Case study

An Ode to Atmosphere

Designed by Anouska Tamony

On one of Stoke Newington’s leaf-lined streets, a tall Victorian townhouse rises in pale brick, its proportions elegant and assured. Arranged over five floors, the four-bedroom house carries the patina of more than a century, recently reshaped by contemporary rear, basement and loft extensions that sit in confident dialogue with its restored period detailing. When interior designer Anouska Tamony first encountered the property, she recognised both the strength of its architectural framework and the opportunity within its restraint – a house poised between eras, awaiting warmth and personality.

Tasked with redefining the interiors for a young family, Tamony undertook a full interior renovation, making subtle structural refinements to improve flow while layering in texture, colour and craft. The existing rooms, though thoughtfully remodelled, felt minimal and monochrome. “It had strong bones,” she reflects, “but it needed soul.” Her approach was to soften the sharper lines of the contemporary architecture without compromising its clarity – to create a cultured, expressive home in which the family could feel truly rooted.

The bathrooms became central to that ambition. Originally functional and pared back, they lacked atmosphere. The brief was to recast them as sanctuaries – intimate spaces of retreat with the composure of a discreet hotel suite, yet grounded in daily ritual.

At the outset, the clients offered a cluster of guiding words: elegant, soft, earthy, playful, tactile, chic. They spoke of Japanese restraint, Mid-Century Scandinavian discipline and the layered charm of English country hotels.

In the master suite, these references coalesced into something gently cinematic. Rose-tones wraps the ensuite in a soft luminescence, the marble tiles animated by delicate veining. Alabaster sconces and an opal-glass pendant cast a pearly glow, while subtle curves – echoed in scalloped detailing and rounded forms – lend the room a quietly Venusian quality.

Against this enveloping backdrop, Drummonds’ polished nickel fittings introduce clarity and balance. The Chessleton basin mixer brings an Art Deco inflection to the vanity, its disciplined geometry poised yet decorative. In the shower enclosure, the Dalby Surface Mounted Shower extends with fluid grace. “There’s something swan-like in the curve,” Tamony notes. The cool sheen of polished nickel tempers the warmth of the marble, lending definition and restraint to the room’s softer palette.

In a scheme defined by sensuality and curve, the fittings provide a quiet architectural counterpoint. Their sculptural presence and enduring craft ground the composition, ensuring the romance of rose-toned stone is held in balance by precision and permanence.

For Tamony, bathrooms are among the most rewarding rooms to shape. “They sit at the intersection of function and indulgence,” she says. In this Victorian house in Stoke Newington, they have become intimate oases within the broader life of the home – spaces where light, stone and metal combine in quiet harmony, and where past and present resolve into something both expressive and enduring.

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