Remy Renzullo has filled his Chelsea cottage with textural finishes and characterful antiques
'Clearly this has to be my house.’ This was the reaction of Remy Renzullo on first viewing the diminutive Chelsea cottage that was to become his home. Aged just 29, the American decorator has a select client list that is growing both in the States and here in the UK, to the point where he needed to establish a London base.
Remy had been visiting the city for several years to source furniture and, two years ago, was just about to start a large project over here. Rather than stay in a B&B, he wanted to rent somewhere that would feel like home and decided on Chelsea, since it was quiet and by the river. ‘I looked at so many houses and could not get over the fact that behind those charming façades, they had all been renovated to within an inch of their lives, with the same airport furniture every-where. I love rooms with a bit of history, rooms that have evolved over a long period of time, rooms that have been lived in for generations.’
He found this house online and, to his American eye, it seemed to come ‘straight from a Beatrix Potter film set’. Being a firm believer in first impressions, on seeing the rough plaster walls, uneven floors and tiny, narrow staircase, he knew this time capsule had to be his home.
Brought up in rural Connecticut, Remy credits his mother as being his earliest design influence. His childhood home was filled with pieces of furniture she had collected, birds’ nests and pieces of fabric she loved. Everything was very natural – almost in the English country-house aesthetic. Her friends were all artists and dealers, and growing up in this relaxed, bohemian lifestyle, Remy learned to appreciate the beauty of things and not just their provenance.
Remy has furnished the cottage from auctions and markets; the pieces are unique, imperfect and completely right for each room. This process took over a year, during which time he camped on the floor. It was not just the time it took to find the right pieces – the house, too, conspired against him, since he soon discovered that the staircase was so steep and narrow that it was almost impossible to get large items of furniture upstairs.
A friend gave Remy an old sofa, but it was too big to make it to the first floor. Then he found a daybed that would have had to go through a window. This, too, was unsatisfactory and, in the end, he sourced at auction the tiniest sofa with a removable back, which solved the problem. So, after the debacle of the sofa, he decided that he would only buy large pieces if he could return them – and bought the iron bedstead in the main bedroom from John Lewis for £200.
Remy took inspiration for the small spare room from the ocean liner the RMS Mauretania. The painted brass single bed was an auction find, and the matching curtains and bedcover come from Michele Aragon on rue Jacob in Paris – a dealer he particularly loves. Add in the Victorian tiny three-legged bobbin-leg table painted with ferns and you have all the appeal of an ocean-going cabin.
The main bedroom is furnished with a 19th-century chair by Edward William Godwin – one of Remy’s favourite furniture makers – bought ‘for nothing’ at an auction in Yorkshire. The curtains were another Paris find and the planter is from Scotland. As a tribute to his mother’s early obsession, two large taxidermy birds preside over the room.
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The drawing room carpets come from Morocco – Remy found them at a dealer in a small town on the other side of the Atlas mountains from Marrakech, hanging on the wall in a filthy condition and covered in mud. ‘They obviously thought I was mad and I spent far more than they cost getting them home and cleaned – but they’ve proved to be perfect for the space,’ he says. A small drop-leaf table around which he can cram six people is central to the otherwise bare dining room and the kitchen with a butler’s sink positioned on an antique Austrian cabinet is simply finished with 19th-century plates on the plaster walls. As Remy says, these are rooms in which he did not need to do too much, but what he has done has been just right.
Remy Renzullo: remyrenzullo.com
Martin Morrell1/12Pale walls stripped back to the bare plaster provide a subtle backdrop for a Flemish tapestry, which Remy bought at auction – ‘I was drawn to its faded colours and the fact it was damaged appealed to me,’ he explains. An armchair found at auction in Yorkshire is covered in a Twenties English chintz; other vintage fabrics collected over the years have been used to create covers for the cushions on the sofa. An elegant Regency table stands on a mid-century carpet brought back from Morocco.
Martin Morrell2/12The ebonised table in the hall is from Alexander von Westenholz.
Martin Morrell3/12A Napoleon III chair sits beside a Queen Anne table in the drawing room.
Martin Morrell4/12A drop-leaf dining table is teamed with 19th-century chairs.
Martin Morrell5/12Curtained shelves provide storage below the granite kitchen countertop.
Martin Morrell6/1218th-century mezzotints hang beside an Arts and Crafts lamp from Robert Kime in the drawing room.
Martin Morrell7/12The kitchen sink sits on an antique Austrian cabinet.
Martin Morrell8/12Remy at the dining table, set with Wedgwood china.
Martin Morrell9/12A reverse-painted glass panel from Paris brightens the mantelpiece.
Martin Morrell10/12Remy was inspired to create the feel of an ocean-liner cabin in this small space, where he has teamed an antique brass bed with a vintage floral bedcover and curtains from Michele Aragon in Paris. A tiny three-legged bobbin-leg table holds an Arts and Crafts lamp designed by WAS Benson.
Martin Morrell11/12The Victorian bamboo table was a find from a London car-boot sale. An old piece of block-printed cotton from a flea market conceals the storage area below the basin. The painting is a copy of Lucian Freud’s portrait of his second wife Lady Caroline Blackwood, one of Remy’s favourite authors.
Martin Morrell12/12Curtains in a vintage Venetian stripe frame a planter by Howard & Sons. An Arts and Crafts chair sits on a Bokhara rug.
