This double-height Belgravia drawing room reframes the grandeur of a period townhouse through a contemporary lens — every element is scaled to the architecture yet softened by the warmth of bouclé, stone, and muted sage linen.
Honouring the Architecture
When the Pembertons acquired this Grade II listed Belgravia townhouse, the reception room had been subdivided into two cramped parlours with a dropped ceiling that concealed the original plasterwork cornice. Our first act was restoration: removing the false ceiling, exposing the full five-metre height, and repairing the cornice in situ. Only then did we begin to furnish.
The fireplace — a block of honed Pietra Serena limestone carved into an elemental arch — anchors the room without competing with the period mouldings above it. Its mass gives the space a gravitational centre; everything else arranges itself in relation to it.
Layered Comfort
Two generous sofas face each other across a low travertine coffee table, their bouclé upholstery in raw cream chosen as much for its acoustic softness — absorbing sound in a tall stone room — as for its visual warmth. Beneath them, layered rugs in jute and wool create a grounded island within the expanse of pale oak flooring.
The curtains — floor-to-ceiling panels of washed sage linen — were chosen after testing fourteen fabric samples at different times of day. The final shade shifts from a pale celadon in morning light to a warm olive at dusk, acting as the room’s most subtle and dynamic element. Brass curtain poles and a single articulated brass floor lamp provide the metallic counterpoint, their warmth threading through an otherwise mineral palette.
They gave us back the room’s original proportions and then filled them with exactly the kind of quiet that a home in central London rarely achieves.
Eleanor Pemberton