Look Around Our Bold Restoration of Lady Louise Carr’s Kew House

Lady Louise Carr had lived in Kew House for almost four decades when she decided it was time for a change. While wrestling with whether to find a new home or stay put, she came to us to find out whether our interior design service could give her the change of scenery she craved.

After one meeting, she was convinced she could have the best of both worlds: a home that felt new without giving up her cherished memories.

Little work had to be done to the rear of the property, where our focus was on highlighting the beautiful Victorian details that first captured Lady Carr’s heart in 1980.

By cleaning up the brickwork and painting the window frames, doors and pergola black, the exterior has been given a striking, modern refresh without detracting from its period charm.

Behind the pergola is the sitting room, where off-white walls and reflective surfaces maximises the bounce of natural light from the garden.

Throughout the house, the original floorboards were beyond saving. On the ground floor, we replaced them with herringbone parquet flooring, with combines a modern pattern with a traditional material.

Lady Carr’s interior design brief presented a unique atmosphere for each room. The bold pink of the dining room above softens what would otherwise be a very formal space into one that is more welcoming.

Though they look unchanged, the ceilings presented the biggest challenge of the project. Their lath and plaster construction required extensive, delicate repairs to be able to support updated lighting. Luckily, we managed to preserve most of the original plasterwork despite the extensive restoration required.

The herringbone motif continues up to aqua tiles of the master bathroom, where rippled gold surfaces and fittings create warm, dynamic reflections that look beautiful under all lights, from the sun to candles.

Finally, Lady Carr’s pièce de résistance: the modern, geometric black and white tiles of the guest bathroom transform a room that is often an afterthought into the most striking in the house.

Lady Carr’s home presents the successful realisation of several distinct interior design styles wrapped in a perfectly preserved Victorian shell.

To learn more about our interior design service and the benefits of interior designers and architects working under one roof, click here.