Walthamstow

The Brief

The brief was clear about one thing above all else: the house had to feel cohesive. With so many rooms, so many decisions, and so much colour — the couple were nervous. They knew what they loved but worried it wouldn't hold together.

That challenge became the heart of the project.

The Approach

The solution to cohesion wasn't restraint. It was transition.

Rather than limiting the palette, we used the spaces between rooms — hallways, landings, doorways — as the connective tissue of the house. Tones that feel related even when they're dramatically different. A design language that shifts from room to room but never breaks.

The result is a house where you move from deep blue to terracotta to near-black to sage green and it always feels like the same home.

The project was done in phases over nearly three years. The clients lived in the house throughout — which turned out to be one of its greatest strengths. Living in a space as it evolves gives you clarity that no mood board can. When an early decision wasn't working, they could feel it. We changed it. That kind of ongoing conversation, between client and designer over a long project, is how the best homes get made.

The Hallway

First impressions matter. The hallway was designed to set the tone for everything that follows — bold enough to signal this is not a timid house, warm enough to feel like a welcome.

Encaustic patterned floor tiles in grey and white anchor the space. The staircase is painted in a deep blue-grey, with the original Victorian balustrade restored and painted to match. A custom coat and shoe storage unit keeps the space functional without sacrificing character. The result is a hallway that stops you when you walk in — in the best possible way.

The Kitchen

The kitchen is the showpiece. It always was going to be.

The clients love cooking and hosting. A Lacanche range sits at the heart of the room — a serious piece of equipment for serious cooks. The brief was to build a kitchen around it that felt both traditional in form and completely contemporary in feeling.

The answer was contrast. Near-black lower cabinets in a classic shaker style, paired with dusty pink upper cabinets and a custom-curved range hood. Quartzite worktops throughout — cool, veined, beautiful. Reeded panel detailing on the island. Brass hardware on everything.

The kitchen extension brought in crittall-style glazing along the rear wall and two large skylights overhead, flooding the space with natural light and opening the kitchen directly onto the garden. It's a room that works hard and looks extraordinary doing it.

The Living Room

The original Victorian bay window becomes the focal point of the living room — painted out in a deep, enveloping sage green that makes the room feel like it has always been this way. Black cast iron radiators, original floorboards, and carefully chosen furniture complete a room that is quiet, considered, and full of character.

The Bedrooms

The two spare bedrooms were designed with a specific intention — to feel like rooms in a boutique hotel. Different personalities, different palettes, but the same sense of care and completeness.

The blue room is dramatic. Every surface — walls, ceiling, woodwork — painted in a deep inky blue. A crystal chandelier hangs from the ceiling. The bay window frames the cherry blossom outside like a painting. It is a room that takes your breath away.

The terracotta room is warm and joyful. A lacquered ceiling in a rich terracotta pink, a matching ceiling rose, a rattan pendant light. The colour wraps around you. It feels like a hug.

Both rooms feel completely different. Both feel completely like Jewel Design Studio.

The Loft

The loft conversion added a master bedroom and en-suite to the top of the house — a private retreat above everything else.

The bedroom is sage green throughout, with a rattan headboard, dusty pink linen, botanical prints, and plants. It is soft, personal, and completely at ease. The en-suite leads directly off the bedroom — zellige tiles in a deep blue-green, geometric patterned floor tiles that echo the hallway below, brass fittings throughout. Different room, same house.

The Result

Nearly three years. Dozens of decisions, some revised, some kept, all considered. A Victorian terrace transformed room by room, phase by phase, into a home that is bold, cohesive, and completely alive.

The clients were nervous about colour at the start. They aren't any more.