This London villa’s spirits were flagging, until a new family moved in – and brought their favourite designer with them

Any good designer will tell you, the client’s brief is just the start. You also have to figure out what they need as well as what they want, how to satisfy their personality, taste and aspirations, what the property means to them, and what stage of life they and their family are at. It’s a big ask – but nailing the getting-to-know-you phase can produce significantly better results.

So good has award-winning interior designer Nicky Dobree become at intuiting the evolving requirements of one well-to-do family with four children that she’s worked on three full projects for them to date (and counting). A relationship that began with renovations of both a chalet in the French ski resort of Méribel, then a Hamptons-style holiday getaway on the south coast of England, has led most recently to a thorough overhaul and expansion of their main residence, a stunning six bedroom villa in Wandsworth, south London.

“It’s rather lovely being with those clients through all the years,” says Nicky. “I’ve got to know them well. I’ve seen their children grow up, I know their lifestyle habits, what they do, how they like to entertain. That kind of knowledge helps you produce much better results.”

One of a pair of handsome Victorian villas in a leafy residential area, this four-storey house of golden brick already had scale and nobility in its bones when the family bought it five years ago. But much of its period character and dignity had been stripped out (or at least heavily concealed) over the decades during a jumble of different chop-ups and changes. It felt dark, shabby and unsuitable to the demands of busy modern life.

“It had belonged to the same owners for many years and it felt very dated,” recalls the designer. “There was a 1960s fireplace, a laminate kitchen and a sort of lean-to extension on the back. It has lost all its original cornices. It just wasn’t working.”

The brief was straightforward: “They just asked me to create a family home,” she says. And yet responding to that brief was anything but simple. It demanded a complex, multi-layered approach. The children were all at different stages of school, with different needs when it came to both privacy and bringing their friends home to socialise and play. Their father, meanwhile, works from home and wanted his own office that could be closed off from the rest of the house. Furthermore, with futureproofing in mind, the clients wanted a “secret apartment”, as Nicky calls it, within the property – a self-contained dwelling that could be a multi-generational living solution, or work as accommodation for a live-in housekeeper or carer.

The villa was substantial, but more space was required to meet all of these needs. As is often the case in densely built-up London, the only way was down. The newly dug basement level contains a range of functional spaces such as a boot room, utility room, gym and a TV/games room, with a pool table and bar. The latter space also gives internal access to the aforementioned secret apartment, via a hidden door in the wall panelling. (The apartment has its own independent entrance from the front of the exterior too.)

To prevent the basement from feeling too subterranean, a new patio was built to the rear, stepped down off the garden and accessed from the games room. “You don’t feel you’re in a gloomy basement when you’re down there because you’re always looking at the garden,” says Nicky. “I think that makes a huge difference. We had really good ceiling heights to work with as well.”

This is an excerpt from issue 162 of Homes & Interiors Scotland. Want to read more about this London villa? Buy your issue here.

This uber stylish living room is fit for family living.

Case study: this uber stylish living room is fit for family living