The Anatomy of an Interior Design Project
Every interior design project begins with a brief and a problem to be solved. Here, Pringle & Pringle’s Creative Director Sophie Pringle shares our Battersea project and explains how we delivered an inspiring yet practical home which really works for the family who live there
The Brief
This was a typical London Victorian house with double reception rooms and a kitchen at the back overlooking the garden, and was home to a family of four. When our clients approached us, their architect had put in the planning application for a side return to extend the kitchen. It had a simple layout and no real design element. Our client was feeling overwhelmed by choice: she knew she loved colour but was struggling to put it all together, and the layout was proving problematic.
Pringle & Pringle was brought in to redesign the ground floor of this family home in Battersea, design an imaginative yet practical kitchen, and a welcoming family snug and guest bathroom in the basement. The brief was to bring colour in to the design, make the spaces really functional, and deliver as much as possible for the budget.
When we start working with a client, we always begin with our comprehensive questionnaire which we’ve built up over the years. It helps us to understand the needs and tastes of our clients, and also encourages them to be honest with themselves about how they really want to live. It’s full of interesting colour psychology questions, as well as giving us practical clues about their routines and day-to-day lives so we can make their home work for them and a pleasure to live in. Our clients for our Battersea project work incredibly hard and wanted to have a feeling of delight at returning home after a busy day. The father and two sons were very keen on tech while the mother loved colour, and these cues informed a lot of our design choices.
The Kitchen
In the original plans, the architect had designed two entryways into the kitchen – one from the hallway and one from the middle reception room. Not only does this make it a walk-through room, it also means losing vital worktop space in the kitchen, as well as being quite dangerous when the natural traffic flow goes through the cooking area.
We decided to flip the kitchen layout, placing the working kitchen area under all the new glazing and replacing the entryway from the middle reception room with an internal window which we placed the sink beneath. This meant our clients had more worktop space and made the middle reception room into a proper usable space without compromising on light.
The dining area was placed on the opposite side of the room, creating a cosy nook as it wasn’t directly under the glazing which can feel quite cold at night. At the heads of the dining table, we placed armchairs made by David Seyfried upholstered in vibrant ‘Carnival’ fabric by Christopher Farr in Turner Pocock’s turquoise and coral colourway. The kitchen units were painted in ‘Teal’ by Paint & Paper Library – an uplifting colour which works brilliantly in a kitchen.
Our clients loved the wood flooring we selected from Havwoods but the client was anxious about using it in the working kitchen area. Our solution was to tile the kitchen area and use wooden planks under the dining table. As well as being practical and helping our clients to relax in their kitchen, it also brought more colour and pattern into the space.
The large island was filled with storage and included a wine fridge and bookshelves as well as cupboards and drawers. To prevent it from getting too close to the bi-fold doors at the back of the room, our solution was to cut the corner off the end so that the bar stools could sit at an angle, allowing for much more natural seating and conversation. It was a great solution and is one we’d repeat. The kitchen worktops were Corian and the taps were by Perrin & Rowe.
The Reception Rooms
As is typical with Victorian homes, the hallway was on the narrow side and was made narrower still by the coats which were hung from the wall. Our solution was to design plenty of storage in the middle reception room with the internal window. On one side, there was a cupboard for each family member with coat hooks and baskets for shoes, and cork board pin boards for the children’s timetables and important letters. A cupboard above provided storage for out of season items like hats and scarves.
On the opposite side the of the room, was bespoke joinery for our clients to display their books, photographs and ceramics with storage cupboards below, and painted the entire room in ‘Stone Blue’ by Farrow & Ball which helped make it feel cohesive. We placed our client’s favourite Eames chair in the room and installed speakers to make it a great space for listening to music and reading, as well as being a functional everyday storage area.
To help it flow into the front reception room, we used pops of blue in an otherwise neutral scheme, with walls painted in Paint & Paper Library Slate I [insert link: https://www.paintandpaperlibrary.com/slate-i ] and woodwork in Slate III. The blue sofa came from Loaf, and we reupholstered a couple of antique armchairs in Manuel Canovas fabric. The large floor lamps which frame the sofa are from Julian Chichester and the sideboard was sourced from Orchid Furniture while the hardwearing jute rug came from Tim Page. We also added shutters and ticking stripe curtains to the windows.
This room became the mother’s unofficial sitting room, and was somewhere she could entertain friends and also relax in the evening and sew which was a new-found passion of hers. The father was a keen photographer and so we made sure there was space for his photographs to be displayed on the wall. We used wooden floors in a herringbone pattern in the reception rooms and hallway in the same tone as the planks in the kitchen and basement to create a different mood in the spaces while ensuring it felt cohesive.
The Basement
The basement was exceptionally deep; the ceiling height was over 3m and it made the space feel rather cavernous. The original staircase brought you directly into the room and into the back of the sofa, which was smaller than they wanted it to be. The room wasn’t working, so we changed the layout entirely. We modified the stairs so they turned at the bottom rather than leading directly into the room. This made space for us to add a beautiful coral sideboard by Julian Chichester which is where we placed the television and added some artwork. This also solved the problem of reducing glare from the window.
With the new configuration, our client could get a huge corner sofa which could go right up against the wall and we added in a window seat. The colour scheme was inspired by the beautiful ‘Anoki’ fabric by Pierre Frey on the David Seyfried ottoman. We wanted the room to feel cosy and welcoming so suggested a bottle green seagrass wallcovering from Stereo Interiors, which would also help with the acoustics of the room. Our clients were nervous of the choice but were brave and were thrilled with the results. It’s now a room they love to spend time in as a family.
Lighting was very important for this room and so we designed a lighting plan using Orluna downlights on different circuits. These lights are as close as you can get to natural daylight so you don’t need many to create a wonderful effect. We carefully positioned the lights in the corridors and over artwork, over the sofa so if they were playing a game they could see their controls without shadow. Wall lights behind the sofa from Vaughan allowed a softer light in the evening. Because the staircase was in the room we added tiny lights above every third step which gave a lovely ambient glow in the evenings.
We redesigned the guest bathroom in the basement, creating a luxurious walk-in shower. As the room had no natural light, we designed a colourful scheme to make it feel welcoming and vibrant. Our client opted for pink tiles on the walls and green tiles on the floor all from European Heritage, which echoed the seagrass in the snug. The brass hardware from Crosswater worked beautifully with the warmth of the pink.
Our understanding of our clients’ tastes and lifestyle meant that we were able to design a home which really works for them, and provides flexible spaces which will continue to evolve with their family.
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Written in partnership with Studio Home Page
