Claudia Lyons spent 40 happy years living in her six-bedroom family home in north London, where she and her husband had raised their four children.
With plenty of space to fill, they had surrounded themselves with substantial pieces of Georgian and Victorian furniture – much of it inherited from family – as well as interesting decorative pieces, and artworks they had picked up on their travels.
But when Claudia’s husband sadly passed away in 2021, she knew things would have to change. It was time to downsize, and that was going to mean a serious edit of the contents of her home.
Claudia found a lovely, sunny two-bedroom garden flat just around the corner to move to. With a spare bedroom and an extra office room in the garden, there was plenty of space for the grandchildren to sleep over. And once the reception area had been extended to the back and over the side return, she would have an open-plan kitchen-dining-living space, big enough for the whole family to gather in.
Her vision was of a cosy, colourful ‘jewel box’, filled with her favourite pieces from the family home.
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Facing such a mammoth downsizing task, Claudia knew she was going to need help, and brought in interior designer Laura Stephens, whom her daughter had found on Instagram.
Laura’s challenge was to design a space sympathetic to Claudia’s heirlooms, that would also reinvent them for a new chapter in a new home. ‘I knew from her previous property that she loved colour and pattern and that she was very fun,’ says Laura, ‘so I thought she would be up for having some playful elements too.’
of one big, open-plan space. The kitchen was built
by interior designer Laura’s in-house joiner and
was designed to be sociable. The blue lamp on
the island was a vase belonging to the homeowner
that Laura turned into a light. Claudia chose mottled red, real marble worktops for a touch of luxury. - Paul Massey -
The work began with the pair going through every room of the big house to decide what to lose and what to keep. Laura employed ‘a little bit of brutal honesty’ about what would and wouldn’t work in the smaller space and, trusting Laura’s judgement, Claudia sent much of the furniture off to auction at Lots Road.
The pieces she kept were a pair of ‘elegant and not too heavy’ lounge chairs with rattan-work arms for the reception room; a handsome half-dresser that had been in the family for many years, and which she couldn’t bear to part with; a set of dining chairs, which had belonged to her mother; and a number of chests of drawers, occasional tables, stools and chairs, that would all be useful in the new place.
Claudia also brought with her artwork, lamps, clocks, pottery and a collection of antique mirrors, including the large, rectangular, gilt one that sits over the bath. This had been in the hallway of the old house and, while the new hallway was too narrow for it, it was ideal for the bathroom where it ‘reflected light around the space and helped make it feel bigger’, says Laura. It also tied in perfectly with the gold-leaf banding on the black, claw-footed bathtub Laura had sourced from eBay.
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Above the sofa is a silk wall hanging that is very special to Claudia. She purchased it in Laos, south-east Asia, while travelling there with her late husband many years ago, and had it framed. This provided Laura with the starting point for the colour scheme of pinky reds and olive greens, found in the curtains, upholstery, kitchen cabinetry, and luxurious real marble kitchen worktops, as well as in the bedrooms.
Ikats, stripes and touches of passementerie in the form of pom-poms lining curtain edges and tassels on cupboard handles introduced a playful element, while Claudia’s mum’s dining chairs, with their original, slightly threadbare red and gold tapestry coverings ‘sat really nicely with the new fabrics’, says Laura. Claudia’s many lamps were given a new lease of life with a whole new set of custom-made lampshades that fitted with the scheme.
A textured wallpaper from Designers Guild provides a neutral but not too plain backdrop to the main living space, and aqua was chosen as an accent colour to lift the earthy tones and add an extra thread of cohesion.
This shade was used liberally in the bathroom (in the panelling and tiles), repeated in the kitchen details, the soft furnishings and even the side return glazing. Continuity is core to the overall scheme: in Claudia’s bedroom, new wardrobe doors feature a diamond motif picked up from the wallpaper. That same motif is repeated in the kitchen cabinetry.
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With the grandchildren in mind, fun and drama were brought to the spare room, with
a nook bed with curtains, and a bold carnival parade wallpaper, inspired by an Indian figurine that Claudia had picked up on her travels. Claudia couldn’t have been more delighted with the finished scheme, saying that it feels like a home that has always been waiting for her.
For Laura too, the project has come together beautifully, with a highly personal new home created from the remnants of an old one. ‘It wasn’t about erasing the past,’ she says, ‘but about taking the best bits from it, while also creating something for a new chapter.’
See more of Laura's work here laurastephens.co.uk