A GRAND REVIVAL
Successfully curating a lifetime’s collection of objets and furnishings was key to this downsizing challenge
Prior to becoming an interior decorator at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, Daniel Slowik managed the company’s antiques division, and it was in this capacity that he first met the owner of this Victorian terraced town house in south London. ‘She is a passionate collector and she would come into the Brook Street shop all the time,’ Daniel recalls. He continues, ‘Twenty years on, she got in touch with me via Instagram to say that she and her partner were downsizing to a house around the corner from their previous home and she wondered if I could help.’
As owner and designer strolled from the larger house to the smaller one, a plan began to emerge as to how a lifetime’s collection could be curated and shown in a new light in this more petite property. ‘From the outset we knew that this wasn’t going to be a case of acquiring new pieces; rather, it would be about re-covering, re-polishing or repainting her most treasured finds,’ Daniel explains. He adds,
‘We are entering an age of repurposing, which is something my company was doing when they were decorating country houses back in the 1950s. Our emphasis now, as it was back then, is on couture decorating – if you refinish a piece beautifully, it will come back to life and last for many years to come.’
Daniel’s approach to upcycling also applied to the fittings within this house. ‘I’ve increasingly been trumpeting about sustainability and not throwing things away when they are perfectly good,’ he says, citing as an example the property’s existing kitchen cabinetry. ‘It had rather unattractive panelled units but we filled elements of the panels and repainted everything. We then added beautiful reeded knobs, which put our stamp on the room.’ Where new joinery was required, Daniel worked with his draughtsmen to create classic designs, such as the drawing room’s elegant bookshelves that have →
been tailored to accommodate every different size of book in the owners’ collection.
For Daniel, the joy of this project was that his personal tastes and those of the client converged. ‘She loves florals and a palette of pinks, blues and greens – and so do I,’ he comments, adding that although the palette shifts from room to room, there is a connection between the spaces. ‘I always consider the view from one room into the next; it is important that it mustn’t jar.’ So, for example, the plaster pink of the hallway walls and the greens of framed botanical illustrations are carried through to the adjoining sitting room, where Daniel’s approach to couture decorating is witnessed in features such as chic green piping on the pink sofa, or a slim band of orange trim on the chartreuse-hued curtains. ‘Curtain making and upholstery are not cheap but the fabrics don’t have to be expensive. It’s all about the details,’ he posits.
In other rooms, curtains from the previous house were reworked to suit the more modest proportions of the spaces. The master bedroom curtains, which match the drapes of the four-poster bed, formerly featured swags and tails, so Daniel had them simplified and hung them from a pole to make them more relevant to the scale of the room. Where required, furniture was carefully repaired, such as a pretty iron bed that was missing a castor. ‘We had to pay a visit to an iron bed company in the middle of a field – we discovered that antique iron beds are quite a niche market,’ Daniel recounts.
Daniel summarises this project as ‘a miniature country house in London’, and he believes that it exemplifies – albeit in a small-scale way – what he and his colleagues at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler do best: ‘It’s about mastering colour and pattern and focusing on every detail,’ he explains, adding, ‘Our company was born out of these principles.’
Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, sibylcolefax.com
INSIDER INSIGHT
Daniel Slowik shares his style vision MOST SUCCESSFUL PART OF THIS PROJECT The perfect synergy between decorator and client, and a lifelong friendship.
THE BIGGEST INDULGENCE The four-poster in the master bedroom – not what you’d expect in London but perfect!
TIP FOR COMBINING PATTERNS Be bold and follow your intuition. Sometimes the strangest combinations work perfectly together.
SECRET ADDRESS I love Jamb, our neighbours in Pimlico Road.
FAVOURITE INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT My partner’s @a.prin.art – the best guide to living with art.
LUXURY YOU WOULD NEVER FORGO A painted waste paper bin we make, designed by John Fowler.