Everything fitted in this house was drawn and made by one studio, as well as the terraces outside. The continuity is invisible but it is the very reason that the property feels at ease with itself.
Back to the structure
The house was stripped out and rebuilt inside twelve months: the ground, lower ground, first and second floors, the staff annexe and all the grounds. A house of this size and age has almost always been extended in stages, and it shows from the inside as a set of well sized rooms that do not quite speak to one another.
So the first work was structural. Walls between the principal rooms were removed so that the ground floor could be read as one sequence rather than as a corridor with doors. Every design note was dependent upon this concept: no run of joinery, no lighting position and no stone layout could be finalised until the walls are sited.
The entrance front, with the garage range to the left.
One room in the evening, four in the morning
The main living area holds a long curve, and a shelved gallery wall was installed to follow it, this an example of a feature that can only be drawn after the design intent was established. It gives the room its character and replaces furniture that most rooms of this dimension require in order to feel comfortable.
The reception rooms open into one another for a single sequence or close with concealed sliding doors for a more intimate setting, so the floor area is one room in the evening and four rooms in the morning. The entrance hall sets the standard upon arrival: a sweeping staircase, a stone floor laid with a set feature and sightlines that inform you of the environment to follow.
The main living area, following the curve.
The shelved gallery wall, designed and made by the studio.
Library shelving with its ladder, built to the wall it stands on.
The entrance hall and the sweeping staircase.
Stone chosen once
The stone was selected as a scheme for the whole house rather than room by room, with the marble brought in from Italy and the floors new throughout. The kitchen carries book-matched panels, cut so that two faces mirror each other across the joint; a decision relating to a single wall that only reads properly if the overall design intent throughout sits well alongside.
Specification as one exercise prevents a spacious home design plan from becoming is a series of unrelated decisions. Also it has to be executed early in the project happen early, because it defines on what every piece of cabinetry will stand.
The cabinetry was designed and made by Bonham & Bonham: the gallery wall, the kitchen, the studies, the dressing rooms and the wardrobes. In the kitchen an informal seating area runs the full width of the room, built in and upholstered: joinery and soft furnishing completed by the same studio from the same drawing.
The kitchen, with book-matched stone above the run.
The formal dining room.
A floor for two people
The top floor holds only the principal suite. The bedroom, complete with terrace, looks across St George’s Hill and out towards the Surrey Hills; a special place in the house to enjoy at the end of an afternoon and early evening. Set to either side of the bedroom are two dressing rooms and two bathrooms; a considered feature, both practical and luxurious.
The floor below has five bedrooms, two with dressing rooms, and one is a suite in its own right with a private balcony, a dressing area and bathroom. The games room on the same floor is sound insulated, to prevent acoustic overload and disruptions.
The principal bedroom, with its terrace beyond.
One of the two dressing rooms.
The house after dark
The lower ground floor was rebuilt for the end of the day. A pool with a jacuzzi, sauna, steam room, treatment room and changing rooms, and a bar plus seating alongside and a gym beyond. Fibre optic points in the pool ceiling carry allow the area to flow from an energetic afternoon swim toward peaceful still waters after dark.
The cinema houses laser projection, a professionally calibrated surround system, twenty four speakers set inside acoustically treated walls and eight individually motorised seats. The acoustic treatment is the unseen part of this space yet the defining feature of the performance of this environment.
The pool, with steam room, sauna and a fibre optic ceiling.
The cinema
The upper terrace at dusk, under the pergola.
The grounds were part of the commission
The grounds were totally renovated and arranged across two south facing levels. The upper terrace opens off the reception rooms with a pergola for shade. Below it the lawn runs down to a garden studio with power, water and a skylight, which could be an office or a studio if required. A few steps behind is a fruit and vegetable garden that is productive all year round.
Trees and planting were brought from Italy and Holland. The garage, the gates and the staff annexe were part of the same commission, and so were the interior architecture, the interior design, the joinery, the fit-out and the landscape. One studio, one set of drawings and one point of contact.
The garden front, seen from the lower level.
The principal terrace, looking out to the Surrey Hills.
