A welcoming and fluid Victorian home in south London, revitalised by Tamsin Saunders
On a tree-lined street in south London stands a Victorian house with handsome brickwork and a leafy garden that offers the kind of seclusion rarely found in the city. The owners, a textile conservator and her husband, had just returned to the UK after years abroad with their three grown-up children when they found the relatively untouched property just across the road from their old home.
Tamsin Saunders, founder of architectural design studio Home and Found and the interior designer entrusted with the project, was clear from the start that this would be no ordinary refurbishment. The house, which had barely changed hands since it was built, had lain empty and was damp, but it was blessed with all its period features and a garden full of mature, protected trees. The first step was a complete reimagining of the layout to suit modern family life, while honouring its 19th-century bones.
For Tamsin, that meant ‘making sure all the rooms have a purpose’. She began by opening up the entrance hall, creating a new axis from the front door to the garden at the back, so that light and greenery draw you in from the threshold. What was once a maze of separate rooms now flows naturally, with utility areas tucked behind bespoke panelling and a kitchen extension that feels integral to the original building.
Upstairs, Tamsin raised floors and repositioned windows to create a restful main bedroom at the back of the house, and a bedroom and bathroom for the couple’s daughter at the front. On the top floor are their sons’ bedrooms and a shower room. Even the previously unwelcoming basement has found new life as a movie room, spare room and laundry, brightened by playful touches like Arne Jacobsen’s yellow taps.
The result is a welcoming, fluid home, designed to be flexible as the family’s needs change. ‘The thing with a big house like this is that you don’t want everyone spending most of the time just in the kitchen,’ Tamsin says. The trust between designer and clients gave her the freedom to shape a decorative scheme that she describes as ‘fresh, alive and true to them’.
There was no strict brief – only a desire for a home that didn’t feel staged. Free from the pressure to fill rooms quickly, she was able to take her time when it came to choosing furniture and art. ‘I never did a mood board saying, “We’re going to have X here and Y there.” Every single thing is a one-off,’ the designer explains. She was aware of the proportions and scale she needed, but allowed the process to remain organic. ‘I knew each piece was the right one when I saw it.’
Firmly convinced that ‘you can’t really improve Victorian architecture’, Tamsin set out to make the most of the house’s original details, starting with the multicoloured tiles in the entrance hall, carefully restored and reintegrated where needed. Pocket doors allow the spaces to be opened up or closed off as the moment requires, leading into the front drawing room, where shimmering lacquered walls in a bespoke green echo her love of ponds. ‘I wanted that colour because the space is north facing and needed to catch the light and not feel flat,’ she says. ‘We mixed the colours to exactly the shade and intensity we wanted with the lacquer specialist. It’s a true mastercraft.’
If nature is, as Tamsin puts it, ‘the greatest artist’, nowhere is that more evident than in the kitchen. Here, she kept the garden firmly in mind, designing large windows that frame the dramatic curves of a mature mulberry tree. The cabinetry and island are painted in fawny hazel and silvery olive green, picking up the bark and leaves of the trees and blurring the line between inside and out. ‘Everything in this space is working with and responding to the colour and light and textures of the garden,’ she explains.
On the first floor, the restrained palette of the main bedroom is guided by a Japanese silk kesa above the bed. This calm is contrasted by the joyful atmosphere in the adjacent daughter’s room, where Freya Marton of Black Lion Workshops (Tamsin’s daughter) painted geometric motifs on the door, cupboards and shelves. ‘Decorating is like music, lots of different notes, but they come together to create harmony,’ says Tamsin, who is never afraid to play or take risks. ‘What I love about my job is that it’s like making gravy,’ she adds with a smile. ‘You’re adding and tasting, letting it simmer, adding a bit more, and letting things happen’.
Home & Found: homeandfound.com | Black Lion Workshops: blacklionworkshops.com
Christopher Horwood1/15Vintage textiles hang either side of the opening to the dining area and above a vintage sofa in the family room. Tamsin designed a hidden desk and drinks bar either side of the bench. Everything has a place and purpose.
Christopher Horwood2/15A vintage paisley shawl hangs over the back of a Jindrich Halabala chair upholstered in a luxurious wool.
Christopher Horwood3/15In the guest loo on the first floor, the walls are covered in a hand block printed wallpaper by Marthe Armitage. The tiles are terrazzo.
Christopher Horwood4/15The joinery in the kitchen was designed by Tamsin and painted in soft shades of green and brown to bring in the colours in the garden.
Christopher Horwood5/15The Arts and Crafts oak chairs in the dining room are upholstered in vintage jajim fabric. The bench, which was designed by Tamsin, includes hidden storage and is covered with vintage Ewe Kente cloth. Above it hangs a collection of 19th-century Fajalauza bowls from Granada in Spain.
Christopher Horwood6/15A cloak room and utility room are concealed behind the panelled walls of the central hallway.
7/15In the middle son's room, Swedish abstract (1950s) painting hangs above a vintage lamp paired with a bespoke shade made from hand-painted paper.
Christopher Horwood8/15A Japanese Edo-period silk kesa hangs above the bed in the main bedroom.
Christopher Horwood9/15
Christopher Horwood10/15A warm honed Indian marble (Fantasy Brown) runs from the floor to the bath surround and splashback, complementing the watercolour above.
Christopher Horwood11/15On the shelves is a collection of original watercolours for fabric pattern designs (France, early 20th century), which was found in a market and framed.
Christopher Horwood12/15In the daughter's bedroom, the cupboard doors were painted by Freya Marton of Black Lion Workshops. Freya also designed and painted the pattern on the shelves above the bed, which complements the ‘Vegetable Tree’ textile by Josef Frank (sold by Svenskt Tenn) on the headboard.
Christopher Horwood13/15The boy’s attic bathroom.
Christopher Horwood14/15The garden.
Christopher Horwood15/15In the garden studio, the desk features a Jago lamp by Black Lion Workshops. The sofa is draped with a vintage Welsh blanket.
