Grand Entrance Hall

This entrance hall design is grand on a stratospheric level, with a huge skylight and a bespoke cascading chandelier over 3 levels!  As part of a much larger scheme, the design team at Rene Dekker Design tackled this element of the project first as it would set the tone for the rest of the house.  They say you only have one opportunity to make a good first impression and this had to be a VERY good first impression.  It started literally with the front door design which needed to convey a sense of arrival.  The studio presented several door designs for client consideration, from simple to ornate with a middle of the road design finally settled upon.  To add that touch of authenticity plus the ubiquitous hint of gold, a pair of bespoke over-scaled door knobs was added as ornament.

The actual internal space was really large, with all the ground floor rooms leading off it.  This space needed to have serious wow factor.  For the floor we chose a classic country house checkerboard marble layout with a twist, in that we used dark brown and light grey instead of the traditional black and white.  The design was carefully worked out so that there were no off cuts plus we added a border to ground the design.  For the staircase design we worked closely with the client appointed contractor, choosing first one of their traditional Georgian models and then tweaking it to suit our vision.  Our original idea for the balustrade was to have a ‘horse shoe’ design incorporated into the spindles as the property includes stables and equestrian facilities and the client is a world class dressage rider.  It was also during this design process that we firmed up the templates for the doors, architraves and skirtings that were used throughout.  Based on classical proportions but painted in the clients favourite blue, we used these same designs throughout the house.

The finishing touches include a pleated linen wall covering from France, stunning handmade furniture from Kifu Paris and the Sofa & Chair co as well as a cascading ‘tree’ chandelier extending over a four metre drop.  We then added the vibrant client chosen art with strong colour and hints of gold.