Wandsworth Vicarage

Wandsworth Vicarage

Hidden from the street by planting and high brick walls this Victorian rectory in South West London had last been decorated when the clients moved in over twenty years ago. They wanted to refresh and update their home without it looking like it had ever been anything different. Tamsin set about transforming a series of nondescript colourless, ‘neutrally’ decorated rather tired rooms into a beautiful, relaxed home which would feel vibrant and relevant: Opening up views between rooms and into the garden, recovering existing furniture and sourcing antiques, decorative pieces and original vintage lighting – constantly referring to the colours in the garden and the client’s existing collection of paintings to create a home which would feel as if it had gradually grown over many years of collection and experimentation rather than a major overhaul.

By adding colour, combining pattern, natural materials and textures Tamsin sought to reflect the clients’ personalities and interests and in the process give each room a clear purpose and feeling of containment whilst also creating a sense of connection and anticipation as you walk through the house.

Conservatories can often feel hard, cold and uninviting and at night all too easily can turn into freezing black holes. We used natural materials and vintage textiles to create a gentler, warmer more comfortable, more inviting space which felt intimately connected to not just the garden but the rest of the house.

The white woodwork was repainted a soft green – drawing the eye to the mature magnolia outside and breaking down the barrier between inside and out. Dining chairs around the limed oak table were painted in three different warm, earthy colours and fitted with bespoke cushions made from a mixture of found and vintage textiles – the intense indigo a perfect match for the delft plates Tamsin found and hung above the wall looking through to the galley kitchen. The natural limestone flagged floor benefits from underfloor heating, textured natural linen blinds in the windows and on the pitched glass roof and windows soften and help insulate the room.

The kitchen is galley style, storage has been squeezed into every inch (even the supports of the mantle piece around the range cooker are cupboards). A set of antique shelves holds a collection of lustreware. From here your eye is drawn down the enfilade of rooms – part of an extension added to over the centuries.

Walls and kitchen joinery around the fridge and range cooker were painted in soft chalky tones. The island was painted in a rich earthy brown and serves as a divider between the cooking and eating areas. Soft lighting, art and comfortable seating add warmth and softness to what was previously a cold uninviting space.

A laundry/flower room and loo now occupy the old outbuildings (previously stables and more recently used to store bikes and garden tools and only accessible from outside). A newly laid antique limestone floor gives the impression that this was always a single space.

A large living room lies to the left hand side of the central hall. Throughout the house, every effort was made to cultivate and enhance the house’s existing architectural features. Walls, cornicing, doors, floorboards and each of the six original Victorian fireplaces on the ground and first floors were preserved.

The colours, textures and patterns of the original tiles and the marble of the fireplace in the drawing room combine beautifully with the soft velvet and hand-painted detail on the backs of a pair of vintage Italian chairs.

The colours of an oil painting by Ronald Smith sing out above a sofa covered in a rich olive green velvet, its curved back echoed in the textured mid-century lamp from France itself echoed in the curved base of the Victorian side table. Good design goes with everything.

The kitchen was reached by walking through a long gloomy narrow internal room. It was clear to Tamsin that aside from the kitchen, this under-utilised space had the potential to become the most useful and lived-in part of the house.

Tamsin ‘divided’ the space in two – acquiring and positioning furniture to create two distinct but complementary areas – a study at one end and a cosy snug at the other. Reclaimed Victorian fireplaces were installed to create a focal point in both rooms – serendipitously a pair of Swedish rugs were found and laid on the wooden floor at either end.

The sofa is one of the few ‘new’ things in the house and was made bespoke and covered in a dusky pink harris tweed to complement the tips of the magnolia flowers seen through the conservatory windows in April.

Tamsin sourced a mismatch of eclectic but beautiful antique furniture, vintage lamps and a pair of vintage Swedish rugs An intricately stitched vintage Indian textile hangs above the sofa.

Throughout the house, Tamsin used unusual vintage lamps and bespoke shades to add further interest and warmth.

Tamsin gathered the clients’ collection of paintings together and rehung them from floor to ceiling in and around the study area to frame the view and create a sense of cosy containment. The furniture is all antique – nothing matches nothing is perfect but it works.

Tamsin and her client share a love of nature, craftsmanship and colour –
the Swedish bureau with its original faded paint is beautiful and functional.

The bedrooms at the top of the house look straight out into the tree canopy. The master bedroom’s existing cherry blossom curtains inspired the room’s Art Deco feel. A pair of vintage Art Deco chairs were found and recovered in a now discontinued emerald green patterned fabric, their curved form echoed in the shape of the bespoke headboard upholstered in a lightly textured coral linen and contrast piped in mint. The quilt is English Arts and Crafts and the cushions and rug are vintage.

In the spare room/dressing room hand hand-block printed wallpaper lines the walls. The sandy tones and naïve chunky scale of simple block printed fabric on the headboard contrasts beautifully with the exquisite marquetry of a walnut chest of drawers.

This study doubles as a guest bedroom. An arts and crafts chair upholstered in vintage Dutch linen sits at a desk designed to accommodate the extended length of the sofa bed behind. The green rug echoes the colour of the exterior paintwork on the church next door which can be seen from the window above the desk.

In this north-facing teenage girls bedroom, sunshine yellow walls, mint green woodwork and a mixture of textiles in rich reds, lilac and blue combine to add warmth and freshness to what was previously a very grey room. A 1930s card table, with its original paint, serves as a bedside table. A collection of pictures and a pair of vintage hand-painted glass lamps with bespoke shades frame the bed.

Tamsin sourced furniture, textiles and artwork, each an opportunity to add and combine layers of texture, colour and pattern, creating a room which feels fresh and inviting. The hand-painted lamp is by Black Lion Workshops. The chest of drawers was originally designed for a ship – hence its raised sides, to prevent items from falling off.

Outside in a north-facing corner of the garden Tamsin designed and built an artist’s studio.Joined to the old out buildings which enclose the courtyard and inspired by Barbara Hepworth’s studio in St Ives it was built using reclaimed London stock bricks. Seamlessly joined to the boundary wall and original outbuildings, with its sloping roof and idiosyncratically angled walls, neatly nestling under the boughs of a mature magnolia, it looks as though it has always been there.

A deep raised shelf and large sink in the wet room are perfect for washing and storing brushes, pots and the paraphernalia of a creative space. Classic white tiles line the shower walls. The simply patterned floor tiles in the studio shower / wet room were rescued from an old house in Spain.

The joinery was made for the angled wall of the studio and incorporates an old plan chest. The shallow shelves on the facing wall were designed to hold wet canvasses whilst they dry.

The studio is designed to be a place of contemplation as much as creation, a vintage suzani covers an old but extremely comfortable sofa beneath a little window lined with plants in vintage terracotta pots at the end of the studio. All the furnishings including the beautifully carved Arts and Crafts stool and rush seated chair were found by Tamsin in markets and chosen for their form as much as their function often doubling as artistic props.

The reclaimed natural stone tiles in the studio were chosen knowing they would acquire patina (and paint) and would improve with age.

A collection of stoneware jugs and a draughtsman’s stool with its original leather seat combine to create a Morandi-like still life in the studio.

The studio was designed to slot into a north-facing corner of the garden against the boundary wall – it fits neatly under the branches of a magnificent magnolia soulangeana. In spring its huge white goblet-shaped flowers which gradually fade to rose pink can be seen through the window on the side.

Completed in 2023. London.
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