Notting Hill Master Suite

As one of London’s top interior design studios, we are privileged to have worked on some unbelievable homes in London’s golden post codes.  This full refurbishment, including a basement addition to a beautiful white stucco Victorian home was just one such a project.  Set back on a leafy street in prime London Notting Hill, Rene Dekker Design worked closely with the architects to achieve a dream home for the family.  The works included a full strip out of finishes and services, new windows and doors, all new electrics and plumbing, cooling and heating, as well as a new basement level which would house the playroom/family sitting room plus two further bedrooms.  

The master suite design occupied the entire first floor and included a grand bedroom with fire place, a walk in wardrobe for him leading to the master en suite, with a small stairway which in turn led to the dressing room for her.  The client had grand aspirations and many, many iterations were conceived to achieve the perfect look.  Over the years a lot of the original plasterwork, including cornices and wall mouldings had been removed so we set about elevating the walls with options.  

Once the plan and layout were agreed, we methodically worked our way from the floor design, to the walls finishing up with the ceiling to create the ultimate luxury interior.  Originally we were keen to have a parquet design as the layout of the room was inclined for such symmetry.  We looked at designs by Foglie Doro, Pavimenti Lemma, Parchettificio Toscano and the fabulous Zenati and Edri amongst others.  We then started thinking about the walls.  On the one hand a fully covered wall would be striking and impactful but if the wall was sectioned into neatly assembled panels, it would give that little bit extra feeling of grandness.  We considered wall paper, fabric wall coverings as well as a fabric walls, a typically used feature in many heritage homes.  This method uses applied Dacron interlining which is then upholstered over with fabric which is pinned and glued to the walls and is seen in many British stately homes.  We also designed the doors to fall in line with the grand scheme and these included raised and fielded panels with a bespoke acanthus leaf frieze and specially designed antique bronze door handles.   Finally the ceiling received an over-scaled basket weave cornice and large circular ceiling rose.

Walking through the second doorway into his dressing room, we opted to repeat the panel effect to ensure continuity but we simplified all the details.  With is space being quite tight, a bit more masculine and also acting as the passage to the en suite, we wanted it to feel calm yet still imposing.

The en suite was a light filled room with a large picture window overlooking the newly created courtyard garden.  Here we presented the client with the option of barrel vaulting the ceiling to add yet another dimensions to the experience.  We offered up many marble floor designs  from plain traditional marble layouts designed and manufactured locally to intricate and exotic patterns from New Ravenna and Mosaique Surface.  The plan made use of a delicate shaped vanity and matching bath layout.  We presented several bespoke mirror options using etching and eglomisé and we settled on polished plaster for the walls and a distressed bronze De Gournay paper for above the bath.

Finally her dressing room design was a bijoux little experience with everything that made the room pretty, from jewel like colours in the fabric backed joinery to the hints of gold on the door design.  Bespoke wardrobe doors received a hand painted finish over the CNC laser cut designs and both drawers and doors made use of a distressed antique mirror.  The whole design was completed with beautiful door jewellery from France.