This north facing study has minimal natural light – with the need for articial lighting during most of the day.  For dark rooms – I am a great fan, of working with what you have ie not trying to make the room light and airy as you will never be able to achieve this.  Then you have the added issue of which dark paint to go for?   The problem with these dark paints is that they tend to show every mark – fingerprints, liquid splatters etc etc…. You really do need a high quality paint in these situations.

I always use Fenwick and Tilbrook – they are superb with extremely high pigment levels.   The customer service is second to none as well.  For this design proposal the Still Norfolk colourway is used from Fenwick and Tilbrook, Linwood Niva fabric in the blind – you can see the blind in the finished room here.

This client’s favourite colour is that deep pink/ red colour which is sometimes called magenta, fuschia or raspberry.   They were looking to incorporate this into their study, but had concerns that it might be too much.

Once I had drawn the model and built the bookcases – it became pretty clear that having the bookcases painted in this colourway would work well and my client could see this clearly.  Balanced with the lovely soft grey curtains, Ian Mankin Arran Fabric in dark grey and navys – a wonderful study has been created.

If you would like to see the finished study please visit taylorandpaix.com

I was approached by this client to help out redesigning their ground floor.  They were building a fairly substantial extension on the first as well as the ground floor.   It was primarily ‘what to do with the kitchen’ which is why I was commissioned.  Once I had drawn the outer shell of their new extension – it was easy to see how the flow was going to work re a busy family. I always prioritise the ‘gunnells’ of the house i.e. where is the laundry done? where do you dry your clothes? where does the hoover live? etc etc.  If possible, i always try and incorporate a pantry, however small – this makes such a difference to day-to-day living.

As a couple they were confident with styles that are not so pedestrian – and fully embraced a more ‘organic’ feel combined with a contemporary look.  Lots of earthy tones, flooring that goes continuously from inside to outside, a huge kitchen island 3m x 1.4 are just some of the style elements.   This would be a kitchen I would be more than happy to have as my own!

This design all started with the curtains.   The client approached me for some curtains and blinds.  They could not decide whether they wanted to have the curtains outside the recess on their terrace doors, what to do with the dining area etc etc.   They were just moving into this completely renovated property and were starting completely afresh, with this room being a complete blank space.

They sent me a couple of photographs and a plan of the room and I came up with this design solution.  Curtains in the recess with a light filtering voile roller overlooking the terrace allows for a nice built-in unit along the back wall.   Curtains with a pelmet in the dining area (with a voile behind) balances and widens the narrow dining area.  Having single curtains with single stack-backs on both of these items releases much needed space – as well as drawing the eye.

The accent chair is shown in a velvet Azuri by Anthology , the dining chairs are in Arlo by Linwood , the drum pouffe/ table in Astraea by Linwood, cushions are the Andrew Martin/ Sophie Paterson Ostuni Canvas Fabric.

A long narrow sitting room, with minimal natural light, 2 focal points – the television & fireplace.  Even though there is minimal natural light, there are a lot of doors & windows – so not a lot of wall space.  The room also needs to be able to seat 4+ people comfortably.  If ever there was a need to do a spatial layout and design – this was it!   The result is one oversized sofa, which seats 3+ adults comfortably and another 2 seater sofa – with space for an occasional chair.   A pair of custom made ottomans which serve as both coffee tables as well as footstools make the scheme comfortable for slouching infront of a long film!

The television is large – so can be seen at a bit of a distance (i.e. from the 2-seater sofa) and both sofas ‘view’ the log burner giving that ‘ahhh’ factor to the scheme.

I was absolutely thrilled to be commissioned by Zena from Zena Jane Interiors to produce these visuals for one of her clients.   Zena was carrying out a full redecoration of various Reception Rooms.    This Family Room which doubles as a cinema room was having a complete overhaul and the primary reason for building a model was to detail the specifications for the extremely large sofa and various bespoke occasional furniture.    Adjacent rooms were included, although not visualised.  The result gave the client a clear preview of the final result.

Zena really did work her magic on this room and you can see how it looks in reality at here.

This really is a true Sitting Room – as opposed to a Living Room, where you tend to find a television.  Arguably a ‘traditional’ Sitting Room is fairly easy to design spatially, re furniture positioning, sizing etc.  This room is no exception with one focal point – the fireplace without a competing television.  On the surface it does not appear that there is any need for a visual.  However, this client – who tends to chose large & colourful patterns in curtains was looking for something a bit different.   They were looking to put a big bold pattern into the sofas (a rather big ticket item) and contrast them against a more muted curtain – before the sofas & curtains were commissioned they were able to see how it would look.

The sofas are covered in the Zoffany Cochin Print and the curtains are the in James Hare Corolla Fabric.