Some of the nicest briefs arrive as a friendly email. This one did. A client we'd worked with roughly ten years earlier wrote to say she was buying again and would love to work with us a second time. She remembered our cat. We remembered hers, Toby, a beautiful, tigery old boy. Both cats are grand gentlemen of twelve or thirteen now, still going strong. It's one of the loveliest things that can happen in this line of work, because a returning client is really a verdict: the first home still worked, and the trust is still there.

She was in the middle of buying when we went to see it. Her brief to the agents had been for a lateral apartment, much like her Kensington home. She wanted more room and proper outdoor space. Then she fell, completely, for the exact opposite: a slim, twisting, characterful Victorian house set across many floors, all staircases and storytelling, with barely a lateral moment in it.

This wasn't a wreck, and it didn't need to be treated like one. We think designers have a responsibility not to strip out things that are perfectly good. Unless a kitchen or bathroom layout is genuinely broken, we'd far rather help a client improve it, restyle it and lift it, than rip it out and start again. So this became a half renovation and a restyle, not a full gut. We fully redid what truly needed it, reworked what could be reworked, and reused as much as we sensibly could, including a great deal of the client's own furniture from Kensington. It's better for the planet, better for the budget, and, honestly, better for the soul.

In the living spaces below, the scheme becomes warmer and more intimate, textured, tactile and quietly confident. The rooms feel lived-in from day one, built through soft layering rather than sharp, shouty statements. We kept original shutters, cornicing and stripped timber floorboards, simply sanded and repolished them. We reupholstered the client's vintage Italian chairs in a beautiful Nobilis fabric, mixing old and new and weaving in fresh styling. A bespoke hallway dressing table turns circulation space into a daily ritual, and a previously forgotten half-landing under a large skylight became the client's work-from-home desk space, finished in a dusky Farrow & Ball green.

But the real transformation sits at the top of the house. The rooftop terrace and bar sit as a paired experience: outside calm, inside glow. The top floor had a curved, arched ceiling; a fussy ribbed detail had been applied over it, fighting the architecture. We removed it and let the curve be the hero it was always meant to be, then turned an underwhelming kitchenette into a true home bar and hosting space, designed for real gatherings and proper evening atmosphere. Bespoke joinery and warm illumination create a private club mood. The client is a part-time DJ, so the DJ set-up is designed to flex with the party, shifting the room from indoor bar to indoor-outdoor DJ clubhouse in a single move. The roof garden and bar close the project as a paired experience: inside and outside, scene-set for hosting, day into dusk. The result is a home tailored to how she actually lives.

‍