A London house with influences of the British countryside, tropical Brazil and Bauhaus
The cultural fusion of English country house style, tropical Brazil and German Bauhaus makes for a heady cocktail and it is this mix of styles that is both the foundation and the inspiration of Nina Litchfield’s design company.
Brought up in Brazil and Germany, Nina came to London in 2004, aged 21, to study international relations at Kingston University. She married an Englishman, worked in fashion PR for three years and, after a spell at Sotheby’s in the photographic department, decided to follow her natural inclination and turned to design. In 2011, she attended the Inchbald School of Design and, three years and two children later, she started her own business. It flourished despite the pandemic – her team are now working on eight projects, including one in the Cotswolds and another in Paris.
‘My Brazilian mother loves traditional English interior design, and introduced me to its warmth and elegance in the beautiful colonial farmhouses of Brazil,’ explains Nina. ‘But I also imbibed the brutalism pioneered by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. Later on, when we were living in Germany, its cultural history seeped into my consciousness: 17th-century Baroque and the early 20th-century Bauhaus movement, with its emphasis on materials, functionality and the stripping away of embellishment. We are all influenced by everything we experience growing up; it remains part of who we are and who we become.’ Nina’s recently completed house in west London is testimony to many of these strands, woven thoughtfully together.
When the couple bought the Victorian house in 2014, it consisted of a maisonette and a separate basement flat. As they had a modest budget, they needed to plan carefully before making any big decisions. Leaving the basement flat empty, they painted the interior of the maisonette white and moved in immediately. Two years later, they moved out and major works began, to combine the two parts. ‘It was at this stage that I met the hugely talented Blanca Pérez González,’ Nina says. ‘She was working with the architectural company that was doing the structural work on the house and was the star who nursed the project through to its conclusion.’ Blanca later became Nina’s business partner and now runs the architectural side of the company, while Nina heads up the design side.
In October 2018, Nina and her family were able to move back into the house, but it took another year to complete the decoration. As you enter, Nina has created what she describes as a ‘magical tunnel’ by slightly widening the hall and giving it a barrel-shaped ceiling. It leads directly into a large double room – the drawing room and library – their entertaining space.
A tropical exuberance permeates these rooms and, as is often the case in Brazilian houses, nature seems to have been brought indoors. A huge green leopard-print curved sofa welcomes you in, there is a palm tree by the window, and a vast photograph of a bird of paradise flower by artist Anna Skladmann hangs above the chimneypiece. It feels vibrant, lush and exciting. As does the library, which you enter through sliding pocket doors, with its moss-green walls, apple-green sofa and bottle-green bookshelves.
To maximise light, Nina has used glass walls with Crittall divisions in several rooms. You skirt one behind the leopard-print sofa, on your way down the staircase to the basement, where an Arts and Crafts wallpaper by Voysey runs throughout the open-plan kitchen and dining room.
Gentle ‘Garter Blue’ from Edward Bulmer Natural Paint was chosen for the bespoke kitchen units, with the copper tops of the pendant lights above the island and the pink legs of two stools adding a zestful twist. On the mezzanine between the ground and first floor is Nina’s office, which appears to be a floating glowing yellow cube, bathed in light. It has a glass wall and everything is painted a pale yellow: the walls, the ceiling, the woodwork, the windows and the skirtings. It feels contemporary and soothing.
As you continue up to the first floor, the French wooden bed beckons you into the main bedroom. Here, Nina used white above the dado rail to create a feeling of calm and, below it, Farrow & Ball’s ‘Hague Blue’. ‘It is my go-to blue,’ explains Nina. ‘Like the colour of jeans, it goes with everything and it is elegant and chic.’ Eugenia Barrios Osborne, who collaborates on many of Nina’s projects, painted a pink wash on the walls and ceiling of the bathroom, which, when viewed from the bathtub, looks like clouds.
On the floor above are the children’s bedrooms. Nina’s daughter’s room – feminine but not overwhelmingly so – has a wallpaper by John Stefanidis. Her younger son’s is ageless in Nicholas Herbert’s blue ‘Toile des Lapins’ – chosen in case, one day, if the children should want to double up, it becomes a spare room.
Whatever the professional challenges ahead, I suspect Nina’s work will always be bathed in the sunshine of Brazil.
Nina Litchfield Studios: ninalitchfieldstudios.com
Michael Sinclair1/10Cabinetry in 'Garter Blue' by Edward Bulmer Natural Paint is paired with a marble splashback and island, above which are restored and repolished warehouse lights, bought from Hatchwell Antiques at Battersea Antiques fair. The stools are from The Conran Shop.
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Michael Sinclair3/10Around a Habitat table are chairs from The Hub Works, the fabric of which complements CFA Voysey’s ‘Apothecary’s Garden’ wallpaper. A photograph bought at Photo London brings the Hamburg countryside into this London kitchen.
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Michael Sinclair5/10Internal windows and glass doors maximise light in the hallway.
Michael Sinclair6/10An antique French bed sits on a carpet from Tim Page. Curtains in Schumacher’s ‘Lotus Garden’ frame a Sixties chair in C&C Milano’s red houndstooth wool.
Michael Sinclair7/10Brass-framed mirrors accent the warmth of the soft pink wash used on the walls and ceiling. The cage light is from Soane.
Michael Sinclair8/10‘Cherry Blossom’ wallpaper by John Stefanidis from Tissus d’Hélène provides a pretty backdrop for a rattan bed from Bon Ton.
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Michael Sinclair10/10Nina Litchfield.
