Kensington Townhouse

Craftsmanship proved the perfect conduit for layering together both the owners’ tastes and the house’s unfolding plan of this elegant Victorian townhouse in London. 

Here, Eric brought artisanal intricacy to every last detail: elaborate marquetry, silver-leafed and parchment lined walls, custom-made tiles from Portugal, a hand-wrought bannister, with one long, continuous railing extending six floors; blocks of new Parquet de Versailles flooring stained, scraped and chiseled by hand to give them a weighty, aged patina; antique pine paneling and padded suede library doors studded with a nail head trim. 

A painstakingly restored 18th century Chinoiserie wallpaper cuts a striking contrast to a contemporary artwork by Jason Martin and Rosso Francia marble baseboards. So too does it reflect Eric’s encyclopedic knowledge of great houses of the past, drawing inspiration from the way they flowed and worked so well as a whole.

The mix of furniture, textiles and objets from different decorative periods, sourced from all over the world yet with a genuine relationship to the owners, gives the house real soul.