37
JOHN STREET,
LONDON
BY REBEKAH CAUDWELL
The design brief was to give some youth and energy to a
beautiful and well proportioned, but rather serious house.
Arriving at the front door of the flat fronted, Georgian
façade, you have a pre-conception of what will be inside. I
wanted to play with these expectations and subvert them
totally.
As colour is always my starting point, I set off to change the
mood with some unexpected exciting colours. I always like
to have a unifying colour either subtly or boldly iterated
through a house or project, and in this case I used blues.
The constant colour use creates a visual link through the
property that people respond to, often subconsciously. It
makes the home hang together.
You enter (the hallway) into quite a grand and classic
space, which is made rich and strange by the high impact
geometric wallpaper on the left wall in jewel tones.
There is also a fuchsia-pink lacquered cabinet ahead
of you and a pair of bespoke faux shagreen and velvet
armchairs to the left. These items in particular create the
mood, and inform the viewer that this will not be a regular
taupe townhouse.
The drawing room, which only receives direct sunlight
for around two hours a day in the afternoon, I wanted to
make sunnier with the use of yellow, and I combined it
with turquoise, one of my favourite colours.
I also brought in some graphic and geometric patterns
for additional impact and to give the room a more
contemporary feel.
That combined with various textures and hard surfaces -
velvet, wool, wood, lacquer, brass and marble - give the
room diversity and lift.
I love architectural history and this house has historical
detail in abundance, so it is lovely to play these games
of combining our own time with the craftsmanship and
detail of the past.
Website: www.rebekahcaudwell.com