Earls Court I

The entrance sets the register. The hall floor is a Victorian geometric encaustic pattern in ochre, sage, black and cream, edged with a diamond border. The walls are papered to dado height in an embossed relief and painted a deep blue-green that carries onto the front door, the architraves, the stair strings and the turned balusters. A brass lotus-leaf light hangs below the floral cornice, and the stairs are dressed in a woven runner.

The drawing room runs the full depth of the house through a wide cased opening, so the two halves read as a single room. Both keep their rouge-marble chimneypieces. New wall panelling was set out around them, the enriched cornice and ceiling rose were made good, and gilt sconces and a brass globe chandelier were wired in. Herringbone flooring runs from end to end beneath.

The cloakroom shows the same appetite for colour on a smaller canvas: a navy in-frame vanity with brass knobs, a band of patterned green tiling, a mustard panel above and a gilt peacock mirror over a brass tap. Throughout, the original mouldings were kept and repaired rather than replaced.