How would you describe your style?

"Susanna works instinctively, listening intently. She understands houses and what is truly valuable to their occupants, carefully selecting and working deftly to arrange and render rooms in a totally original style. Her homes are always comfortable and hold a sense of place; be they a friend’s room or a stately home."

Please describe a recently completed project or tell us about the bespoke service that you offer

"Susanna undertook a complete renovation of a large listed Arts and Crafts Villa in Wimbledon, gently restoring it into a magical family house. 

It was a major project, requiring extensive restoration work. This included rewiring, replacing inadequate plumbing, reinstating the many fireplaces, the removal of a large, unsympathetic fireplace and rebuilding it entirely, more typical of the original building. All plasterwork and mouldings were carefully restored by skilled craftspeople, using traditional techniques; such as the tanking of the basement, in careful coordination with the regulators of Listed Building Regulations

The original details of the house guided the design; the huge central staircase that starts deep then swirls seven stories, to a final wisp of a flight topped with a look-out post from which you can see all of south London and beyond, the rooms spread like branches of different sizes from the landings. In the drawing room alone there is a polygonal bay window, forming part of a tower reaching to the fourth floor and huge French windows that lead to one of the tiled balconies, this one, replete with an outdoor fireplace. 

A palette of earthy pinks and greens, an eclectic approach to furnishings and decoration, natural textures such as marble, limestone, lyed floorboards and vintage earthy linens, mix with highly patterned wallpapers and modern art,  working together to reignite authenticity, energy and joy in to what was a sleeping beauty. 

So, too, does the mix of old and new art and old and new furniture: fine, elegant antiques and pieces of Susanna’s own design. This is seen in the Master Suite; formerly two rooms but combined with an arch, it now runs the breadth of the house.   Susanna commissioned turquoise dressing room wardrobes to be made, adding an Edwardian element to the French wallpaper and early 19th-century mahogany-gilt furniture. The suite also features a Soumak rug from India and a collection of vintage oil portraits. Interestingly, creating the arch was the only architectural change made and as the lathe and plaster wall were carefully pulled back, an original doorway was revealed.

Initially, ‘faded elegance’ was imagined to be the character of the house, however, as restoration works progressed an authentic grandeur emerged. Despite, not wanting the decoration to feel ‘too done’, the house really did seem to want to be dressed up in jewels and fine silks. We listened. This surprising opulence is best experienced in the Drawing Room, where the walls are lined in a lucite green seagrass paper, and mirrored exactly in tone by the extraordinary panelled fireplace, causing the objects within the room to take on a translucent quality.  Fine art hangs from the antique brass picture rail and beautiful things can be seen in every corner. The furniture is traditional. A contemporary rug brings the textures of wool and silk, the colours, inspired by copper, gravel and wood, are re-used in an enchanted array of fabrics. With the changing light, a smell of cigars wafts in from another age. It truly is the most remarkable of rooms.  

The house is also highly functional. Susanna had worked on a previous house for the clients and knew of their passion for collecting. She ensured that the house was a fitting backdrop to paintings, sculpture, ceramics, and pottery by designing display cabinets, commissioning antique brass rods and chains for the formal rooms and designing the lighting so all pieces could be appreciated daily. In addition, the walls of the huge central staircase, with its adjoining hall were painted in a warm neutral and left in anticipation. 

Vital to the success of this busy family home was repurposing the original billiard room situated in the basement as a ‘below stairs’ kitchen. In order to reflect a way of life once seen in grand country houses, a curved stone staircase was crafted to lead from the garden, down into the kitchen, another arch was formed where a doorway had been, allowing a view into the adjoining pantry through an original half-glazed door. Standing between the two doors and directly facing the final downward flight of stairs from the entrance hall, is a platter cabinet, designed to hold platters from all eras, including contemporary Japanese pieces and fine bone china, older than the house. Repeated is the mix. For both sides of the newly fashioned arch, Susanna commissioned dressers; one with open shelves houses the ceramics and crockery collection, a pair of sinks and taps and also a pair of dishwashers. To the other side, another dresser, with glazed doors, holds the dinner service and glasses. The newly made bakers table is topped with a glorious swirling slab of ancient marble, its drawers open with handles found in a box in the attic. The kitchen table and chairs are inherited pieces.   The dishwashers and all other modern accruements are concealed behind the bespoke cabinets. The colours are serene, if somewhat muddier than the the upstairs. 

Everything looks as if it has always been. The house feels just as it should.

Undoubtedly, this is one of the loveliest houses in London; at once a modern family house, a historic house and a fairytale house."