The client fell in love with this colour green so we decided to fully lean in and envelop the space in its cosy embrace. As with so many projects a key thing for this client was storage so we created some built-in cupboards and shelves in the existing alcoves and painted these in a complementary green satin paint to bounce the light around. There are quirky objects and art aplenty in this room, the lighting is a nod to the client’s childhood favourite author, P G Wodehouse, others are displayed with the client’s large collection of interior design books. The client felt that using sustainable options was important, so I sourced all the furniture from second hand sources. The sideboard was a bargain from Facebook Marketplace that was stripped back, paint washed and given new hardware. The footstool provides extra seating, was reupholstered to complement the scheme and doubles as a coffee table with a tray on top. The antique display cupboard came from the client’s childhood home and houses more treasured objects.

Inspiration for a medium sized victorian formal living room in London with green walls, dark hardwood flooring, a standard fireplace, a stone fireplace surround and brown floors.

Inspiration for a traditional living room in Hampshire.

The drawing room and library with striking Georgian features such as full height sash windows, marble fireplace and tall ceilings. Bespoke shelves for book, desk and sofa make it a social yet contemplative space.

Living room with lighting by MS Lighting Design
Design ideas for a retro living room in London.

Sustainable, timeless & full of character. A combination of neutral & strong colour offers balance and interest to the wonderful high ceilings, while a careful curation of vintage pieces reflects the owner’s commitment to sustainability. A prayer cupboard hides the TV when the family is entertaining and a dentist chair adds an unexpected reading spot overlooking the garden.

Classic living room in London.

Inspiration for an eclectic living room in Hampshire.

The lounge has been designed as a calming yet sophisticated, family-friendly space, equally suited to entertaining guests or relaxing together for a quiet evening with a board game. We have retained and restored original details, including the coffered ceiling and lincrusta door panels, while installing triple-glazed sash windows and insulation to improve energy performance. This space forms part of a wider retrofit of a beautiful Edwardian home in Bushey. We have worked closely with the client and their architect to balance energy efficiency with the preservation of the property’s character, while reflecting the family’s interior style.

Inspiration for a classic living room feature wall in Sussex.

Photo of a retro living room in Sussex.

The seating area in the open plan kitchen diner of our Wandsworth Common Family Home is positioned near to the Crittal style aluminium sliding doors to make the most of the view of the garden

Inspiration for a retro living room in London.

Soft Olive Green tones overlayed with airforce and navy blues, a blush of softest pink and brightest emerald.
Design ideas for a medium sized midcentury formal enclosed living room in West Midlands with green walls, carpet, no fireplace, a wall mounted tv and grey floors.

Medium sized classic enclosed living room in London with a standard fireplace, a metal fireplace surround, a reading nook, green walls and carpet.

Chauffage au bois Stuv, gamme contemporaine de cheminées et poêles http://atredesign.fr #cheminée #poêle #insert #bois #stuv #contemporain

This is an example of a scandinavian grey and brown living room in London with feature lighting.

Christine Besson
Design ideas for a large contemporary enclosed living room in Paris with white walls, concrete flooring, no fireplace and no tv.

We were asked to resolve a problem with the layout of a house in the Whitehall Park Conservation Area in Islington. The house had wonderful high ceilings and well proportioned reception rooms, but the kitchen was very compromised. It was housed in an old side return extension and accessed through a warren of other rooms. It was too small and low, didn’t relate well to the dining room and was cut off from the other rooms in the house, accessed down a small flight of steps. The owners wanted a generous, multifunctional family space where they could enjoy time together. Our solution was to take out the side wall of the rear reception room, reconstruct the side return completely and join the two spaces to create a lateral kitchen dining space. Behind this space the old dining room, with less access to natural light, became a utility room, cloakroom and music room. We flipped the kitchen into the old reception room and lowered the floor to create one seamless room level with the garden. This gave the kitchen a huge ceiling height and meant we could increase the size of the French doors which open out onto the garden, making them very grand and a real focal point of the room. The extension itself has a fully glazed roof to bring the most amount of light into the space, including electrically opening rooflights for ventilation. To avoid the dining room being overlooked by the neighbours upper windows, we designed a series of louvres made of oak to line the underside of the roof. These allow filtered light into the extension whilst maintaining a sense of privacy and enclosure. They are openable to allow the glass to be cleaned and we used them to inform the rest of the interior. The extension contrasts to the more traditional kitchen area with its high ceilings and ornate cornice, using oak panels as a lining around the walls. The opening into the kitchen forms a datum line, above which the oak is clad in battens to create texture and tie into design of the louvres. A bench containing storage runs all the way around the dining room and a large pivot window frames views from the music room into the garden. The window can be fully opened to connect the dining room to the outside. The rear wall of the dining room is finished in natural clay plaster, continuing the warm earthy tones of the oak cladding. Externally we used a traditional yellow stock brick so the extension feels like it belongs to the house, but we used the brick in a sawtooth bond, laying them at 45 degrees to create a triangular pattern which create interesting shadows throughout the day.