The joinery was also absolutely integral to balancing the client’s abstract art collection. “The family were coming from Norway to London with almost no furniture but this fantastic selection of art that became the jumping off point for much of the project,” Anna says. Everything, from the height of the banquette in the kitchen and the mantle in the primary bedroom, to the paint selection, was done to accentuate or counter this collection. One of the most exciting examples of this is the large bookcase that spans one wall in the kitchen and sits opposite the largest canvas in the collection. The design of the bookcase is influenced by mid-century principals, chosen both to “knock out any newness in the house and to reflect the client’s Scandinavian heritage.”
The bolder colour scheme throughout the house–a small departure for the studio–was also response to the dramatic, large scale canvasses the studio was working with. “The artworks are pieces of scale and very much informed the colour schemes and style of the rooms,” Anna says. “What we always want to deliver is a home for the clients, so we had to step away from what we have done before, approach things from a slightly different angle. Our classical approach wouldn’t work here.”
Then there was the task of putting together a colour palette that would work across the four floors. Anna explains, “it was really important that the colours translated from one room to the next.” Fortunately, the studio found the perfect through-line in the form of a contemporary feeling runner by Sophie Cooney that flows through every floor of the house. “The clients saw a sample of it and just fell in love with it. They had to have it, so the runner became instrumental to the scheme because everything in the house needed to call back to it and match the weight of its colour.”
Antique textiles play a big role in most of Anna’s projects, and this one was no different. “Often, where we felt there was quite a strength of colour, we would layer in fabrics that felt muted.” In the primary bedroom, a yellow painting by Kate Friend is revealed and opposed by the headboard, which is covered in an antique textile from Susan Deliss. “The yellow is really vibrant and we wanted to be able to carry it through the room in subtle ways,” Anna says. “The whole room still feels really soft because, even despite the bold painting, and even though the windows are painted red, the rest of it is quite knocked back.”
