A GRAND REVIVAL

Daniel Slowik of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler helped his client reimagine her lifetime’s collection of furnishings and objets – the result is a revived London home that has a delightful country house look

- RACHEL LEEDHAM

Prior to becoming an interior decorator at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, Daniel Slowik managed the company’s antiques division, and it was in this capacity that he first met the owner of this Victorian terraced town house in south London. ‘She is a passionate collector and she would come into the Brook Street shop all the time,’ Daniel recalls. He continues, ‘Twenty years on, she got in touch with me via Instagram to say that she and her partner were downsizing to a house around the corner from their previous home and she wondered if I could help.’

As owner and designer strolled from the larger house to the smaller one, a plan began to emerge as to how a lifetime’s collection could be curated and shown in a new light in this more petite property. ‘From the outset we knew that this wasn’t going to be a case of acquiring new pieces; rather, it would be about re-covering, re-polishing or repainting her most treasured finds,’ Daniel explains. He adds, ‘We are entering an age of repurposing, which is something my company was doing when they were decorating country houses back in the 1950s. Our emphasis now, as it was back then, is on couture decorating – if you refinish a piece beautifully, it will come back to life and last for many years to come.’