Kew House

I spotted this project from McLaren.Excell in my search for inspiration for a space in our home that initially was reserved as a playroom for the kids. We moved to a bungalow almost 2 years ago and when renovating we started with white walls and a concrete floor and kept everything basic. For me it works best to see how a home changes with the seasons, how we interact with the different spaces and then adding colors, details and more furniture pieces. 

What was intended to be a playroom for the kids eventualy didn't work out that way because our kids didn't play that much in this room as we thought they would. So new plans in the making for this room that we now want to be more of a workspace and a place you can be a bit private if you want too. 

The space is situated in the back of our home and as mentioned before is now pretty basic with white walls and a grey concrete floor. In my search for inspiration I always end up with wooden finishes on the wall and custom made desks and storage. The wooden walls and details in this home inspired me in my search for our workroom in the making. 

I will share more of our workspace when we start with this room but for now take a look at this project. 

- Jantine

Kew House involved the complete re-structuring of a Victorian London house and former stable yard in Richmond, turning a house of many small rooms into a series of orchestrated spaces that allow the house to breathe and flow.

Slender oak fluting and wall panels conceal extensive storage and give a necessary visual lift and softness to the home. Relief is used to animate the interior surfaces. Daylight is carefully controlled through deep window and rooflight reveals, and the panelling extends into the period rooms within the house – running across bay windows in the form of a shutter, filtering daylight and providing privacy, sitting in juxtaposition to the restored Victorian detailing.

Views of the garden have been framed through monumental openings, positioned to converge on the mature Magnolia tree at the centre of the garden, whose depth provides deep sills on which to sit.

Project by McLaren.Excell / photography by Simone Bossi