A multifaceted Chelsea townhouse whose layered space has been cleverly maximised

“The challenges are always bigger when you have smaller spaces.” So says Emma Sims-Hilditch of the – by certain standards – diminutive Chelsea townhouse that her eponymous design studio remodelled and renovated for a young family who were moving back to London from America. The result is a comfortable yet luxe pied-a-terre, perfect for hosting, but which might develop into a robust family home in the future as needed.

After time spent living and working in the States, Emma’s clients found themselves back in England; Sims Hilditch first designed the family home in Surrey. “Once they'd got a flavour of us and got to know us better,” says Emma, “it came about that the husband had always wanted his own pad in London, where he spent time working.”

A threefold brief quickly became clear: the Georgian townhouse in Chelsea would be a base of operations from which the husband of the family could work, but also from which the couple could host drinks after dinner in town or a trip to the theatre. “They wanted it to be a grown up entertaining space,” Emma explains, adding that added versatility was required by the fact that the clients’ three young children are growing up fast, and might be in the house more in the future. “I expect as the children grow up, they'll end up spending more time there.”

The equation was made all the more complicated by a certain paucity of space: the house is certainly not small compared to many London shoeboxes, but in order to fit all of the requirements in and still make it feel cosy and luxurious in equal measure, Emma and Kelly Ross – her senior interior designer and the lead designer on the project – had to rejig the rooms creatively and efficiently over nine months. “Those houses in Chelsea are very, very diddy,” Emma says. “We had to really be very conscious of the spatial planning and how we were going to work in the square footage of this property.”

To begin with, Emma and Kelly opened up the entrance hall to the house, giving it the illusion of a more lateral emphasis (built around 1790, it is tall and narrow like many townhouses of the era). Visitors would now encounter a comfortable living room immediately, perfect for conversation around a fireplace, which Sims Hilditch added themselves. “The client loved fireplaces,” says Kelly, “and she just wanted it to feel cosier.” It is now a sleek space characterised by greens, soft greys and brass touches, which give it a feel almost akin to high-end East Coast refinement – which made sense considering where the family were moving from. Kelly calls it “a ‘sleeker look’ Sims Hilditch”.

“[The client] loves that almost gentlemanly club feel,” agrees Emma. “He loved the dark brown furniture, the brass. He’d been inspired by the Ralph Lauren store in New York, I think.” At the same time, behind the living room Emma and Kelly devised a small snug for watching TV, with built-in storage in the form of elegant green custom joinery. It is a discreet (and discrete) space where, after a day at work, the clients can unwind. “For me, it’s the showstopper,” says Kelly.

Upstairs, the space provided further challenges, though the layout of the rooms remained the same. Much of the furniture was custom-made to fit the rooms, including a bed with a broad, tall headboard in the master bedroom which had to be dismantled and rebuilt in the room. Likewise, says Emma, “getting the bath up the stairs was quite challenging!” Elsewhere, Emma and Kelly sourced antique pieces to complement the custom furniture, including from Brownrigg in Tetbury. “There's a beautiful commode [in the bedroom] that they're using as a chest of drawers,” says Emma by way of an example. “They love the balance and the layering of the antiques with the new.” As for the bathroom, the clients “loved a hotel bathroom,” says Kelly, and were keen to have a space that felt special to use – almost like a trip away. “Like it’s a bit of a treat and a bit of a luxury to stay there,” she adds. “All these details, they loved.”