A Victorian terraced house in Fulham is highly sought after. But behind one of these front doors lies something unexpected from award-winning interior design studio Run For The Hills
The studio’s design brief was exciting and simple: to work with project architects Studio Shaw to re-invent this traditional London Victorian terraced house, ripping up the rule book and re-modelling it into a bold, next generation perspective on the classic London terraced home.
Run For The Hills were brought in during the very early stages of the architectural planning and design process, which allowed for maximum co-operation on the vision for the house in terms of its aspirational new architecture and how that would play into RFTH’s interior detailing of the form, function and aesthetics of the rooms.
The house had various interventions, including moving and opening bathrooms and bedrooms to make way for an enlarged master loft suite (above) comprising super-king bedroom, integrated dressing room and large en-suite. On the first floor is a large family bathroom, guest bedroom and office.
The ground floor saw the biggest transformation. Fully stripped and opened up into one large, split level open plan space with a sunken lounge, custom-kitchen and double height metal joinery. Existing London brick was exposed to add loft style rawness to the lounge space, but set adjacent to lime-washed walls in the kitchen, visually dividing the super long open plan space into separate areas for living, cooking and dining. The studio designed a rust velvet curved sofa to play against the straight lines. Supporting RSJ steels in the open plan space were left raw and lit, complemented by Run For The Hill’s palette of blackened steel/ brass mesh to cabinetry and a liquid brass kitchen counter.
The kitchen is a bespoke Run For The Hills design, fabricated by Rough Living, featuring butterfly jointed details and timber, bouncing light onto the blackened timber concrete floor. The central island features a metal/mesh suspended ‘gantry’, housing the hob extractor and providing storage space for oils, vinegars and day to day cooking items. The ground floor features a series of new skylights cascading natural light into the usually dark central section of these Victorian terraces. The lighting control system has four zones: the entrance, lounge, kitchen and dining area, with feature scenes within each. The rest of the house is in on a standard dimmable system.
The new dining room features a Douglas fir ceiling raft detail from the architects which casts dappled shadows and from which Run For The Hills suspended a Murano cut-glass smoky chandelier from Pure White Lines. The 10-seater dining table (another Run For The Hills design and bespoke fabrication from Rough Living) is surrounded by leather clad dining chairs with a belted back detail. At the end of room is a fully glazed elevation onto the garden including a hero pivot steel door.
The family bathroom features a custom-designed oval shower rail with linen shower curtains encircling the dark stone resin bath, adding a pop of fresh white to the micro-cement walls. The bathroom features urban sanitaryware and black brassware, adding to the loft inspired feel of the house, whilst still celebrating the building’s architectural heritage.
Existing timber floors in the upper floors were stained in a dark chocolate brown. The master bathroom features a terrazzo counter from Diespecker and custom vanity. The house design also incorporates Crittal panels and doors opening up darker areas of the stairwell, in a further nod to the industrial loft aesthetic.
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