This bold interior designer’s Notting Hill home is a joyful mix of layered texture, vibrant colour and charming patterns and prints
Sarah Vanrenen (Photograph by Rachael Smith)
Just as you shouldn’t be able to visualise the script when an actor performs the writer’s words, nor should you be able to see that a property has been interior designed – that’s Sarah’s philosophy. For her, a home should always look comfortable and full of interest with a wonderfully lived-in feel. And it’s this core design ethos that’s driven Sarah’s 20-plus years as one of the UK’s most successful interior designers. She leads by example, too. Her own home, a charming Notting Hill townhouse, is full of layered textures, bold colours, interesting patterns and prints, and a mix of classic and contemporary artworks, lovingly curated over the years. “I’d describe my style as a cross between English country and New York eclectic,” she tells me. “I love classical interiors with a very modern twist, lots of layers and a good amount of pattern and bags of colour.” This joyful interchange between city and country plays out in life, too. “My husband’s in London more than I am, because he works here,” she explains. “I go up every week, also for work, and I am very lucky to have both London and the country. It means you really appreciate both.”
The Pink Room
You wouldn’t know it, but most of the house has been rebuilt. When Sarah and her husband bought the property it was in a dilapidated state – save for the pretty façade – but even then, cheap plastic windows had to be replaced with sympathetic sash windows to bring back the original period charm. “The house was relatively small,” says Sarah, “so we took the opportunity to dig down to lay the foundations lower to gain height in the ground floor rooms. It made a huge difference and really makes the house feel big. We added a side extension and another floor to accommodate an extra bedroom and bathroom, and we now have three bedrooms and three bathrooms.”
From the black and white chevron tiles to the large-scale geometric rug; the busy retro wallpaper to the decorative pleated lampshades, there is so much pattern-rich eye candy here. And yet the house feels perfectly serene and uncluttered. I wonder how Sarah goes about finding that all important balance. “Pattern needs to be delivered in the right amount of scale and balance,” she advises. “Like a painting, there also needs to be some relief and contrast. Layering pattern creates a lived-in look that is homely and inviting, but too much pattern can look messy and distracting. I think the uncontrived, lived-in look is something I always strive for. It’s more approachable and realistic. I’m also a great collector of art and decorative things. Knowing how to display all your favourite belongings and hang art can make an enormous difference to the balanced end result of a house that’s well lived in.”
Echoing the verdant garden beyond, Sarah’s emerald green kitchen blurs the boundaries between inside and out
Here, you cannot help but be drawn to the vibrant green galley kitchen that leads out to Sarah’s verdant patio space. Complete with untreated wood flooring and natural jute rugs it successfully blurs the boundaries between inside and out. “I was actually inspired to paint my kitchen this colour after I’d seen an article about Cameron Diaz’s kitchen in New York,” she divulges. “It was a glossy emerald green and I’d never seen a green kitchen like that before. It was a natural accident that brings me pleasure every summer when the garden doors are open and the space becomes like one room.” I’m keen to get down to the nitty gritty – I want to know all about Sarah’s favourite pieces in the house, and where she likes to shop for her treasures – and of course, take notes. “My carved mirror on the dark aubergine walls is my most favourite and sentimental piece,” she says. “I also love the collage of the blossom tree in a London garden square in the kitchen, as I bought it from the owner of my previous house. He’d made four of them, one in each season, by taking hundreds of photographs with an old-fashioned camera, in the style of Hockney… I also really love my bathroom vanity unit, made up from an antique commode I bought in the Lillie Road and had converted with new drawer interiors that soft close, cut around the sink. It’s tremendously satisfying and incredibly practical! It’s also tall, so I don’t need to bend down to brush my teeth!”
It comes as little surprise to learn that much of Sarah’s furniture pieces are of her own design. The studio boasts a popular – and ever growing – range of high-end furniture and homewares, all conceived in-house and produced by skilled craftspeople. “I always make my own sofas and chairs,” she says, “although one of the sofas in the sitting room has come with me for 24 years, it was the first thing I ever bought, along with the carved gesso mirror that I bought from Judy Greenwood Antiques on the Fulham Road in the ’90s!”
This year looks busier than ever for Sarah and her expanding team, with so many new fabric and furniture designs coming to the fore, trips to the US, plus an office move on the cards, that will, excitingly, include a showroom. And when it comes to downtime and relaxation? Yes, she has her country bolthole, but there’s tranquillity aplenty to be found at home in Notting Hill, too. “I love each and every room when I spend time in them,” she tells me diplomatically when I ask her for her favourite. “I often sit and drink it all in. I’m so glad I was brave enough to paint the sitting room a dark, glossy aubergine. Every time I go into it, especially at night-time, which is when we spend the most time at the house, and the fire is going, I smile, and I feel very lucky.”
