Studio 95 Interiors: Creating a Soft and Welcoming Family Home

This week’s instalment of the Project of the Week series features a soft and welcoming family home design by 2024 SBID Awards Finalist, Studio 95 Interiors.

Studio 95 Interiors was commissioned to help a client and his family who had moved into a recently refurbished four bedroom three storey modern home in Chiswick, West London. Although the property was in great condition, the décor felt quite sterile and bland. The focus of the project was therefore to add much needed colour, pattern and texture to create interesting, warm and elegant spaces.

What was the client’s brief?

The client and his family had recently moved into this new four bedroom modern home in Chiswick. Although the property was in great condition, the décor felt quite sterile and cold and had a lot of hard surfaces. It needed a considerable injection of colour, softness, pattern and texture. The client brief was as follows:
– To create an elegant, calm space for relaxing and entertaining.
– To use eco-paints where possible.
– To update the lighting throughout and in particular soften the lighting in the kitchen/dining area where there was an excess of ceiling downlights.
– To retain elements such as the kitchen units, timber flooring and bathrooms as they were in great condition and relatively new.
– To create a bespoke joinery unit for the TV in the first floor reception room along with providing new furniture for this room.
– To use existing pieces of furniture and artwork where possible.

What inspired the design of the project?

The overall inspiration for this renovation project was to add a feeling of comfort and warmth. We needed to add colour and softness as well as adding a tactile and luxurious quality to create a warm and welcoming space to live in.

We added calm colours throughout that created interest and softness. In the ground floor dining and living areas we added pattern by way of slatted walls and patterned wallpaper to add texture and visual interest. We also added interest to the guest WC by adding walnut slats to the cistern unit along with rich coloured tiles around the vanity which also went with the existing marble floor. We added new brass tapware, accessories and artwork to give a lux and warm atmosphere.

In the kitchen/diner/living area we changed the ceiling lighting and took out excess downlights which made the space too bright and also had an unpleasant airport runway effect. We set about creating a warmer more inviting space and added three feature pendant lights over the dining table (which were dimmable) to create a focus in that area and make it more intimate and atmospheric. We also added other occasional lighting such as the floor lamp. For sustainability and budget reasons, we retained the existing white kitchen and existing timber flooring but we re-worked the furniture layout and created an inviting seating area in front of the wall mounted tv with upholstered footstool and side table. We added a much-needed large area rug to add softness. To add texture and visual interest we added an oak slat wall behind the TV and put an interesting geometric vinyl wallcovering on one of the walls in the dining area. This room now works as the hub of the home.

For the first floor reception room, we wanted to make it an elegant and luxurious space to work as a second living room/TV room or to entertain guests. It was a completely blank and featureless room. We added bespoke media wall joinery with integrated lighting (on remote control dimmer) at one end of the room. This immediately created an interesting focus and the lower cupboards also provided useful storage to hide all clutter. A bespoke velvet L-shaped sofa was added for lounging and entertaining along with a leather deep buttoned ottoman to put your feet up or to act as a coffee table when used with a tray when entertaining guests. Two swivel armchairs were placed opposite the sofa. This created a cosy seating arrangement – just perfect for chatting or watching TV.

We re-used all of the client’s mahogany furniture and two antique side chairs in the master bedroom and built the scheme around these which created a really rich and pleasing scheme. For added sustainability we used Edward Bulmer paints throughout which are natural and toxin free.

The clients are very happy with their new home. It now feels like a warm hug each time they come back home. It now gives them the warmth, colour and tactile qualities that they had been looking for.

What was the toughest hurdle your team overcame during the project?

There were a number of hurdles in this project, the main one was working within the budget that had been allowed. It was a large home and the client was replacing the heating system at the same time as we were doing the interior refurbishment. So, with clever and imaginative use of existing elements like the existing kitchen units, flooring and some furniture within the home, we were able to make the budget stretch to achieve the thoughtfully curated look throughout, making existing pieces work with the new.

What was your team’s highlight of the project?

The sustainability of this project was our highlight. We retained elements of the home that were in really good condition such as the kitchen units, timber flooring throughout, and bathrooms. We also retained a good deal of the ground floor guest WC such as the beautiful marble floor and sanitary-ware but updated the tapware and accessories and re-clad the existing tiled cistern unit with walnut slat panels. We also predominantly used Edward Bulmer paints for added eco-credentials.

Why did you enter the SBID Awards?

I think it is always a good thing to push yourself and by entering the SBID awards it can propel your work to a larger audience. It is also an honour to have your studio’s work judged by highly respected industry experts and for them to think of it as worthy enough to shortlist is indeed a boost to morale. The awards offer a means of benchmarking and you can clearly measure your studio’s work against your peers. It also offers great marketing opportunities, particularly if you are shortlisted, as we were lucky enough to be.

What has being an Award Finalist meant to you and your business?

Being shortlisted for the SBID award has meant a great deal to me and the business. The SBID 2024 Awards has been the second year running that one of our projects has been shortlisted in a residential category so I guess this is confirmation, if it were needed, that we are doing something right. Not surprisingly, being shortlisted is a great showcase for the studio and it gathers a lot of attention both from fellow peers in the interiors industry and also from prospective clients. It builds better awareness of our brand and confirms to all that our business is trustworthy, reliable and reputable and capable of the highest of professional standards. It has helped to build deeper relationships with clients, investors, suppliers and the media. On a personal note, the awards have helped to shine a light on many aspects of my business – where it started, how it has grown, what has changed, challenges it has overcome, and the little successes along the way. It has definitely been a worthwhile and rewarding process.

Questions answered by Stephanie Gilsenan, Founder of Studio 95 Interiors.