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Double-height windows overlooking a historic garden. Marble fireplaces. Original 19th-century molding. Located in the tony London neighborhood of Chiswick, Jeremy and Louisa Preskett Mobbs’s townhouse didn’t lack for grandeur. Yet the couple and their three children often found themselves crammed into significantly less grand quarters: the home’s lower floor, with its small, dark rooms and a ceiling so low that Jeremy, at over 6 feet tall, felt like he needed to crouch.
Because the lower level housed the kitchen and dining area—common in townhomes of the period—it was a natural hub for family life. But in the years prior to the Mobbs family moving in, “it had been stripped of its character and become higgledy-piggledy,” says Louisa, founder of luxury tableware and home brand Maison Margaux. Her vision for a redesign: “a lovely, warm, open space that worked for our family.”
The designers converted the house's former garage into a boot room with its own separate entrance (far left), which “felt more functional for day-to-day living than always using the formal front door.”
Christopher Horwood
The clients’ midcentury chairs were reupholstered in Soane’s Pineapple Thread printed linen. Glimmers of metallics and glass (including a Fiona McDonald sconce) give the space a subtly luxe appeal.
Christopher Horwood
The family room invites lounging and lingering, with a sofa that’s over eight feet long and a new gas fireplace with a custom Arabescato marble mantel. The mirror, by Overmantels, conceals a TV that can only be seen when the screen is turned on. The Squires added alcove shelves to hold books, photos, and mementos (”Louisa and Jeremy are quite a sentimental couple,” says Angelica), painting the interior in deep Stable Green by Paint & Paper Library to help the objects stand out.
Christopher HorwoodThe couple turned to their friends Angelica and Richard Squire, the husband-and-wife team behind design firm Studio Squire, to take on the project. “We have known Angelica and Richie personally for many years—we’ve spent holidays together with our families and had dinner parties at each other’s houses,” says Louisa. “They know us inside and out and how we like to live.” In fact, they trusted the Squires’ sensibility so much that they asked the pair not only to handle the renovation, but also to redecorate the entire house. “I think Louisa and Jeremy had reached a point where they thought, ‘We’re a bit older and we’d like to now have this proper family home that reflects where we are in our life’,” says Angelica.
The color thread of the family room continues via a set of Graham and Green leather chairs in the adjoining dining room and window trim (also in Stable Green) in the kitchen beyond; rug, Nordic Knots.
Christopher HorwoodBut first came the permits, the blueprints, and the heritage reports. “The renovation was a major undertaking, given the restrictions on historic architecture,” says Richard. By claiming space from the adjacent garage, dropping the floor for an additional foot and a half of ceiling height, breaking down walls, and installing a skylight, the Squires were able to brighten and open up the ground floor, creating a clear sightline from kitchen to family room. The revamp even extended to the once-elevated backyard, which the designers regraded to bring onto the same level as the ground floor, turning it into a veritable extra room in the warmer months.
At every turn of the renovation, Angelica and Richard were hyper-focused on how the family of five (plus two cats, one dog, and the occasional goldfish) lived on a daily basis. In the dining room, for instance, they brought in a table for 14 to accommodate Louisa’s frequent entertaining, with easy-wipe leather chairs that could handle, say, spilled milk. Under the first-floor stairs, they tucked in a new WC for convenience, tiling the walls for a kid-friendly (or, as Angelica puts it, “bulletproof”) effect. And in the kitchen, the designers crafted a marble island large enough to fit all three children for an afternoon snack, or for the couple to lay out platters of food family-style.
In the kitchen, Bert & May tiles and a tongue-and-groove ceiling add dimension.
Christopher Horwood
The lower level’s laid-back nature prompted the designers to make a bold move in the newly added powder room, applying Mosaic Factory zellige tiles in a blue-hued checkerboard from floor to ceiling. Sconces, Rose Uniacke; sink, Thomas Crapper.
Christopher Horwood
The dining room was kept simple to allow for homeowner Louisa’s colorful tablescapes, but the Art Deco credenza and Rose Uniacke table are striking enough to stand on their own, too.
Christopher HorwoodWhen it came to decorating, the designers started from a quite stylish baseline. “Louisa and Jeremy already had a lot of beautiful pieces they’d collected over the years, but the space was losing cohesion,” says Angelica. Though Louisa naturally gravitates to color and pattern—and actually, because of that fact—the Squires steered the couple to a more neutral palette throughout the home: creamy white walls, jute rugs, and taupe upholstery masterfully layered with hits of dusty pink and warm red. “We didn’t want the design to be over-the-top, keeping in mind all the lovely tableware and objects that Louisa would be bringing in over time,” Angelica adds.
The design is not only every bit as warm as the couple had hoped for, but has also fostered a new level of family togetherness. Jeremy and Louisa can now cook dinner while helping their kids do homework at the dining table a few feet away. The crew clusters around the kitchen island for breakfast. And everyone regularly gathers in the family room (or piles into the couple’s emperor-size bed) for movie nights. Says Louisa: “The layout and feel of the house has totally changed how we live.”
Measuring seven feet wide, the custom emperor-size bed is large enough for the family of five to pile in for movie nights. The Squires designed custom bed hangings to “make it feel a bit more special without being as grand as a four-poster.” Guy Goodfellow Olive Sacking fabric in Rosewood on the headboard and curtain trim satisfied Louisa’s desire for pattern. Bedside table and lamp by Julian Chichester.
Christopher Horwood
Luckily, the primary bath didn’t need an overhaul—just a bit of softening with the addition of an antique slipper chair, a window seat covered in Robert Kime Anura fabric, and a Pelican House rug. Table, Rita Konig for The Lacquer Company.
Christopher Horwood
"Sometimes smaller spaces work best with big things in them, and it was certainly the case here with the bed," say the designers of the daughter Margaux's four poster bed inset with Dado wallpaper and draped in Colefax & Fowler velvet.
Christopher HorwoodTHIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN VOLUME 18 OF FREDERIC MAGAZINE. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE!
