Owner’s story: a riverside regeneration in west London

When rug designer Laylah Holmes bought a rare turn-of-the-century double-fronted house in Grove Park, Chiswick, next to the Thames in London, she was playing the long game. “I fell in love with it a few years before, as I used to walk past it on the way to the station,” says Holmes. “I adored its symmetry.” 

With two small children and a burgeoning business, Holmes had outgrown the nearby terraced home that she and her husband, Matt, had renovated a few years earlier. One evening, weary from a number of disappointments during the property search she had begun, she poured some wine, opened up her laptop for what felt like the millionth time and found the house for sale – with Savills. 

Holmes had trained in fashion design, working for Vivienne Westwood and Ralph Lauren before pivoting to refocus on interiors and lighting. She found her passion in textiles for the home – and now she was ready to take on her own personal project, combining family living with the fledgling interiors business, Holmes Bespoke, she had started in 2018. 

After the first viewing, Holmes began mentally reconfiguring the house, uprooting the brambles to make room for a new garden work space and replacing the outdated conservatory and lean-to kitchen with a modern extension.

Once the property was theirs, Holmes took the opportunity to shape it to their needs – both those of her family and her business, which required a space where textile collections could be showcased in an environment that reflected her design vision. She wanted somewhere to work with her team and a place to indulge her love of entertaining. She also needed room for her children to play, along with ample storage to stash away their toys and paraphernalia.

The first thing she and Matt tackled was the wilderness garden, which doubled in size as soon as the brambles were banished. Here they created a standalone studio – “This was where I would spend my days throughout the build,” Holmes says. Clad in black vertical reeding and featuring four metres of glazing across the front, it accommodates a workspace, a kitchen and a bathroom.

In the main house, Holmes has embraced the late-Victorian details – the tiled fireplace, coving, panelling and sash windows (replaced like for like) – while increasing light and flow for contemporary living. The temporary structures at the back have given way to a two-storey, 54 square metre extension that houses the kitchen and dining space. On one side is a moody bar with black marble tops and a dining table for eight. The space transitions via a monolithic island into the lighter kitchen area, with aqua-coloured cabinetry and a champagne quartzite worktop.

“The island is one of my favourite things,” says Holmes. “It was important to me that it had no appliances, so it is just one big beautiful piece of stone with a black reeded base. It is where my children eat their dinner every day. It has seen birthday parties, presentations, interviews and sushi-making lessons.”

Sliding doors lead from the kitchen to a playful family/media room at the front of the house: one end is for the kids, with floor-to-ceiling cupboards for their toys, while the other hosts a cinema-style TV and sofa. The volumes of joinery throughout were created in collaboration with the designer-maker HUX. 

Next to this is the more formal reception room, where grown-up gatherings take place and the latest rug collections are showcased. The warm colour palette, derived from the original tiling of the fire surround, is picked up all over the house: nutmeg brown, soft peaches, terracottas and warmed-up whites. 

Throughout the house, Holmes Bespoke textiles are in evidence. A Diamond rug in hard-wearing jute is under the dining table, while the richly piled Oro, in bamboo silk, adds to the warm refinement of the reception room. Upstairs, the textured Belle rug in blue is used wall to wall in the main bedroom as part of a cosy Mediterranean theme.

“It’s liveable luxury,” Holmes explains. “I have kids, I have friends around, I don’t want to be precious. I want people to feel comfortable and I want to create spaces they don’t want to leave.” It looks like Holmes has succeeded.

Holmes Bespoke