A lofty London home with all the space a family needs

Tag : camouflage fabrics

Everyone in the Hamwee family has a favourite part of their SouthLondon home. Five-year-old Honor loves her cupboard, the tallbuilt-in unit in the basement where she keeps her stash of Barbies,tiaras and jewelled flip-flops. Seven-year-old Cosmo likes hiscupboard, too, but admits it’s a “bomb site”,while nine-year-old Josh is delighted with his Chelsea FC-themedbedroom, which has only recently been changed. “It was greenand camouflage when I was going through my Army phase, butI’m a Chelsea supporter now,” he says.
Their father, Mark, a pilot, has a study at the back of the groundfloor, filled with his papers, guitars and books. “It’shis space and we tend not to go in there,” says his wife,Nikki, as she quickly closes the door. Nikki highlights thebasement room, which runs from the front to the back of the house,as her special space. “This is really where we live, and theroom that makes it easier for me to run a busy family and mybusiness.” Her company is the summer fashion and accessoriescompany Star Mela, which she founded three years ago with herbusiness partner, Amanda Winship.
When the Hamwees bought the house four years ago, the basement wasa self-contained one-bedroom flat, and its transformation was thekey to making the house work as a family home. “The sad truthis we spend most of the day below street level like moles,”says Nikki with a smile. Once the basement was knocked through andgutted, it was nominally divided into “rooms”. Aself-contained laundry was slotted in where the entrance to theflat had been, and beside it, at the street-facing side of thehouse, a dining area was installed, with a deep, built-in shelfwhich doubles as a computer desk and homework station for thechildren. The linear kitchen, with plenty of storage, waspositioned in the centre of the room, with a “lounging”zone, flanked by two walls of fitted cupboards, by the steps thatlead to the back garden. “We had a marvellous builder who didthe whole thing in 12 weeks,” says Nikki.
Once this vital part of the house was designed, attention wasfocused on the top two floors. In the attic, a bright blue-tiledbathroom was created. “We copied the idea from the house nextdoor, and added the skylight that illuminates the floorbelow.” This is the children’s bathroom, and theirrooms are on the level beneath that. Josh has his much-loved themedroom with bunk bed; Cosmo his lair with sky-painted ceiling, drumkit and rocks and minerals collection; Honor has her dell-like roomwith its eau-de-nil wall painted with tendril-entwined flowersappliquéd with pearls and tiny sparkling gems. Her wardrobeis well-stocked with ruched cotton sundresses and kaftans from hermother’s Star Mela junior range.
On the floor below, Nikki and Mark’s bedroom was created fromthe previous owner’s sitting room and study. The doorframeswere raised to exaggerate the height of the rooms, and a paintedsliding panel was made to divide the bedroom from the dressing roomand bathroom beyond. This panel, decorated with oriental-stylecherry blossoms in silver and grey, is the work of Sarah Curran,the artist who also painted the murals and features in thechildren’s bedrooms. This detailed and very personal touch issomething that Nikki was very keen to have in her home.
On the half-landing between the main bedroom and the ground floor,there is a vividly tiled shower room, one end of which is coveredwith iridescent orange mosaics, while the remaining white walls arestencilled with a gold paisley motif. “Orange is my favouritecolour, and the paisley motif, which comes from the idea of a hennatattoo, is also the logo of our business,” says Nikki.
On the ground floor, the entrance hall and long sitting room havenot been structurally changed, and although it is elegantlydecorated with hessian curtains with velvet panels, and cushions inbright William Yeoward fabrics, it is the room that is least used.But maybe in time, when Honor has taken over the basement with agaggle of teenage girlfriends, and Cosmo and Josh are having bandpractice upstairs, it will finally become Nikki and Mark’sfavourite room, a haven of calm and tranquillity in their busyfamily home.
Star Mela, Studio 10, Imperial Studios, London SW6 (020-7736 0505; www.starmela.com ). Murals by sarahcdesigns@hotmail.co.uk