An interior designer's calm, cleverly configured London home

Houses have to put up with a lot, and after a while even the best interiors need revitalising. This was precisely the case with interior designer Georgina Cave's London home, which, after more than ten years, a horde of teenagers and a large dog called Ernie to contend with, was in need of some TLC. The house in question is the ground floor of a handsome Victorian building in Belsize Park, impressively wide thanks to one side being a former coach house.

When they saw the listing nearly 15 years ago, Georgina admits, 'on paper I thought ‘Gosh, it’s not big enough’ but I fell in love with it in real life'. So, she set about using her skills in architectural planning to carve out an extra bedroom and bathroom from the layout so that she, her husband and each of her two children all had their own space.

You enter the house through the garden, 'which for a town garden is really special,' says Georgina, being double width like the house itself. The door leads into a hallway that runs down the length of the house, with the front door at the other end.

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At the front of the house are the main living spaces; on the right hand side is the living room, while the kitchen is on the left and another living and dining space adjoined to it. The kitchen was the starting point for Georgina, who is a keen environmentalist and aims to reuse whatever she can in any project. The concrete floor tiles she'd installed when they first moved in stayed - 'They’ve patinated over the years, and I love them and so I didn’t even refresh them' – as did the kitchen layout. A new set of cabinets, designed by Georgina who designs a lot of her clients' kitchens, were installed.

Ideally, she had wanted to use reclaimed wood but unfortunately, it would've been too heavy. Instead, reclaimed-style wood has been used for the doors, with reclaimed ironmongery for the handles and a Belgian Fossil Limestone worktop. It is textural and slightly moody, offset with Emery & Cie's yellow zellige tiles on the cooker backsplash and open shelving that displays some of her pottery collection.

The main living room is also full of Georgina's designs, with a corner sofa that sits perfectly in the sunken sitting room, opposite a floating TV console in a mid-century style also designed by her. There are two enviable vintage leather armchairs in the window, in front of which hang a pair of olive brown mohair curtains that also stayed in the renovation. 'They're maybe a bit tired but I just love them too much,' she laughs. They also pair brilliantly with a tapestry that hangs above the sofa – which was reupholstered in the revamp rather than replaced – and the many plants that make the room feel homely.

Up the small steps is a landing space, with a cleverly designed and hidden laundry cupboard and a small desk space, where Georgina used to work before moving Cave Interiors to an office and shop space in Primrose Hill. Behind this desk is where the extremely smart layout starts to show itself, as a sliding door reveals a vestibule with a bedroom and bathroom coming off it. The bathroom is vibrant with patterned pink reclaimed tiles covering the floor and one wall. The bedroom has a peaceful quality to it. The bed is built into joinery that runs the width of the room – a trick that anchors the space.

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Georgina's own bedroom, at the other end of the house, is the true showcase of her talent however, somehow containing an en-suite, walk-in wardrobes, and two particularly genius bedside tables. The bed sits in front of a wall of its exact width; on the left as you look at it is a small walk-in wardrobe, on the right is a little corner of joinery that hides the fluted bathroom door tucked behind. A fireplace next to the bed was against any regulations so, instead of close it up as, 'someone else might want to one day have a fire there,' she created shoe storage. It's just one of many brilliant tricks the designer has used to maximise space.

Another is the bedside tables. Lacking space, Georgina built two cubby holes into the wall behind the bed, with pull out drawers on the bottom. It is these details that allowed Georgina and her family to live in a house that on paper, was simply not big enough.

Georgina's daughter Anouska is now a partner at Cave Interiors and worked with her mother on the project as a sounding board. 'She came up with so many great suggestions,' Georgina says. 'A client has us and I had her'. Their working partnership, she says, is 'a natural thing that just happened'. It was never planned, but after helping out at the business for a time, Anouska 'turned around one day and said ‘I’m actually really enjoying it here’ – it just fell into place'. Now, Georgina oversees everything and Anouska manages the sourcing and styling side of their multiple projects, which currently include an Arts & Crafts house in Hampstead and a new build in Scotland, amongst many others.

As for her own house, 'it now has 100% got my stamp on it. I’d like people to look at my home and say ‘that’s really lived in, that’s a home’. It’s welcoming not precious, that’s the kind of home I love to create'.

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