LONDON VILLA
On the outside it’s a Victorian villa, on the inside Elizabeth and Keith’s home is a celebration of loft-style living
A traditional exterior hides a stunning yet easy-going open-plan layout filled with textural surfaces and sophisticated colour
aspace that lets its walls – and other surfaces – do the talking, Elizabeth Van den Berg’s family home is all about materiality. Swathes of concrete, patterned parquet, aged bare brick and high-shine lacquer mean that it’s the building itself that’s the most decorative element of the space, with Elizabeth banishing clutter in favour of a few well-selected complementary objects. ‘I love honest materials,’ she says. ‘I like seeing what things are really made of and how they age.’ Metal elements suffuse the house, accenting almost every room with a muted sheen, from the bespoke bronze balustrade and the monumental shelves lining the study to oversized kitchen handles and detailing on furniture.
Architecture firm The Vawdrey House reconfigured the layout of the building before the family moved in a year ago, adding a new loft-level floor as well as moving the stairs into an atrium-like alcove running through the centre of the house, creating a view through to the garden from the front door. Appreciating the art-like features of the stairs’ panelling, Elizabeth didn’t add further decoration to the walls. ‘The panels are almost sculptural, they don’t need anything else,’ she says. ‘And it’s a really light space despite the fact that we painted it black.’
The dusky pink that pervaded the strictly monochrome palette the family previously lived with came as a surprise and was welcomed by interior designer Fiona Parke, who advised on finishing touches. ‘I’m not a pink person. I don’t own a single piece of pink clothing and until we moved not one pink object,’ Elizabeth laughs. ‘I just went for the pink bar and ended up falling in love with the colour.’ Other pieces throughout the house were then matched to the chalky tone and the greyscale spell was broken. The bar is perched, jewel-like and gleaming in blush lacquer and brass, between the formal dining room and living space, ever-poised for one of the family’s famous get-togethers.
‘Entertaining is a huge part of our life. We just love it,’ says Elizabeth, who frequently hosts visiting family. ‘We wanted both inside and out to work for big groups.’ Thus, the house can transform to accommodate large numbers. As well as the three guest bedrooms, the playroom converts into another sleeping space while the dining room can merge with the study – the room-dividing metal shelving unit moving flush against the wall creating an expanse that can seat up to twenty six.
Outside, parties remain the focus with a generously sized outdoor kitchen and pergola. ‘We probably have friends over for a barbecue twice a week,’ says Elizabeth. ‘The living space flows beautifully from the house into the garden.’ This is a practical home, designed to suit the needs of the two young children that live in it, as well as their parents. ‘All you have to do is move one chair in the living room and suddenly there’s a massive space for the children to play in,’ says Elizabeth. ‘They can build train tracks across the entire floor and my little one just learned to ride his balance bike inside when it was raining.’ The boys also have a hidden den, built into a space that became free when the building’s layout was changed. Purposely designed for longevity, the now spare bedrooms are poised to receive the children as they get older. ‘This is a house that will grow with us and take us through the different stages of life,’ Elizabeth adds. ‘It’s our little oasis.’
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“I love honest materials – I like seeing what things are really made of and how they age”