Above: In the living room, the seating is by Luther Quintana with Samuel & Sons fringe. The wallcovering is by Iksel, and the cocktail table has a Fornasetti top.
Some homes are for summers by the water, others for weekends on the slopes. When Krystyna Houser set about redecorating her family’s London townhouse, she was thinking of Christmas. “We spend every Christmas there,” she says. At this house, that meant more than just putting up a tree.
Located near Richmond Park, in southwestern London, the 19th-century townhouse has been in Houser’s family for more than 20 years. It was always a place to return to while Houser, founder of the nutritional startup mBIOTA Elemental, and her husband Dan, a co-founder of Rockstar Games, were raising their three children in New York City. Dan had grown up nearby, and the ample greenspace that gives the area its name made it an appealing place to visit with a young family. The interiors, however, had never quite received their due.
In the primary sitting room, a custom sofa by Luther Quintana in Schumacher Venetian silk velvet sits in front of a wallcovering by Gracie. Small pillows in Clarence House Tiger velvet.
Houser turned to Miles Redd and David Kaihoi, the partners behind the New York–based firm Redd Kaihoi. She had known Redd since 2012, when she hired him to decorate a Brooklyn Heights townhouse, and the two became friends. They have since worked on multiple houses together. For London she trusted the designers to craft the warm and celebratory atmosphere she craved. “I wanted it to be equally elegant, cozy, and family-oriented,” she says.
Red and green were a natural starting point, as green already had the family’s allegiance. “It’s one of their favorite colors,” Redd says. “So we leaned into that a lot.” Verdant hues appear in velvet, felt, and marble throughout, while the entrance hall is dressed in crimson. These were holiday colors with no intention of coming down in January, and Redd was going for sophistication rather than holiday kitsch. “I wanted romantic 19th-century elegance, the feeling that they’re stepping into a Merchant Ivory movie.”
This approach suits a firm known for exuberant color and layered furnishings. Redd brings a sense of theater to traditional decorating, drawing on the work of such legendary designers as Billy Baldwin, Albert Hadley, and John Fowler and mixing lacquer, chintz, and bold geometric patterns. Before opening his practice in 1998, he trained with antiques dealer John Rosselli and decorator Bunny Williams. Kaihoi, a sculptor, joined the ELLE Decor A-List firm in 2008 and became a partner in 2019. Together the duo give grand rooms an ease and wit that keep formality in check.
In the catwalk hangs a portrait by Jean-Marc Nattier from Doyle; Sketch Architects designed the bronze and brass railing, and decorative painter Agustin Hurtado custom-finished the bookcases.
Houser considers “interior designer” an insufficient description for Redd and Kaihoi. “I feel like they are set curators,” she says. She gave them considerable freedom, occasionally inviting them to surprise her with potential purchases. “I don’t think it’s my place to hinder creative expression, and, as a result, the rooms are just magical.”
The house’s existing architecture gave that freedom some useful structure. “It had great English bones,” Redd says. He retained the original living room mantelpiece, library doors, and front door, while upstairs he and Kaihoi worked to restore character lost to earlier alterations that had stripped away 19th-century details. An excavation created additional basement space for a screening room and a ping-pong area, giving the family more places to gather and play.
The stair hall features an early-19th-century mirror from Doyle and a matka wallcovering with Samuel & Sons gold tapes.
From first visit to completion, the project took the better part of an unhurried decade, with pauses for permits, the Covid pandemic, and other commitments along the way. All the while Redd and Kaihoi kept shopping at auctions, antiques stores, and fairs, which ensured that the rooms would have an accumulated character. The designers looked to the guards at Buckingham Palace for the entrance hall and main staircase, borrowing the red and gold of their uniforms for its matka silk walls trimmed with gold braiding. Beyond the hall, the green velvet–lined library opens into a living room papered to resemble a coromandel screen.
Upstairs, the primary bedroom and a sitting area occupy a long, narrow space. Green felt screen dividers give the bed its own area in one corner without a wall breaking up the suite. “It’s all sort of one big bedsit, which is a very English notion,” Redd says. A small painting of a parrot on one of the screens keeps Houser company at her bedside.
The couple wanted their suite to feel like a luxurious hotel—inviting places to read and work, a comfortable bed, and a generously scaled bathroom—without sacrificing a sense of home. “You’ve ruined hotels for us,” Redd recalls Houser telling him of their previous work.
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But Houser’s favorite rooms are the ones that bring everyone together: the kitchen and the adjoining striped family room, which open onto the garden. It’s here where everyone gathers for meals and to relax. The connected spaces provide separate places to eat, play games, and watch television, allowing the family to spend time together even when everyone is doing something different.
“Their design helps bring us together,” Houser says. “And that’s what it is. It’s a family home.”
This story originally appeared in the November 2026 issue of ELLE Decor.
Julia Cancilla is the social media & news editor at ELLE Decor, where she oversees the brand’s socials and covers design, pop culture, and emerging trends. She also authors the monthly ELLE Decoroscope column. Her work has appeared in Inked magazine, House Beautiful, Marie Claire, and more.