Walk down any London street and you’ll likely find a jumble of architectural styles – it’s inevitable in a city that has survived fire, plague and war over the centuries. A perfect example is this Arcadian corner of St John’s Wood, where an elegant row of Italianate villas (originally built in the 1800s to house artists and artisans) is interrupted by the occasional 1950s infill house, hastily built to replace homes destroyed in the Blitz.
The owner of one of these – an entrepreneur and art collector with a young family – wanted to use it as a salon and gallery as well as a family home. ‘The plan we devised has flexibility at its core,’ says Stephania Kallos, co-founder of the architectural design firm Kallos Turin, who, along with her business partner Abigail Turin, was brought on board to deliver the transformation.
‘The house functions equally well as an informal family home and as a more formal backdrop for the extensive and rotating art collection. They also love to host poetry and music recitals.’
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When work began, the house was in poor condition, recalls Abigail. ‘It was likely done quickly and without much thought given to overall proportions and fenestration.’ In collaboration with Ian Hume of Totem Studio, Kallos Turin’s task was to reintroduce the more elegant proportions of the neighbouring homes, to create an expansion to the main living area into the back garden and to renovate the interiors.
To give the house some soul, as well as a better flow, Stephania and Abigail looked to the vanished, late-1880s building that once stood on the site for inspiration. This resulted in their most dramatic intervention: the introduction of a large entrance hall with a sweeping staircase that would have been a central feature of the original house.
Convincing their client to dedicate so much space to this architectural element wasn’t easy, but they are glad they did. ‘It’s so unexpected in London to enter into such a gracious entrance hall – everyone who comes in takes a big breath and loves it,’ Stephania says.
The staircase itself also has a subtle reference to the nearby homes’ Italianate history, with the balustrade incorporating an arch, a detail that is repeated in metalwork throughout the house.
And, while Stephania and Abigail tend to favour a fairly restrained material palette, their client was keen on combining different types of timber. ‘We ended up using oak-parquet floors with walnut-wood cabinetry and wall panelling. It gave a wonderful sense of warmth to an otherwise clean, crisp space,’ says Stephania.
Careful consideration was also applied to finding the best neutral colour to display the client’s art collection. Perhaps surprisingly, this turned out to be a deep blue, which is most evident in the dining room, where it washes over the walls and ceiling. The tone threads through the home, including in the kitchen, where it is teamed with walnut cabinetry and obsidian-grey stone worktops.
The Rich Brothers-designed garden was another critical component of the plan, firmly rooting the house within a wild landscape. Plants and paving were chosen to introduce texture and informality, while brick façades were treated to promote the growth of climbing vegetation. The overall vibe feels free and playful – almost as though the foliage could creep inside. This was Abigail’s favourite part of the project, because ‘the almost unruly quality offsets the more tectonic character of the architecture’.
Despite the fact that their contractor went into liquidation halfway through, leaving them with a lot of challenges, the duo are deeply satisfied with how everything turned out. ‘It is working beautifully for the family, providing both the casual vibe they asked for and a more formal setting for their salon-style gatherings.’ kallosturin.com; totemstudio.squarespace.com
