New Life In Colour

Layering vibrant patterns and revamped heirloomshas updated this townhouse with uncommon élan

- Serena Fokschaner

Shortly after moving into his south London home, Michael Parsons took stock of his surroundings. He had a great many chairs. Fireside Edwardian armchairs, scallop-backed Art Deco chairs, Victorian nursing chairs, and balloon-back dining chairs lined the walls like seats awaiting wallflowers at a Georgian ball. All had been inherited from downsizing relatives, and each one needed a new lease of life.

So, too, did the interior. Built-in the 1840s, the brick, and stucco-fronted townhouse is tucked into a quiet, tree-shaded cul de sac that has a ‘proper community feel’. The architecture – ‘technically Victorian, but Georgian in style’ – also appealed to Michael, a financier with aesthetic leanings. Previous incumbents had looked after the Grade II-listed property: installing bookshelves, punching through small parlors. But the decoration, ‘in different shades of beige and yellow’, needed a re-think.