A family home that mixes clean modern elements with rich wells of colour and pattern

It has been an interesting journey,' says Stephan Eicker, talking about his amicable split with his former business partner Gavin Houghton. Both designers have now gone solo, and it can't have been easy for either following on from the Eicker & Houghton brand, with its reputation for bold, witty interiors. However, Stephan's latest project, a Victorian terrace house in Chelsea, makes it abundantly clear that he is still very much in his element. The owner was introduced to Stephan through an old friend. 'I heard how clever he is and we bonded very quickly,' she recalls. Her previous house was decorated in minimalist style, and her brief to Stephan was for something warmer, more inviting and family friendly. Further to this, she says: 'It was important that the house be renovated to a high standard, with authentic pieces and no reproductions. I am not interested in being trendy, but I did want it to be luxurious, without being ostentatious. I also like symmetry, but it is difficult to achieve in London properties, which tend to have gone through a series of adaptations. This house is no exception, having been used as an estate agents' office before being converted into a rental property. "The layout was very strange, and the flow between the rooms was poor,' says Stephan, who could see instantly how it could be reconfigured.

The major structural changes were to the basement and ground floors. In the latter, Stephan took down walls to create a welcoming, open-plan space comprising a hallway, drawing room and family room; returned the staircase to its original position; and enlarged the skylight. He then brought natural light into the basement, which he made into a kitchen-cum-dining room, by replacing the area of ceiling directly below the skylight with glass, and increased the height of the rooms by lowering the floor level by approximately a metre. Elsewhere he removed awkward cupboards and dividing walls, and reassigned rooms, so that the house, which is tall and narrow, feels balanced and cohesive.

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In terms of decoration, Stephan had a virtu ally blank canvas, as the owner wanted to keep only a couple of items of furniture from her previous house. However, he did have to incorporate her collection of Fifties, Norwegian, abstract-expressionist art. 'I lived in Sweden for four years. Work by artists such as Jakob Weidemann remind me of the landscape,' she remarks. No doubt Stephan would have considered basing his scheme around the colours in the paintings rather obvious and prosaic. Instead, he has subtly mirrored the rich shades and thickly applied paints with layers of vibrant fabrics. The ‘layered look', as he calls it, also has the effect of making the house welcoming and cosseting. 'Stark interiors, where pieces of furniture have been placed in isolation, with nothing to soften them, just don't look inviting,' he explains.

It is certainly a supremely comfortable house, but it is also a riot of colour and pattern. Take the main bedroom, which combines a pale green, vintage Swedish rug; a retro-style, brown and-navy-blue floral bedcover; lush, moss-green velvet curtains; bright blue and red ikat cush ions; and slate-grey, grass wallcovering. It should not work, yet it emphatically does – as does the drawing room, which has some serious Gustavian furniture', Venetian mirrors, mustard-yellow curtains with customised black tassels, and hand-painted chinoiserie wallpaper. 'It is a real mix,' says Stephan. “The wallpaper, which I love, is probably the boldest thing I did in this house. It is a risk, but it works.'