This Muswell Hill home is a lesson in urban rewilding
From its lofty vantage point, leafy Muswell Hill enjoys enviable views over the city. ‘I don’t think it feels like anywhere else in London,’ says TiffanyDuggan. ‘It doesn’t have a tube, which might be why!’ The housing stock is mostly Edwardian, but the home the Studio Duggan founder was called on to reimagine was built sometime in the 1930s, with a few arts and crafts-style touches tying it to its neighbours.
Tiffany’s clients – a couple with children – lacked confidence when it came to using colour in their new home and hoped she would help them to be braver. ‘When we started getting to know them, they were forthcoming with what they liked and what they didn’t,’ she recalls.
‘They loved the period details of the house, but also wanted to welcome some of their favourite styles, like mid-century design, 1970s lighting and furniture and Italian influences, so quite a wide range.’ The challenge was to combine those into a cohesive whole. ‘That’s what makes it interesting,’ she says. ‘We always want it to feel quite varied and storied.’
Underpinning everything was her clients’ love of natural colours and textures and the outdoors – something they were keen to emphasise given their home’s biggest selling point: ‘a swimming pool!’
To blur the boundaries between indoors and out, she installed Crittall doors and a terracotta herringbone floor that runs from the dining room onto the terrace. ‘Our clients work pretty long hours and they were looking for a retreat,’ she says, adding, ‘the back of the house and its connection to the pool and garden was very much about having a holiday feel.’
Their love of anything that displayed ‘the hand of the maker’ was also important; ‘that’s what the house was missing,’ Tiffany explains. The existing panelling in the entrance was painted a rich blue and framed by William Morris wallpaper, while in the kitchen and dining room, decorative artist Eugenia Barrios Osborne applied a paint effect that’s quicker and cheaper than limewash – ‘you just choose a paint colour and she waters it down and adds it in a series of washes.’
Eugenia was also responsible for the wildflower mural that blooms behind the banquette seating, which, says Tiffany,‘makes it feel it’s in the middle of the countryside.’
New walls created a separate living room at the front of the house – which comes into its own in the evening as a cosy haven for reading, playing the piano or having drinks with friends – while the back of the home is now a busy, multipurpose space. ‘I do like open-plan living,’ says Tiffany, ‘but sometimes it can go too far’.
Throughout, Tiffany’s goal was to subtly reinterpret the arts-and-crafts spirit in a contemporary way. ‘It came down to the principles of natural, honest materials rather than carefully following the rules,’ she explains. ‘I love old things and everything we do is inspired by things that have been and gone – our job is to make them into something fresh that suits the house, the client, the way they live and the materials on offer today.’
The family is surprised by how much their home now suits them down to the ground. ‘They sent us a lovely thank-you note setting the scene on how they were enjoying the space,’ Tiffany tells us.‘I might have to pin it on the wall for when we’re in the long tunnel of our next project!’ studioduggan.com
