An unusual Notting Hill home transformed by Saskia Blyth

It is easy to walk down one of Notting Hill's pretty crescents, gaze on the buildings' identikit wedding cake exteriors, and assume that their interiors are uniform too. It is easy to imagine the sitting room with big bay windows and the kitchen with a contemporary glass extension out the back. However, go through the door of Saskia Blyth's latest project and you are sure to be surprised by the innovative and unexpected space she has created.

Set over two floors, the property features double height windows and palatially high ceilings, so Saskia was challenged with transforming it into a warm and welcoming place to live. ‘When I first went to see it,’ says Saskia, ‘it was incredibly sterile with mirrored ceilings throughout. It was very cold and didn't flow or function for my client.’ Almost immediately, Saskia knew what she needed to do to make the layout work. ‘I have worked with this particular client for over twenty years now, and have done all of his past properties spanning London, the Cotswolds and Switzerland.’ Leaning on her knowledge of the client's habits, Saskia understood that the space needed to function so the upstairs was private and the downstairs was ‘right for entertaining.’ In its initial state, there was no utility room and no downstairs loo. ‘My client is the kind of person who does not want to hear when the washing machine is on, so I knew these things needed to change,’ Saskia explains.

Ursula Armstrong

Saskia quickly applied for planning permission to alter the property and began stripping the house back to its bare bones. ‘This was not going to be a small job. We needed to redo the kitchen, bathroom, all the electrics and plumbing, as well as all the floors.’ Then, as if that wasn't enough work, Saskia and her team also redid half the roof and all the windows. Somehow, the project took just six months from the client getting the keys to full completion. ‘It was,’ Saskia admits, ‘a pretty punchy deadline.’

Once the fabric of the house was ready, it was time to consider the interior finishes and, as Saskia puts it, ‘in a project like this every single touchpoint matters.’ She sourced reclaimed timber from Belgium for the floors throughout (the fitting of which required a specialist team) and had specialist painter Will Foster come to handfinish all the walls. Perhaps most impressive of all was her close collaboration with James Elliot, a stonemason, on the fireplace which forms the focal point of the main living space. ‘We went through several versions of the design before we finalised what we wanted it to look like, then we worked together to source the perfect piece of stone.’