A Victorian flat in London that has the feel of an English country house

‘I love maximalism and clashing patterns and never want things to look perfect. My father always told me that “you have to have a bit of black and a bit of tat”, and he was completely right. Otherwise, spaces look too precious and decorated,’ she says. Her view is that nowhere should be off limits in a house. ‘I want people to walk into a room, see a sofa, throw themselves on it with a couple of dogs and put their feet up’.

Cindy on the neighbouring roof terrace, which leads off of her office.

Christopher Horwood

This sensibility is perfectly evident in her own flat, which she shares with her husband, the landscape designer John Leveson. From pictures, it could easily be mistaken for a classic country house, but in fact the lateral, labyrinth-like space stretches across the top two floors of two late Victorian red-bricks in south London. Cindy bought the first side in the late eighties, and snapped up the second just a few years later, knocking through and reconfiguring the spaces: on one side is a little kitchen, a sitting room, bathroom and dining room, and on the other, reached through a jib door in the dining room, is a large bedroom, en suite bathroom and a spare bedroom. Occupying the top floor is another sitting room with views across London, and Cindy’s office-cum-studio.

If you happened to be reading House & Garden in September 2001, you will already be familiar with the flat, and such is the brilliance of truly timeless design, you will also be familiar with much of its decoration. Save for a lick of paint, many of the spaces remain as they were twenty five years ago. In the sitting room, a now discontinued Noblis toile wallpaper acts as a backdrop to Cindy’s ever-growing and ever-changing collection of paintings. ‘People always tell me that I couldn’t possibly find space for another painting, but there’s always room, even if I have to hang it on the skirting board or the back of a door,’ she laughs. Similarly, the sitting room upstairs is as deeply comfortable and incredibly elegant as it always has been.

The kitchen, however, has recently seen a transformation. Gone are the white walls and dark blue gingham curtains, replaced with a bright, floral wallpaper from Antoinette Poisson. ‘It gave the whole room a complete facelift,’ says Cindy, who ingeniously painted a layer of decorator’s varnish over the top of it, making it wipeable. Bold, striped tiles interrupt the pattern in a pleasing, playful way.

In the kitchen, the floral wallpaper by Antoinette Poisson creates an eye-catching background. The cabinets are painted in Little Greene's ‘Woad’.

Christopher Horwood

While walls throughout heave under the weight of endless frames, other collections are displayed on shelves, credenzas, tables and nooks. Her assemblage of glassware began with a number of square-based Georgian rummers, and has grown to include several half-sized wine decanters. ‘Whenever my mother gave a dinner party, everyone had a half decanter of red wine to themselves. It does reveal who drinks quicker than others, but it looks fantastic on the table,’ she says. Easter eggs, hand painted by Cindy, gather in little groups around the place too, as does silverware and a variety of naval memorabilia, much of which her husband inherited from his ancestors.

Cindy’s own artwork is dotted throughout. She is rarely further than a few feet from a watercolour pen or a paint brush, and her room portraits are nestled among paintings on the walls, while hand-painted stripes disguise plug sockets in the kitchen. Here, one of Cindy's floral watercolours has been translated onto a floor rug by Shame Studios. This first foray into product design has now snowballed, and Cindy is soon to release her first collection of painted ceramics, wallpapers and borders. Samples of these have found a home here too.

Portraits of Cindy's pets over the years are hung on the walls. On the floor is one of Cindy's rugs with Shame Studios.

Christopher Horwood

The pinstripe blue tiles are from Your Tiles. The shelves on the left hold Cindy's collection of glassware.

Christopher Horwood

Though ostensibly bursting at the seams, the winding, joyful flat seems only to get bigger. ‘It’s like a tardis,’ says Cindy. ‘Children love having two sets of stairs – they run around and around for hours’. With sofas that indeed invite you to flop on and put your feet up, it can be hard to drag yourself out the door of this charming flat. ‘We can’t quite imagine ever moving out. As long as we can still walk the stairs we’ve got to stay here,’ she laughs.

levesondesign.com