Existing pieces often informed the palette for an entire room, as was the case in the snug, street-facing sitting room, where a painting owned by Dominic, now hanging above one of the sofas, inspired Louisa to paint the walls in Edward Bulmer’s terracotta-toned ‘Malahide’. This room also serves as an occasional extra bedroom, with a bespoke, extra-deep sofa (one of the few new pieces in the flat) doubling as a single bed. But the open-plan sitting room and kitchen has to be the pièce de résistance, a charming confection of colour and pattern, with the blue kitchen joinery, skirting and window frames taking their lead from the colours of a rug that Louisa has had for years. ‘It really helps on a dreary day,’ she says.
So too does the glossy green hallway, built up layer upon layer by paint specialist Laura Ann Morris of Art Tropezien, which has an almost clubby feel. ‘It’s a windowless space and so it needed to sing for its supper,’ explains Louisa. So impactful is it that it has proved a conversation starter for almost anyone who steps over the threshold.
The curtains are in ‘Java’ linen by Susan Deliss, with a rug from Robert Stephenson creating a foil for the mix of prints.
Christopher Horwood
The two bedrooms and main bathroom are peak country house, with wallpaper providing a charming backdrop to a mishmash of antiques, skirted lampshades, suzanis and floral prints. The main bedroom took its palette from the colours of a beloved jumper, the browns of the Veere Grenney wallpaper and furniture offset by a turquoise lamp. In the spare room, she was able to use a Jean Monro fabric for the headboard that she’d been ‘drooling over for years’, which clashes deliberately with Hamilton Weston’s ‘Kennington Stripe’ wallpaper.
The main bathroom is another properly decorated affair, hung with yet more wallpaper and furnished with a vanity converted from an antique chest of drawers and a chintz slipper chair. Even the bath has become a thing of beauty, with Louisa indulging her long-held desire for a shaped marble splashback: ‘I wanted this room to be pretty rather than utilitarian.’ The whole flat is an exercise in achieving this: a place where life can be lived well. ‘It feels like arms around you when you walk in,’ Louisa concludes.
Louisa Greville Williams: lgwdesigns.co.uk