INNOVATE RENOVATE From secret

DESIGNED FOR LIFE

From secret rooms and cocoons to sunken playrooms and moss walls, there are no limits to the imaginative renovations taking place in London homes, writes Zoe Dare Hall

London homes are multi-tasking more than ever as places to live, work and play. And with money to spend, homeowners are going the extra mile to find innovative solutions, using the latest technology, architecture and interior design for maximum comfort and sustainability in their homes.

COCOONS Left and above: Designs by Minifie Architects at a Blackheath home. Below left: Bedroom at Gilston Road, for sale through Sotheby’s UK

LIVE

We have all become acutely spatially aware over the last year, indoors and out. “Broken-plan living is back in vogue,” says Ed O’Donnell, co-founder of designers Angel O’Donnell, referring to our new-found love of screens and other ways of dividing rooms in a flexible but decorative way. “Partition shelving can zone sleek workstations from comfy lounge areas. It helps to clearly define the professional, social and familial aspects of a person’s life,” he comments.

The big, open-plan kitchen/dining space that leads on to the garden remains a must-have for most families. But for time alone, homeowners are either going super-sized, with master suites that consume an entire floor in the most lavish cases, and sanctuarylike bathrooms such as one designed by Studio Suss – a vision of tasteful decadence in striped marble, for a turnkey renovation in St John’s Wood. Or they are creating cosy cocoons where they can hide away, such as the snug designed by Minifie Architects for a terraced house in Blackheath, with birched ply walls and a frameless window with cantilevered seat inside.

Imaginatively mood-enhancing scenery has entered the picture too, from greenery and nature-inspired colour palettes to curvaceous furniture, including a new fad for curved sofas. In one renovation project for an Icelandic couple in Twickenham, Angel O’Donnell covered a large dining room wall in

LIGHT TOUCH Above: The internal lightwell between a den and the stairs of a Bloomsbury house, renovated by Prewett Bizley Architects and rented out through Dexters (also p27). Bespoke Japanese glazing and air-source heat pumps have helped reduce noise and drafts – and heating bills by 95 per cent

sustainably-harvested moss. “It looks like a forest floor and has the most calming effect,” says O’Donnell. “Elsewhere in the house, we hung large photos of volcanic springs and jagged coastline, to make our client feel connected to nature and their homeland.”

Natural light has been key to keeping the spirits up during lockdown – and designers can work magic with light-wells these days. Langtry House in Hampstead, on sale for £4.7m through Aston Chase, is London’s biggest iceberg house, developed to be no higher than the single-storey garages that once sat on the site, but with almost all of the 3,450 sq ft of living space below ground. Large expanses of glazing and a 25-foot high, glass-roofed atrium leading to a sunken courtyard ensure light floods into the house (pictured p27, below left).

With health at the forefront of everyone’s minds this past year, wellness at home has become pivotal too, whether it is Peloton rooms or yoga spaces, or the addition of air filtration systems and anti-microbial materials such as bronze, which help to reduce the spread of viruses.

There’s the health of the planet to consider, too. Optimum energy-efficiency is usually reserved for new-builds, but 16 St John Street in Bloomsbury – a Grade II listed Georgian townhouse that’s available to rent for £3,500 a week through Dexters – has shown that period properties can do it just as well. Behind its Regency façade are modern, Passivhaus-standard interiors, following an 18-month overhaul by Prewett Bizley architects. By installing bespoke Japanese glazing, two air-source heat pumps and insulation, they eliminated the two main sources of woe in Georgian homes – noise and drafts – and have reduced the heating bill by 95 per cent. “It’s one of Bloomsbury’s most eco-friendly houses and we expect it to be well-received with our UK-based tenants looking to settle back in the city now that businesses have re-opened,” says Leon Bell of Dexters.

Boutique living at LYONS PLACE

Contemporary townhouse living at Lyons Place, on the doorstep of Maida Vale and Little Venice

Designed by iconic architect and local resident Sir Terry Farrell, Lyons Place is a boutique development comprising of 22 apartments, two duplex-penthouses and five three-storey stylish townhouses.

CITY LIVING REDEFINED

The Townhouse Collection consists of five threebedroom homes, with an additional study and private street access from a quiet residential road. Contemporary townhouses are a rarity in London and offer period charm, with the benefits of modern design. The houses have been created for ‘upsidedown’ living, with the kitchen, dining and reception room on the top floor to offer natural light and privacy, with views over leafy surrounds. The spacious integrated terraces, all over 170 sq ft in size, allow for open plan living and are ideal for entertaining. Potential buyers for the two remaining townhouses can visualise their new home by stepping inside the show home, dressed by Alexander James Interiors.

PRIME LOCATION

Situated in central London, Lyons Place is located at the meeting point of Maida Vale, Little Venice and St John’s Wood. From Lyons Place, you are a stone’s throw from the best of what London has to offer – including Regent’s Park and its charming canals, Lord’s Cricket Ground, and the village-like feel of Marylebone. The townhouses allow for a quiet lifestyle in Zone 1, whilst being well connected with five tube stations nearby.

BIOPHILLIC DESIGN

For nature on your doorstep, the living green walls within the courtyard at Lyons Place provide a multisensory experience and are the perfect antidote to city life. The courtyard changes with the seasons, so residents may enjoy a varying landscape. It is home to beautiful displays of perennial flowers, from hardy geraniums to bright and bee-friendly coreopsis, evergreen grasses and sedums. The diversity of species helps promote pollination and provides year-round interest from wildlife. Just as Lyons Place’s interiors have been carefully selected, such as the use of timber and natural stone, thought and expertise has also gone into the courtyard’s foliage. To register interest, contact Sales Manager Dawid Dziegielewski at 020 7535 3948; dawid.dziegielewski@almacantar.com

VISIT LYONSPLACE.CO.UK

UPGRADE Above and right: The refurbishment of this 8,000 sq ft family house in Hampstead by Studio Suss used sustainably sourced finishes

WORK

You wait years for a home office – then two come along. Indeed, two offices is what most families want now, “so they can work and study simultaneously, in private,” says Harry Buchanan, director at Jackson-Stops. “Working from home has been one of the greatest drivers for retrofitting and renovation, both in terms of reconfiguring space but also giving the home a technological and communications upgrade,” he adds, mentioning that while office life may resume to some extent, people want to retain some flexibility in their working arrangements.

Desks with a big view are the most conducive to WFH productivity. But where no dedicated room is available, workstations that disappear discreetly into bespoke joinery work well, providing that essential demarcation between work and family time. Space was relatively tight in Own London’s renovation of a two-bed flat in Knightsbridge’s Beaufort Gardens, but by creating a mezzanine area in the living room, they found the perfect spot for a quiet study area.

HOME DELIGHTS Left: Studio Suss has refurbished this spare room into a nursery for homeschooling in lockdown. Below: Studio Suss converted two houses into one in NW7. Right: Hidden door, by Robert Hirschfield architects in a Hampstead home. Below right: Creative lighting adds drama in a Studio Suss project. Overleaf: Pool table room for a house in NW3 by Studio Suss

After several months of home-schooling from the dining table, the children still ask where you keep the pens. But dedicated home classrooms and tutor rooms are taking shape in luxury renovations so there’s no excuse. With the prototype in his Sun Slice House in Cambridge, the London-based architect Neil Dusheiko has designed a neat row of homework pods to suit a family with three children, ready to be closed away behind cupboard doors when hometime beckons.

Intuitive technology that runs the house from an iPad has also won over many a homeowner in the last year – though it’s a fine balance between kudos and convenience. “People don’t want ten remotes. They just want to get home and watch the news,” comments Dean Main, founder of Rhodium, which manages many of London’s super-prime new developments.

PLAY

Spending so much time in our homes has had its upsides – including allowing homeowners to let loose and have fun with their décor and in-house entertainment.

Architect Robert Hirschfield likes to play with hidden spaces, creating “hide and seek” houses such as The Town House, a period property in central London, where his playful designs include a window seat that protrudes from a child’s bedroom. “The child cannot be seen from below, but has a small, hidden, secret space of their own from which they can peer down unseen,” says Hirschfield, who likes to “not follow the norm”, he says.

In another house in North West London, owned by a film-mad family, a large James Bond poster conceals a hidden door into the sunken playroom. “These hidden spaces and secret doors to add a sense of delight in the unexpected and drama,” he says. “We bring value in the literal sense of adding space and volume, but also in bringing emotional value, life and joy to be enjoyed by family members of all ages.”

There are many super-prime rental properties whose owners have gone to town on the playful wow factor, too, including a five-storey 1850s house in Chelsea’s Gilston Road,

transformed by multi award-winning architect and interior designer Shalini Misra and available through UK Sotheby’s International Realty for £55,000 a week. Its features include a striking blue and black chequered indoor pool and trompe l’oeil cubist floor tiles.

And the owners of a detached Victorian house in Ealing Broadway, available to rent for £9,950 a month through Hamptons, have been making full use of their gym, cinema, snooker room and wine cellar during the pandemic. “Its quirkiness has definitely caught the interest of prospective tenants, who want their property to work harder for them now,” comments Katie Vassar, Hamptons’ head of lettings. L