An Arts & Crafts house brought back to life by Brandon Schubert

Nothing in his early life suggested that Texan Brandon Schubert was born to be an interior designer. ‘Growing up in Dallas, I had no idea such a job even existed,’ he says. After his postgraduate degree in law he went on to have a successful career as a lawyer in New York and then London. And so it might have continued, had he and his husband, William Carter, not bought a rundown garden flat in Belsize Park (featured in the November 2019 issue of House & Garden). Brandon realised then that nothing (certainly not the law) gave him greater pleasure than wrestling with lighting plans and reshaping spaces.

There followed a three-month course at the Inchbald School of Design – ‘my happiest learning experience’. Then, over dinner with friends, the interior designer Ben Pentreath and his husband Charlie McCormick, Brandon was offered a very junior job in Ben’s design team. ‘I started off tidying the fabric boxes,’ he recalls. Soon his natural talent and meticulous nature were rewarded and he spent three years assisting on projects. When the owners of this south London terraced house approached Ben for a complete redecoration, he had to decline but suggested Brandon take on the task. ‘They were wonderful clients – I can’t praise or thank them enough for the trust they placed in me,’ says Brandon.

Inspired by the age of their house – it was built in the 1890s, when the Arts and Crafts movement was at its height – Brandon has emphasised that ideal of craftsmanship in the dining room. The panelling, a beautiful iteration with double beading that is painted a strong blue-grey, has a low and exaggerated cornice. There is even greater exaggeration in the tall mantelpiece, with its imposing carved supports.

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Below this, a cast steel fire surround complements the metal of the hanging lamp over the dining table – a clever choice, as it marries the Arts and Crafts feel with the mid-century furniture in the room. ‘The owner was unsure about the lamp at first,’ explains Brandon, who says he was very sure. He shows me a swift ‘back of the envelope’ sketch he made in the early days of the project to give the owners an idea of how the room would look. It is exactly as it appears today, with a refectory table, a mid-century sideboard and dining chairs, the light and the lovely panelling.

In terraced houses of this era, the middle room often presents a problem. When they were built, this space was a dining room and its glazed door to an alley behind brought in light and allowed access to the outside loo without people having to walk through the kitchen. After the alley or side return is filled in – as it had been in this house – this middle room loses its purpose and its light. So Brandon decided to put the kitchen here. ‘You can light a kitchen so it looks brighter, but you don’t want lots of artificial light in a sitting room,’ he explains. He has complemented the owner’s choice of red kitchen units with grey-green tiles, copied from 1884 originals in Leeds Public Central Library.

The large former kitchen is now a handsome sitting room. Brandon solved the problem of its two ceiling heights by lining the walls of the glazed side return with teak and treating the room almost as two areas: the sitting space, facing a wall of blue bookshelves; and a study/storage space, with a Sixties Danish sideboard sitting under the sloping glass roof. A Thirties-style sofa, a Georgian table and a mix of Forties and Arts and Crafts lamps all sit happily together in a colourful and relaxing room, where the view is of the small, densely planted garden, also designed by Brandon.