Kat Habershon, founder of Rivela Interiors, invited The Insider to take a look round her recently renovated home

Tell me a bit about the property – It’s actually an interesting answer to what is usually a straightforward question. Our house was built in 1990 in a Georgian style, but if I had a pound for every person that believed it’s a period property I could probably furnish it all again!

From the quintessential red brickwork laid in a Flemish Bond pattern, the limestone steps up to the front door and the recessed sash windows, the property looks every symmetrical inch to be a Georgian home (with all the benefits of modern plumbing and electrics)

Is this your home? Do you make a good client? Yes, this is our home. I created the interiors myself and I like to think I’m a good client for the tradespeople that helped me pull it all together.

What was your starting point for the interior? As it’s the hub of most homes, it had to be the kitchen. We inherited an oak kitchen with a peninsular but we wanted something which packed a bit more of a punch. My moodboard consisted of strikingly dark designs that would work perfectly with the large sash windows. We chose a more contemporary design from Halcyon, but kept some period character by not taking the cabinets up to the ceiling to reveal the cornice detail and leaving one side of the room clear to keep the dado rail.

Were there any particular challenges you had to overcome? We wanted an open plan kitchen/diner area but there was a 10 and a half inch thick wall to contend with. The dust was relentless during the work, but it was definitely worth it to merge the previous kitchen and dining room into one 30 foot long space. Opening these areas up allowed us to add a kitchen island and it now provides uninterrupted light from the front to the back of the house.

How did you decide on the colour palette? Being a Georgian style home, I knew it could handle some bold colours and patterns. As we started with the black kitchen, the dark theme continued along the panelling in the hallway and up the stairs, plus all of the doors were also painted in an inky/black shade. The more formal side of the home consists of a dining room and a reception room that was screaming out for some grand wallpaper and Cole & Son’s Royal Fernery and Ex Libris designs created the perfect mix of statement and atmosphere. I’ve added golds/mustards/greens as accent colours to pop against the dark walls, plus a surprise explosion of pink palm wallpaper up the walls and across the ceiling in the downstairs WC to add a bit of fun to the smallest room in the house.

Is the furniture all new or did you include vintage pieces? The furniture is mostly new this time around, but some of my favourite pieces in the house were actually designed decades ago. For example, our Mathieu Mategot bar trolley was designed in the 50s using groundbreaking and innovative techniques at the time to produce the perforated steel, our Mario Marenco sofa by Arflex debuted in 1970 but easily looks like it could’ve been conceived yesterday and our two Delfino armchairs were penned in 1954 by Erberto Carboni. I do like to include vintage pieces for styling and adding individual character to a space, such as our early 1900s camera in the Media Room and Victorian ink drawings of a lion and a tiger in the formal Dining Room.

What is your favourite design feature? The symmetry of a Georgian house will always make me happy. The combination of the red bricks, the sash windows, the sprawling wisteria, it’s all just a dream whenever I arrive home. Internally, I love the character of the cornicing, ceiling roses and panelling.

What did you enjoy most about this project? Even though it was built in 1990, I loved bringing the more traditional characteristics of the house out. When we bought the house, it was top to toe cream with light woods, but I knew it had the potential to look amazing once some bold colours, patterns and textures were added. As an example, simply by painting the mantelpieces dark and adding patterned tiles in the hearth made them look much more traditional and impactful. The dark oak chevron floors, Ben Pentreath lattice stair runner and bold panelling all added to the warm, dramatic atmosphere that you often find in a period home. I like to think we added the ‘Georgian’ to this Georgian style house.

You can find more of Rivela Interiors work here

(photo credit: Nick Smith, stylist: Alex Crabtree)