Building a home from scratch offers almost limitless possibilities to a designer, but one of the biggest challenges is infusing the rooms with a sense of character, to give it a feeling of permanency. Amy Stoddart had just such a conundrum to tackle when she was commissioned by a family to design the interiors of their house, a new-build in a leafy Hertfordshire neighbourhood.
‘This was a full-scale house renovation, with the original property demolished and a new home built in its place – a vision the clients had been planning since they purchased the site ten years ago,’ she recalls. ‘As a family with two children, they wanted a home that would grow with them – something timeless, functional and beautiful they could enjoy for years to come.’
At 5,000 sq ft, the house needed to feel both spacious and considered, with areas for entertaining and relaxing, including a cinema room, study and gym. Amy and her team approached the neo-Georgian style project (which was christened Bow House) with the same sensitivity they bring to heritage homes.
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‘It was important to create a sense of longevity and character, so the house didn’t feel overtly “new”,’ she explains. They deployed a muted, layered palette and subtle Parisian influences to give the home history and permanence.
One space that particularly embodies this is the formal living room, where a coffered ceiling lends the room a quietly classical atmosphere. Neither Amy nor the builders had built anything like it before, but she felt strongly about including this key architectural feature which brings structure to the space, anchoring the room and subtly nodding to the Georgian influence that runs throughout the house.
‘It became a real on-site collaboration,’ she reflects. ‘We had to work closely together to figure out exactly how to execute it. The experience brought a deeper level of craftsmanship and understanding to the project.’
The house sits in a neighbourhood characterised by generous plots and established greenery and Amy wanted the interiors to draw on those peaceful surroundings. ‘Materiality played a huge role in shaping the mood,’ she says, explaining that they used Calacatta Viola marble throughout to elevate the spaces, applied lime wash paint to the walls for texture and depth and colour drenched the formal living room in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Railings’ to create a cocooning, cosy space.
Amy and her team curated bespoke furniture pieces for each space, commissioned custom artwork and selected lighting that enhanced the architecture whilst also bringing in ‘that romantic Parisian touch we were striving for,’ she says. In the cinema room, the bespoke U-shaped sofa takes up most of the floor space – in fact, it was so tight to the walls, her upholsterer had to build the framework on site prior to upholstering it.
Amy considers herself lucky to have been trusted so fully by her clients to realise their vision. ‘Their delight with the finished home is truly the greatest reward,’ she says, smiling. ‘They had a strong appreciation for craftsmanship and thoughtful detail. It was a wonderfully collaborative process – our styles aligned beautifully, and their trust in me allowed us to achieve the best possible outcome.’ amystoddartstudio.com
