A handsome Victorian house in London softly harmonised by Thea Speke
Three years into setting up on her own as an interiors consultant and antique dealer, Thea Speke went a little quiet on the Instagram profile that had gained a loyal following since she launched her studio in 2019. There were far fewer posts of her finds to tempt her followers, though, of course, all dealers have quieter times.
Appearances, especially the digital kind, can be deceiving however. Thea was, in fact, busier than ever: her business had taken a pivot and she was working on the top-to-toe renovation of this handsome 1890s red-brick house in Queen’s Park. ‘I went head first into this project – we were designing on the go to keep up with the builders,’ says Thea, with a composure that proves she is the ideal person to have around when the pressure is on. ‘It was all-encompassing.’
For Thea, the project began in 2021 in the form of, what she describes as, a ‘light-touch consultancy job’. The owners – garden designer Martha Balfour and her husband – had already commissioned David Morehen of Morehen Architects to convert the loft and to add a basement and a ground-floor side-return extension. When it came to the interiors, the creative couple had a general sense of what they wanted, but contacted Thea for some guidance.
A year later, however, and with builders – the brilliant Thornhill Shann – on site and a third child imminent, the couple realised they needed more help, so asked Thea to take on the interiors as a full project. ‘We thought we’d just do the new bits but, once we started work, we realised we needed to do it all at once for it to feel like a coherent house,’ says Martha, who first discovered Thea through House & Garden’s Rising Stars list in 2022. ‘We loved her aesthetic and felt she’d be able to create a space that was peaceful and uplifting, even though our lives felt so busy and chaotic.’
Many of the house’s original features remained intact – Martha and her husband were only the fourth owners – so a big part of Thea’s job was to strike the balance between the old and new. Other than the two new floors, on which Thea worked closely with the architect, she kept the layout largely as it was, with a double sitting room on the ground floor, and four bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs on the first floor. The new basement accommodates a snug, spare room and laundry, and there is a children’s bedroom, a bathroom and Martha’s office up in the attic.
Apart from the addition of a partition wall in the main bedroom to create a separate dressing room area, Thea did not meddle with the configuration of the rooms. ‘It is a beautiful building, with high ceilings and wonderfully proportioned rooms, so we tried not to overthink it. I was constantly considering ways to soften the contemporary additions,’ says the designer, who tempered expanses of Crittall glazing in the basement and the ground-floor kitchen extension with floors laid in weathered herringbone bricks and, in the kitchen, reclaimed oak boards.
The pièce de résistance has to be the voluminous, airy kitchen, glimpsed from the front door thanks to enormous arched doorways in the hall that Thea suggested adding. Its scale feels extraordinary for a London house, with a kitchen, large dining area and small seating area all taking up space together harmoniously. ‘I really wanted the kitchen to have an inside-outside feel,’ explains Martha, gesturing to the garden beyond the glazed doors, which she designed. The kitchen, which has units in Paint & Paper Library’s ‘Stone II’ topped with Bianco Fantastico marble, feels beautifully serene, with much of the storage niftily being hidden in the depth of the wall. This approach illustrates something Thea has a particular knack for – making hard-working spaces feel elegant. The en-suite bathroom is another good example, where a huge amount of storage has been concealed behind jib doors, as well as behind bespoke mirrors Thea had made by P.R.Elletson.
The designer describes the house as the product of a ‘constant stream of ideas’, but the finished result has just the right air of measured restraint. Thea credits this in part to the fact that they were having to work to constant deadlines, which meant ‘we were quite focused and always taking one step back to simplify a design choice’.
This sense of coolness and restraint is also a result of the tranquil and warm palette, which has become a signature style for Thea, who honed her eye while working at Rose Uniacke for five years. The hallway and kitchen walls are painted in the same colour as the kitchen cabinetry, while the main bedroom is in Edward Bulmer Natural Paint’s ‘Lilac Pink’. This room is a particularly peaceful hideaway, with the bed positioned so it looks out over nearby Queen’s Park. Textiles were key to creating a calm atmosphere – from curtains in Rose Uniacke’s ‘Sheer Linen’ to others made from inexpensive artists’ canvas. ‘It is a large house, so we had to be mindful about where to spend the money, and the clients were thankfully very open to fabric that cost £6 a metre from Goldhawk Road,’ explains Thea.
On an equally enlightened note, the owners were also happy to move in with just beds, joinery and curtains in place. ‘You do get the best out of spaces when you let them come together piece by piece,’ she observes. Many of the upholstered items, including the sofa and the ottoman in the family room, were bespoke – adding to the already good stash of furniture, antiques and art that belonged to them. This includes works by Martha’s mother, the artist Annabel Gault, such as the pair of abstract garden paintings hanging over the kitchen table and a crocodile in ink above the beds in the children’s attic room.
Unsurprisingly, there is a good spattering of antiques throughout the house, from 20th-century European finds to primitive items, adding a certain richness – many of them sourced by Thea. Sussy Cazalet, a friend of the owners, designed the wall hanging in the basement family room, creating an earthy aesthetic that embraces the lower light level. ‘Thea was the magic in the project,’ says Martha. ‘Her input is what made it special, because she managed to keep all the lovely parts while creating this wonderful atmosphere.’ For Thea, the project marks an exciting turning point for her business and she has now shifted her focus to full interiors projects and consultancy. ‘Antiques will always be something that I dabble in, but I can easily find a place for everything I source in my design projects,’ she explains. What lucky clients she has.
Thea Speke: theaspeke.com | Martha Balfour: marthabalfour.com
Michael Sinclair1/11The dining area in the large, open-plan kitchen.
Michael Sinclair2/11At the other end of the kitchen extension, comfortable armchairs and a vintage oak and rope chair are positioned to make the most of the natural light and the views of the garden through new Crittall windows and doors. The rustic table is a mid-20th-century French piece from M Charpentier Antiques
Michael Sinclair3/11Rose Uniacke's ‘plaster cone hanging light’ hangs above a table.
Michael Sinclair4/11The main bedroom features a cushion in terracotta ‘Cusco Stripe’ by Kufri from Studio Marian, which adds interest to a bedcover made from antique linen sheets and a cotton canvas headboard from Taylors Headboards. Bedside tables from Howe London, with lamps sourced by Thea, complement the elegant lines of a Nimmo & Spooner bench on a sisal carpet from Nina Burgess
Michael Sinclair5/11Calacatta Vagli Oro marble flooring showcases ‘Paris’ basins from The Water Monopoly, paired with bespoke P.R.Elletson mirrors and 1970s Murano glass wall lights from Norfolk Decorative Antiques in the en-suite bathroom.
Michael Sinclair6/11A guest bedroom.
Michael Sinclair7/11
Michael Sinclair8/11A bathroom features zellige tiles and an airy blind.
Michael Sinclair9/11A twin room features pale green walls and vibrant beds.
Michael Sinclair10/11A second child's bedroom.
Michael Sinclair11/11Martha's studio at the top of the house.
