A HOUSE REBORN

WHEN A PLUMBING CATASTROPHE WRECKED THIS LONDON HOME, A THOROUGH RETHINK WAS REQUIRED TO BRING IT BACK TO LIFE

- Catherine Coyle

Out of disaster, good things can come. It’s worth bearing that in mind if you’re ever unlucky enough to experience the kind of calamity that befell this house, a grade II listed mid-terrace townhouse in central London. Two years ago its owner, Denise Barron, had set off on holiday, leaving builders to install a new bathroom. She’d imagined coming home to the freshly kitted-out space, knowing she’d given the workmen the space and time needed to get the job done without interruption. Instead, what she found was that her whole house had been flooded, leaving gaping holes in the floors. There was no sign of any sanitaryware – and no sign of any builders.

Brenda Maclauchlan, director of BB Interior Design, was the distressed Barron’s first port of call. “I’d worked on a property with her son previously,” recalls the designer. “She asked for help to recover her home after this terrible experience. She wanted me to bring the house back to life.”

As well as co-ordinating the repairs, Maclauchlan’s challenge was to reconfigure the layout of this tall, narrow, turn-of-the-century townhouse and give it more personality. But Barron and her partner couldn’t go away again; they were going to have to continue living in the house during the renovations, so the designer had to devise a plan of work that would allow one floor to be tackled at a time, going from top to bottom, starting by giving the couple a comfortable area to move into while the rest of the house was being ripped out and renewed. Happily, Maclauchlan is a meticulous planner who prides herself on providing her clients with practical solutions that help them make better use of their space. “Being efficient means we save the owner time and money,” she says. “It’s my job to integrate all the trades – we want to make best use of the builders.