchen, Bulthaup.
There’s a more spacious dining area on the same floor as the kitchen, at the back of the house. Adam painted the floor, ceiling and walls and had one of the owner’s textile artworks framed.
“The shelf is made from an old cheese-ageing board; you can still see the circles where the cheese sat over the years,” Adam says. The table is also an antique. Adam found rechargeable lamps for it. “We love these for a dining table,” he says. The chairs are midcentury originals, reupholstered.
Rechargeable table lamps, Pooky. Walls painted in Salvia; floor painted in Stable Green, both Paint & Paper Library.
“The shelf is made from an old cheese-ageing board; you can still see the circles where the cheese sat over the years,” Adam says. The table is also an antique. Adam found rechargeable lamps for it. “We love these for a dining table,” he says. The chairs are midcentury originals, reupholstered.
Rechargeable table lamps, Pooky. Walls painted in Salvia; floor painted in Stable Green, both Paint & Paper Library.
Adam’s plan for the ground floor.
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Looking for an interior designer to guide your decor decisions? Find one near you today.
Also on this floor is a lushly decorated cloakroom. “It’s an unlikely combination of green and red. And I always like wallpaper in small spaces,” Adam says, referring to the ceiling. “I always think: the smaller the space, the bigger the personality and, just to add another pattern and some contrast, we did a neutral and green striped blind.
“The rabbit hook was the owner’s. We tried to use as much as possible of her existing items to be green and cut costs,” he says.
Wallpaper, Beata Heuman. Walls painted in Rectory Red, Farrow & Ball.
“The rabbit hook was the owner’s. We tried to use as much as possible of her existing items to be green and cut costs,” he says.
Wallpaper, Beata Heuman. Walls painted in Rectory Red, Farrow & Ball.
Upstairs on the first floor, there are two, connected social spaces; this, the ‘salon’, is at the front of the house and, at the back and just glimpsed on the right, is what Adam describes as the ‘salle de jeux’, or games room, which opens onto a terrace.
“We like to keep all the original architecture of a building and we like to highlight this, too,” Adam says. “In the green-painted salon, we highlighted the architrave in pink.” He then painted the corbels in a deeper pink.
Again to prevent unnecessary wastage, Adam repainted the existing joinery, just replacing the 1990s stainless-steel door handles with bronze ones more in keeping with the building.
The green side tables between the cream armchairs were designed by Adam and his team, made bespoke and lacquered. “It’s all a real mix of off-the-shelf, bespoke and antique,” he says.
Adam also replaced a modern fireplace surround with this limestone mantel – a faithful, bespoke replica of what might have been original to the house.
Fireplace, Chesneys. Limestone mantel, English Salvage. Walls painted in French Gray, Farrow & Ball. Architrave painted in Red Ochre, Edward Bulmer Natural Paint.
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“We like to keep all the original architecture of a building and we like to highlight this, too,” Adam says. “In the green-painted salon, we highlighted the architrave in pink.” He then painted the corbels in a deeper pink.
Again to prevent unnecessary wastage, Adam repainted the existing joinery, just replacing the 1990s stainless-steel door handles with bronze ones more in keeping with the building.
The green side tables between the cream armchairs were designed by Adam and his team, made bespoke and lacquered. “It’s all a real mix of off-the-shelf, bespoke and antique,” he says.
Adam also replaced a modern fireplace surround with this limestone mantel – a faithful, bespoke replica of what might have been original to the house.
Fireplace, Chesneys. Limestone mantel, English Salvage. Walls painted in French Gray, Farrow & Ball. Architrave painted in Red Ochre, Edward Bulmer Natural Paint.
Find and hire a local interior designer or architect through Houzz.
This ‘before’ photo of the ‘salon’ shows the previous fireplace.
The first floor plan shows the new layout of the reception rooms.
The salon is primarily for entertaining, so Adam chose two antique chairs as side tables for the sofa, so they could be multifunctional.
Again, the owners already had the artworks, and the fabric wall hanging is part of their large textiles collection. Adam hung more textiles on the rungs of an antique ladder (just seen in a previous photo).
Sofa, Love Your Home. Armchairs, Oka.
Again, the owners already had the artworks, and the fabric wall hanging is part of their large textiles collection. Adam hung more textiles on the rungs of an antique ladder (just seen in a previous photo).
Sofa, Love Your Home. Armchairs, Oka.
Several areas of the house have been hand-painted, including this existing niche. “We were influenced by Roman themes and wanted to keep the colour palette linked to the room, but with darker reds and greens,” Adam says. “The painter then aged it with a wash, so it didn’t look brand-new.”
More: Here’s What it’s Really Like to Work With an Interior Designer.
More: Here’s What it’s Really Like to Work With an Interior Designer.
This small landing on the first floor, seen here pre-renovation, was another opportunity for Adam to add character.
“Hallways and stairs are often forgotten about, but they are the spines of a house,” Adam says. “They’re somewhere you spend a lot more time than you might think.”
The double-glazed doors, which open onto a terrace, were redesigned to be more in keeping and also more thermally efficient and were made bespoke and given brass ironmongery.
The owners’ artworks again add colour and depth.
Stair runner, Roger Oates.
The double-glazed doors, which open onto a terrace, were redesigned to be more in keeping and also more thermally efficient and were made bespoke and given brass ironmongery.
The owners’ artworks again add colour and depth.
Stair runner, Roger Oates.
An existing alcove (on the left in the previous photo) was turned into a feature thanks to the hand-painter and this equine sculpture.
The second floor plan shows the layout of main bedroom and en suite.
Adam sourced a hand-painted Louis XIV headboard for the main bedroom.
The curtains in here are made from various pieces from the owners’ fabric collection. “It’s all one curtain [on each side]; our window treatment expert is brilliant,” Adam says. “They were treasured fabrics and we repurposed them.”
The bedspread and cushions are also fabrics from the owners’ collection.
The curtains in here are made from various pieces from the owners’ fabric collection. “It’s all one curtain [on each side]; our window treatment expert is brilliant,” Adam says. “They were treasured fabrics and we repurposed them.”
The bedspread and cushions are also fabrics from the owners’ collection.
“This bathroom was the biggest change in the project,” Adam says of the main en suite. The glass bricks and curved shower felt particularly dated.
More: How to Plan for a Bathroom Renovation
More: How to Plan for a Bathroom Renovation
The layout wasn’t working, so the shower is now on the left as you walk into the room. “We decided to put the bath in the window and hide the loo around a half-height wall where the shower is. We also did an enclosure around the bath and designed the vanity unit,” Adam says.
“We wanted this to be more neutral, with a spa vibe,” he adds. “It’s the one respite from colour in here.”
Calacatta marble tiles, Mandarin Stone.
“We wanted this to be more neutral, with a spa vibe,” he adds. “It’s the one respite from colour in here.”
Calacatta marble tiles, Mandarin Stone.
The two bedrooms on the third floor are used as guest rooms, but are also for the couple’s children when they come back from university.
“To max the space, we were inspired by cabin beds and sleeper trains,” Adam says of this rear bedroom. “There are fold-down bedside tables a bit like the tables on a train, with plug sockets inside.” He designed joinery to give the room a sense of being enclosed. “I think sometimes, with a small space, the smaller it is, the cosier it feels,” he says.
Scissor wall lamps, Pooky.
“To max the space, we were inspired by cabin beds and sleeper trains,” Adam says of this rear bedroom. “There are fold-down bedside tables a bit like the tables on a train, with plug sockets inside.” He designed joinery to give the room a sense of being enclosed. “I think sometimes, with a small space, the smaller it is, the cosier it feels,” he says.
Scissor wall lamps, Pooky.
The same bedroom before its makeover.
The third floor plan shows how the angled joinery fits into the bedroom at the back of the house.
The angled shelving glimpsed in the first photo of this room doubles as a desk and is at the end of a generously proportioned wardrobe.
There’s a lot of space in the basement, as this plan shows. Adam swapped two of the rooms around and made the bedroom a study and vice versa, plus there’s a cinema room at the back of the house.
The cinema room contains a sofa-bed, plus a kitchenette, behind the camera and separated from the main area by these curtains. Adam made the space cosy by filling it with more artwork, rich colour and textiles.
Adam also created a wine cellar in a disused storage area at the front of the basement. “It’s more of a wine corridor,” he says. New joinery hides “fuse boxes and ugly stuff” and opposite, just out of shot, there’s another entrance, which leads out to the street. “The metal gates were existing, so we painted those in green,” he says.
The flooring is reclaimed Spanish tiles, which bring the red/green colourway to this floor. The green and white chequerboard pattern is hand-painted.
The entrance to the house was previously plain.
Adam added a large mirror to boost light and repainted the staircase to make a feature of it. He also designed the unusual radiator cover just seen on the right, which has gothic, cut-outs shapes and a graphic pattern hand-painted on the front.
How did the owners feel about the dramatic transformation of their home? “They love everything, especially the salon and the hand-painting,” Adam says. “I’ve always loved colour, bold patterns and textures, but our clients are always on the design team – we are led by them. We really loved this job, as they let us be quite experimental.”
Tell us…
What’s your favourite area of this home? Let us know in the Comments.
How did the owners feel about the dramatic transformation of their home? “They love everything, especially the salon and the hand-painting,” Adam says. “I’ve always loved colour, bold patterns and textures, but our clients are always on the design team – we are led by them. We really loved this job, as they let us be quite experimental.”
Tell us…
What’s your favourite area of this home? Let us know in the Comments.
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Who lives here? A couple with two children at university
Location Marble Arch, central London
Property A five-storey, Grade II listed Georgian townhouse
Size Four bedrooms and five bathrooms
Designer Adam Knight of Nefarious Design
Artwork hanging Seido Art Services
Project years 2022 to 2024
Photos by Astrid Templier
The dining nook off the kitchen on the ground floor is a great example of how the redesign has introduced colour, pattern and art.
To open up the space and create room for artworks, Adam removed the modern shutters and some wall cabinetry. The boiler is hidden in the pink cabinet; before, a unit here went right up to the ceiling. He also added the chandelier.
The seating is off-the-shelf, to save money, but Adam customised it. “It was bought untreated and we painted it and got cushions made,” he says. “The colourways of these were really influenced by the owners’ art.”
Light bistro stools were chosen for flexibility and so they can easily be taken to the upstairs living rooms if extra seats are needed for guests.
Banquette seating, Wayfair. Cushion fabrics, Ian Mankin.