LIVING THE DREAM

In a historic London house, a stylish couple turn to Veere Grenney to help bring their vision to life

- PLUM SYKES

One of the most romantic town houses in London—the kind that resembles an aristocratic dwelling straight out of a Jane Austen novel—stands solemnly on a sun-dappled corner of Cheyne Walk overlooking the glittering River Thames. Visitors approach the house exactly as they would have done when it was built circa 1770, passing through a tall wrought-iron gate flanked with imposing square gateposts, iron railing, and rambling hedging. A short walk along a worn stone path leads to a Georgian six-panel front door, painted a formal, glossy black with a decorative fanlight above framed by an extravagant stone arch. These gracious features are in distinct opposition to the age-blackened brickwork of the building and set the tone for a home that is one of brilliant contrasts: It is striking yet correct, constrained yet dramatic—as unrelentingly glamorous as it is extraordinarily relaxed.

These seeming design oxymorons are as intentional as they are successful. Fashion designer Peter Hawkings, former creative director at Tom Ford, and Flowerbx.​com founder Whitney Bromberg Hawkings bought the place only a year ago but had a vision so collaborative that with AD100 Hall of Fame designer Veere Grenney they were able to execute the project in just six months. (The couple, who have three children and have been married since 2005 after they met while both working at Gucci, get along so well that their nickname for each other is “Dream.”)

The front door opens into the double-width hall, whose original 18th-century paneling is painted a subtle sepia tone. There's a welcoming fireplace, and the room is dominated by a mid-20th-century French marble-topped gilt bronze center table from Rose Uniacke. Ahead, a staircase sweeps upward, the stairwell wrapped in George Spencer Design's Palm Stripe, a dusty pink wallpaper of which Grenney muses, "If I could only ever use one wallpaper, this would be it."