Interior design in Belsize Park

Belsize Park interior design: a penthouse flat for downsizing in comfort

Belsize Park interior design from first sketch to handover: how we reworked a lateral penthouse flat for downsizing, and what we'd do for yours.

Location: Belsize Park, London
Building: Lateral penthouse flat
Scope: Reconfiguration, kitchen, bathrooms, utility
Services: Interior architecture, interior design

The brief

A homely, eclectic place to downsize to. Warm, comfortable, with some colour, and practical enough for a dog: hard-wearing fabrics throughout, and somewhere to put your feet up.

The clients brought a lot of their own furniture, and swap pieces with their house in the country. So the scheme had to work with what they had, and keep working as things come and go. Curated, not styled, and nothing that would date.

Belsize Park interior design: living room with the clients' own furniture

Wooden dining table in a Belsize Park penthouse flat

What we changed

Layout

Three bedrooms became two doubles and a study, plus a new utility room. A niche in the principal bedroom became a small desk area, partly opened onto the lounge.

Kitchen

Not white, not flat and not country. Blue cabinetry, plenty of storage and a boiling water tap.

Bathrooms

Reworked to be more practical, with rain and hand showers, and room for a cup of tea by the bath.

Lighting

Warm light only, layered for cooking, reading and crafting. Lamps are wired to the wall switch, so nobody goes round turning them on one by one.

Blue and white kitchen in a Belsize Park flat

Around the flat

Bedroom with wooden furniture and artwork

New utility room with a stacked washer and dryer

Belsize Park interior design: what to plan for

Most of our Belsize Park work is in flats in converted Victorian villas and mansion blocks. Much of the area is in Camden's Belsize conservation area, and most flats need a freeholder's licence before work starts. On this job we also wrote to every resident before the contractors arrived. We plan for all of this from the first meeting, so it doesn't hold up the build.

We've been designing London homes for 18 years. In that time, our bathrooms and kitchens have won national awards. The first conversation is free, and we can usually meet within a few days.

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