West London Style by Anna Wakeham Interiors

Our West London project was one of our most collaborative yet.  It highlighted what can be achieved when the designer and client work well together and truly align.  

We were approached by our client to ask for help with designing her newly purchased property in West London.  This property was a conveniently located two bedroomed flat in a pretty period block.  The flat was adequate, but it was tired and needed a total overhaul to create a functional and pleasurable space.  The client was based abroad and intended to travel to London regularly, so while this was a ‘lock up and leave’ she wanted something bright, fun and totally liveable to be created for her.

Our brief from the client was to design, style, decorate and install all the furniture and styling items (including china, glassware, cutlery, coffee table books and plants) on her behalf.  This was a full turnkey project.  However, the turnaround time was very tight – the deadline for total redecoration, design and install including styling items was just three months.

Because time was short and we really needed to understand as much about the client as we could - what she liked and how she wanted to live in this space - we spent two days with her before she returned abroad.  Within the two days we discussed floorplans and visited many showrooms at The Design Centre Chelsea Harbour to find her sense of style.  By doing this, we go to the heart of the project quickly and without fuss – needless to say we got on brilliantly and our collaboration was born.  By the end of day 2, we had an outline of our design, a pretty strong idea of what she loved and we had a basis for a colour scheme, overall palette and feel and design.

One of the biggest challenges on the project was ensuring bespoke furniture was ordered quickly and could be delivered by our install date just three months ahead.  We chose suppliers that we knew we could rely on and who we knew would deliver as planned.  This was paramount to the success of this project – using our ‘little black book’ of contacts to ensure our timings were adhered to.  

Our second challenge was finding a decorator and other trades that could work on the whole property ahead of our install.  We put our contacts to work and three quotes on everything later, the client chose the team she’d like to work with.

After weekly checks on the project for three months and many WhatsApp calls with the client to ensure everything was on schedule, a whole redecoration, new curtains and blinds and a new carpet later, we were ready to install.  All our new furniture arrived on time and on schedule which left us a week for styling items at the end to make the property feel like home.  We installed picture frames, artworks, plants, coffee table books, reading books and having unloaded the client’s Ocado shop ahead of her arrival, we even placed her shower gel in the newly decorated bathroom.  With the beds made for her arrival off an International flight, the flat was ready.

This project was such a joy and one of our favourites to date.  At Anna Wakeham Interiors we look to push boundaries whatever that means for you – in this case it was timescale, and it was such a privilege to be able to be able to create a beautiful home for our lovely client.