A Townhouse transformed into a contemporary home

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Today's post is about a grand renovation - a traditional Townhouse's transformation into a stylish contemporary home. If you live in a Townhouse or a Terraced House, you can find loads of inspiring ideas for that renovation you have been planning. Personally, I do not need any excuses to ogle wide eyed at this stunning house. 

Designed by New York based studio Archi-Tectonics, this 3,400 square feet house was completed in 2011. As it is located in Chelsea, New York City, the architects have retained the traditional front façade. However, the rest of the house has been given a complete makeover. They have opened up the floor plan, fitted large glass windows on the rear façade and used a palette of natural tones to maintain the light and airy feel.

All images via HomeDsgn

A week at Madingley Hall

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Madingley Hall is a Jacobean and Elizabethan mansion located about four miles from the centre of Cambridge. I have often cycled past it and marvelled at the beautiful house. So when I found out I was going to stay there for one whole week - I was naturally jumping with joy!

The house dates back to 1543 and passed through several hands until sold to Colonel T. Walter Harding in 1905. Colonel Harding was an industrialist who had succeeded his father in the textile industry in Leeds and became the first Lord Mayor of Leeds (1898-1899). He found the hall in a poor condition but decided to renovate it - in 1906 work started on a large-scale restoration and reconstruction to designs by the architect John Alfred Gotch. Later ownership passed to Colonel Harding’s heirs who sold the Hall and its 300 acres of surrounding park and farmland to the University of Cambridge in 1948.

Colonel Harding

The University runs its Institute for Continuing Education at Madingley Hall and I took a short course there, which is how I ended up spending a week at the grade I listed house. Although the course was quite intensive, the house provided a very relaxed setting and there were many opportunities to wander off, soak up the Sun and photograph the house and gardens.

The impressive entrance 




View from my room

Walking up the avenue in the formal gardens 



Peeping out from the classroom windows



The Grade I listed gardens designed by 'Capability' Brown



Celebrity Home - Will and Jada Pinkett Smith

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I have been touring English Stately homes recently. Wandering around the sumptuous rooms and enormous gilded galleries makes one wonder - what exactly did the common folk think about the grand owners of these houses? Living in small communities where they were the richest and most powerful, their immediate neighbors usually villagers living in a little village named after the grand house. Did this situation inspire awe in the villagers or contempt for the ostentatious display of wealth?

To find the answer I looked at the elite of today’s society and their homes. The closest in profile to English landed class would be the Hollywood stars of today with their enormous wealth and penchant for displaying it through their houses. A perfect example is the home of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith featured in Architecture Digest. The house is the height of luxury and ostentation, I am even having trouble calling it a house, especially when my own little flat would neatly fit in their hallway (with ample room leftover). But it gives a fair idea of the awe and wonder the stately homes must have inspired in the simple folk. For me it also tells a tale on the shifting nature of celebrity.

The stars commissioned architect Stephen Samuelson to design an adobe-style residence full of free flowing spaces, organic forms, and handcrafted details. The exterior of the house sits comfortably in the landscape and the adobe walls - reminiscent of baked mud huts of Africa, offer protection from the hot Malibu Sun. The interiors designed by Judith Lance are a complete assault on the senses. But what redeems the interiors for me, is that the stars have their personality showing through in every corner. Their love for Indian and African style oozes through all the rooms, in the form of ethnic textiles and prints, rough-hewn wooden sculptures and warm earthen colors.

 

The house’s massive front door was salvaged from a fort in northern India



The pair of vintage resin tusks flank the carved wooden columns and the lanterns at left are Moroccan.










Rustic reclaimed timber complements the nature inspired furniture,
notice the Sitar by the window and the Indian Haveli door

 



The iron four-poster in Willow’s bedroom is draped with a canopy of patterned silk

The private terrace off the master suite 



All images via Architectural Digest

Apethorpe Hall

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As part of my course at the University, I recently visited Apethorpe Hall in Northamptonshire. A Grade I listed building of exceptional importance which is currently undergoing renovation. Dating from the 15^th century the stately home has entertained Tudor and Stuart royalty, notably Elizabeth I and James I. The house contains one of the last remaining Jacobean interiors in England.

The estate is accessed through the village of Apethorpe, a quaint little village of thatch roofed cottages which is England at it’s very best. 

It was a surprisingly hot day for this time of the year and beautiful spring flowers were in bloom everywhere. We decided to walk through the gardens first which comprise of seven acres of meandering pathways leading through archways into formal lawns with topiary and lotus ponds, walled herb gardens, enchanted trees and sweeping meadows.

The gardens form a perfect setting for the breathtakingly grand mansion. Built in the late 15^th century for Sir Guy Wolfston, who served as constable of the nearby royal castle at Fotheringey, Esquire of the body to Edward IV and sheriff as well as MP for Northamptonshire. In 1551, Sir Walter Mildmay who was to become Chancellor of the Exchequer acquired the property. He rebuilt the South Range to provide the state rooms where Queen Elizabeth I was entertained in 1566. Sir Francis Fane who married Mildmay’s  granddaughter, remodeled the state rooms and added a long gallery in fine Jacobean style in 1622-25 at the orders of King James I for his ‘more commodious entertainment and princely recreation’, The king provided Oak trees for the purpose from Rockingham forest. The house was clearly a favorite of the early Stuart Monarchs. There were at least thirteen royal visits between 1566 and 1636 – more than any other house in the county. There was also a hint of a scandal as it is said that it was at Apethorpe that James met George Villiers, his favorite and later to become Duke of Buckingham.