A gloriously exuberant London house by Nicky Haslam and Studio QD
It is not an easy task to turn two dilapidated flats into a gloriously elegant, exuberant and functioning townhouse in the space of nine months. Such is the achievement of Studio QD, in collaboration with legendary designer Nicky Haslam, who sprinkles his stardust on many of their design projects. Nicky wound up his own company five years ago and now collaborates exclusively with Studio QD’s founders, Jena Quinn and Lucy Derbyshire. Having both worked for him as senior designers over two decades, they set up their own business in 2016 and now have projects on both sides of the Atlantic. ‘We had worked together for so long, it was a natural transition,’ explains Jena. ‘Nicky taught us how to bring humour and fantasy into decoration. He expected us to bring his ideas to life – with our own individual flair.’
This formidable trio turned their attention to historian Flora Fraser’s newly acquired London house in March 2019. With astonishing speed, the flats were combined, the house replumbed and rewired, and – guided by the architect Tchaik Chassay and London-based company Keystone Building Restoration – the space was sensitively reconfigured. Flora moved in as the decorating finished, mere weeks before the first lockdown of 2020 struck.
‘My schoolfriend Zareen Kamal found the house,’ Flora says. ‘Nicky and I had worked together before and I knew I couldn’t manage without him. I had only two requests – to open up the hall and to have my bedroom decorated like a Thirties ocean liner.’ It was music to Nicky’s ears, steeped as he is in a cocktail of European classicism, transatlantic zest and unrivalled knowledge of Thirties design.
As you come into the hall – so often wasted space – the wall has been replaced by four supporting columns, opening up a generous dining area of classic French proportions envisaged by Nicky as a ‘synthesis of floral formality’. A framed silver gelatin print on a vast gunnera leaf, by Dominique Lacloche, commands the space. On the dining-chair backs is the Brunschwig & Fils fern fabric that was used for the sofa, chairs and curtains of Flora’s childhood drawing room. As the eye sweeps you through the enfilade of space towards her study – or workroom, as Flora refers to it – you glimpse Le Manach’s ‘Madame Elisabeth’ floral cotton in the form of curtains and cupboard panels.
Virtually everything in the house is bespoke – one marvels at the quality of the creative detail. To break up the long wall opposite the Lacloche leaf, square panels of MDF, painted he same mushroom pink as the walls, create the reverse of traditional recessed panelling, with gilded discs at each corner that glitter by candlelight. A serpentine marble-topped dresser in front of the window in this area, designed by Nicky and Lucy to fit Flora’s cherished hot plate, used for decades of entertaining, has a raised back panel to shield the room’s contents from the street. Tall, reeded cupboards, Egyptian in feel, were inspired by corrugated cardboard.
At the top of a forest green staircase, a burst of light-hearted elegance awaits you on the first f loor. Based around Flora’s existing orange sofas, a chintz fabric edged in mauve Petersham ribbon runs riot across the walls of the drawing room and covers the Ionic pillars that link the two parts of the room. ‘I had always wanted to do pillars in chintz,’ says Nicky. ‘The idea sprang forth like a waterfall. We added lengths of distressed mirror on the walls and ceiling behind them – the reflected light dances around the capitals.’ Sludge green linen on the adjacent walls cuts through the sweetness of the chintz. Jena’s inspired idea to prevent the many bookcases in the room feeling heavy, was to have specialist painter Lizzi Porter add thin double lines in a dirty shade of mauve along their top edge.
In the main bedroom on the floor above, the wave-like pattern of the silvery blue carpet and a scalloped headboard plunge you into an ocean-liner theme. Curved walls and undulating wardrobes seem to float away towards the bathroom, where lavender-hued bookshelves incorporate Flora’s second desk (she always has a desk in the bath-room). The whole effect is of cool, contemplative luxury.
MAY WE SUGGEST: From the archive (2000): a New Orleans house by Nicky Haslam
In the basement, an abstract painting injects energy and a touch of Cubism into the breakfast room – conceived as a little summerhouse with green and white striped wall-paper and green hexagonal glazing bars in the vitrines. The green theme leads naturally out into a distinctive garden designed by Todd Longstaffe-Gowan. Here, towers inspired by the work of the sculptor Brancusi, covered in yew, stand guard around a curved steel staircase. This was designed by the art blacksmith Agnes Jones, Flora’s niece, and commissioned by Flora’s three children as a 60th-birthday present. At the front of the house, a swirl of red tartan on the banquette brings a touch of the Highlands to the basement kitchen, furnished with Ikea units.
‘The detail and layered nuances achieved by all the specialist craftsmen in this house are astonishing,’ says Flora. ‘It is going to take me years to appreciate all the imagination and thought that created it.’
Simon Upton1/19Walls in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Dead Salmon’ showcase an Irish 18th-century giltwood mirror; chairs in ‘Les Fougeres’ by Brunschwig & Fils flank a Louis XVI-style 19th-century pier table.
Simon Upton2/19Picking up on the owner’s orange sofas, the walls and columns were covered in ‘Bloomsbury’ in merlot by Rose Tarlow from Tissus d’Hélène. ‘I had always wanted to do pillars in chintz,’ says Nicky. The same floral glazed cotton was used to cover chairs and for a cushion on the armchair covered in ‘Holland Flamest’ velvet in coral by Lee Jofa. The riot of pattern is offset by the walls at the other end of the room covered in Marvic’s ‘Renishaw’ linen-mix fabric in aloe .
Simon Upton3/19Walls, curtains and chairs in Rose Tarlow’s ‘Bloomsbury’ chintz provide a floral backdrop for antique pieces including family portraits, a Chinese lacquered table, an Indian carpet and an Italian neoclassical 18th-century mirror. A table lamp from Christopher Butterworth – its base a Sixties Vallauris ceramic vase – stands on a console table covered in the same fabric as the sofa beside it – ‘Orizzonti’ in dusty lilac from Opuzen. Above the English 19th-century wooden chimneypiece in the Rococo style, from Westland London, is a series of gold uplighters, one of them an antique design, which Nicky reproduced to create a set of six.
Simon Upton4/19
Simon Upton5/19
Simon Upton6/19A Dominique Lacloche silver gelatin print on a gunnera leaf hangs above a table commissioned from Armaria.
Simon Upton7/19
Simon Upton8/19
Simon Upton9/19Nicky used an oval frame to soften the lines of this room off the landing. The bust by Angela Conner is of Flora’s father, Sir Hugh Fraser.
Simon Upton10/19Fraser tartan from Lochcarron brings drama to the seating area of this basement room, in which grey Ikea units are paired with Delft tiles by Petra Palumbo.
Simon Upton11/19A light from Andy Thornton hangs over an oak table found on 1stDibs and adapted by Armaria to suit the space.
Simon Upton12/19The wallpaper was created to match Nicky’s ‘Balcony Stripe’ linen in green. Cupboards in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Calke Green’ pick up on faux-bamboo chairs from Mid Century and Co. The painting Transformed Green is by Rob Wyn Yates.
Simon Upton13/19Nicky, Jena Quinn and Lucy Derbyshire of Studio QD beside walls in Dedar’s ‘Adamo & Eva’ velvet in jeans.
Simon Upton14/19The blue is balanced by curtains in Claremont’s ‘Armure Cannele’ in ivory, a chair in Scalamandré’s ‘Jamboree’ in blues and a ‘Micca’ rug from Silk Avenue.
Simon Upton15/19
Simon Upton16/19Panels in ‘Lavender’ by Edward Bulmer Natural Paint frame a seagrass wallcovering and ‘Light Emperador’ marble from SPC. The chair is in ‘Strange Blooms Mono’ in tom’s blue by Bird in the Hand from Justin Van Breda.
Simon Upton17/19
Simon Upton18/19The steel staircase by Agnes Jones was a 60th-birthday present from Flora’s children.
Simon Upton19/19
