See Inside Interior Designer Kate Guinness’ London Home

Interior designer Kate Guinness of Kate Guinness Design lives in West London in a five bedroom Edwardian terraced house with her husband and three children. When Kate saw the house she fell completely in love. It had been beautifully looked after by its previous owners, still had all of its original features and had a wonderful energy. Feeling almost like a sanctuary to Kate, the house is tucked away on a residential street and looks back on the tube line. After four years of living with housemates, her husband moved in and they planned their work. They decided to do a side return and loft conversion, along with a complete redecoration of the house but firstly damp proofing the basement, transforming it from an unpleasant damp space into a much needed lovely, clean laundry room.

Kate’s focus when designing interiors is for the houses to feel lived in rather than styled. She wants her designs to feel like home and appear to have grown organically and so loves gradually developing spaces over time. She also focuses on this for her clients so their personality can shine through in their homes. She create interiors with an authentic sense of accumulation, juxtaposing contemporary art and vintage textiles with antique and mid-century furniture. This can undoubtedly be seen in her home, every space in the house has a piece that sets a whimsical tone.

The calm green-grey walls throughout the house allow the vibrant furniture pieces and patterned fabrics to pop.

In their plans to expand with a loft extension and side return, they cleverly decided to move the kitchen to the middle room, and save the extension for the sitting room. Much like in the bathroom, Kate uses white metro tiles throughout the kitchen as she likes their simplicity. The custom-made kitchen units are a green that has now become part of Kate’s logo and a signature in her work.

From the kitchen you have a full view on the open plan to the dining room at the front and sitting room at the rear. The island table creates easy movement through the kitchen and the three shelves of glassware and ceramics add character.

Two of her favourite vintage finds are her kitchen island, which is actually a Victorian flower arranging table from Lorfords that they made higher by adding to the legs and the dining room chandelier by Madeleine Boulesteix. Madeleine makes beautiful and unique chandeliers out of old jelly moulds, teacups and cutlery and in Kate’s she combined some old chandelier pieces Kate bought in a French market when she was 20 years old.

The view from the dining room shows how these three rooms cleverly benefit from the light shining into the sitting room.

The sitting room was extended into the side return to make the most of the west-facing garden. It has wonderful afternoon light and opens straight onto the garden with folding doors that can open right up. Kate says she loves seeing the tubes rushing past in the distance. The sofas were made extra deep, as the couple are both tall, and they are upholstered in Gainsborough fabric which Kate had developed for a previous project and loved so much she decided to use them again. Some of Kate’s other favourite finds are the Moroccan carpets her and her husband bought on their first babymoon, they tie the room together beautifully.

Kate made the decision to remove the original Edwardian fireplace, going against her instincts to preserve every feature of the house but it felt too heavy and didn’t work in the new scheme so they replaced it with something simpler.

The guest bedroom is painted in ‘blue verditer’ by papers and paints.

Kate likes a simple metric tile for her bathrooms but has placed striking geometric tiles in her guest bathroom.

Kate Guinness Design has also turned their hand at product design and launched the Denyer bedside table last year as seen in this bedroom. Having spent so much time hunting for a bedside table to fit the regular brief of needing adequate storage as well as being well proportioned and great to look at, she has designed this wooden bedside table/storage facility. This is now available to order in her online shop. www.kateguinness.co.uk.

Kate’s signature green can be seen in different spots throughout the house.

Kate’s vintage finds give each area its own personality.

Kate does not believe in updating your interior every few years and prefers that one’s home gradually evolve over the years as your tastes and your family’s needs change. She does this by sourcing her vintage items from all over the place and has found really beautiful and interesting pieces from London based antique shops or interior designer stockists. It is a sustainable and stylish way of designing one’s home and will always help the homeowner’s personality shine through.