A bright and colourful maisonette in Chelsea overlooking the Thames

I had been living in France for about four years when I decided to come back to London,’ explains the owner of this flat on the Chelsea Embankment. ‘I must have looked at more than 30 places before finding this.’ She instantly recognised the flat from its photographs; she had been there before. The Grade II-listed Arts and Crafts building was once a five-storey house belonging to her cousin’s grandmother, who had turned it into flats in the Seventies. ‘At one point, my mother also owned a flat here,’ she recalls. ‘It’s purely by coincidence that we ended up finding this flat.’

She actually bought two: initially a flat on the top two floors and then another on the floor below. Shown on these pages is the resulting three-storey maisonette. The owner, who is a photographer, rightly claims it has two of the finest views in the area, overlooking the Thames at the front and gardens at the back. But the view inside is no less compelling.

The reconfiguration of the three floors took nearly a year. ‘Builders traipsing up and down through the building was tough on the other occupants,’ she recalls. ‘But having a cousin on the ground floor simplified putting up scaffolding.’ The top floor – once her studio – is now her teenage son’s bolt-hole (she has three sons, aged 14, 11 and one, as well as two dogs and a cat). The main bedroom, two more bedrooms and a playroom occupy the lowest storey. On the middle floor, a living room overlooks the river. A hall leads to the kitchen and dining room at the rear, which was once an artist’s studio. The large north-facing window here was designed for the owner and offers views over the gardens.

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The owner asked her friend Edward Bridges to help with the transformation. He says he is not an interior designer, but the evidence would suggest otherwise. Edward drew up the new plan for the space and the architect that he brought on board – Chris Eaton of Stiff + Trevillion – interpreted the scheme. Edward also suggested Davies & Green as builders and helped with paint colours, fabrics and furniture. ‘I worked for many years at Carlton Hobbs before joining Alexander di Carcaci and finding furniture and paintings for people all over the world,’ Edward explains. Many of these were clients of the interior designer John Stefanidis, from whom Edward says he gained a sense of what makes a good house. Now he decorates very good houses on his own for clients in London and the countryside.

Strong colours and patterns have been used throughout the flat, reflecting the owner’s easy-going and eclectic style. ‘I have always preferred that look,’ she says. ‘Even at boarding school I tried to make my drab bedroom look bright and cosy.’ There are fabrics from Tissus d’Hélène and by the owner’s friend Nathalie Farman-Farma of Décors Barbares, who is often inspired by patterns found in traditional Persian, Central Asian and Russian costumes.

The owner muses that some of her ideas and tastes stem from her long association with Argentina, where much of her family lives. ‘I am sure Argentina’s wide open spaces have influenced my decorating. My mother paints beautifully, and I suspect the flat’s bohemian feel also reflects my artistic upbringing.’ There are watercolours by her brother everywhere, and the Sixties side table in the kitchen was discovered by her father, who had ‘a wonderful eye for decorating’. She likes to buy art from friends, and among the many pictures and photographs on the walls there are also a number of works by Edward’s friend Hugo Guinness. The overriding effect of this flat is one of brightness, colour and light.

Edward Bridges: edwardbridges@edwardbridges.com
Stiff + Trevillion: stiffandtrevillion.com