Carlos Garcia brings harmony and grace to a north London townhouse
Why do people call in an interior designer? One can think of several reasons, the overwhelming demands of a big project, a lack of expertise, perhaps even a lack of interest. Often, however, it is colour that proves the thorniest problem. You may love colour and the idea of a colourful interior, but putting together a harmonious colour scheme is a job that requires expertise. It was for this reason that the owners of this charming Georgian townhouse in London called on Carlos Garcia.
It was an attractive project for Carlos, who is well known for his skill with English country house interiors (as you will recognise if you're familiar with his own manor house in Norfolk). Some of the rooms were already decorated, but the clients wanted help with the spaces that were to become the stars of the show: a generous drawing room, the hallways and corridors, and the main bedroom and dressing room. “They wanted to inject colour and a bit of extra oomph into these rooms,” explains Carlos. They came to the right designer, as the interiors that Carlos creates certainly do not shy away from colour, but the hues are never shouty in character; generally soft shades in the paint and wallpaper allow for a sense of richness and variety to be built up in the colours, patterns and textures of the fabrics, rugs and art.
The drawing room is a masterclass in this method. This large room with its five windows is the more formal of the house's sitting rooms, and Carlos was able to decorate it completely from scratch. Despite the quantity of windows, it is not a terribly bright room thanks to its built-up surroundings, and the thing it needed above all else was a sense of warmth. Counter-intuitively, Carlos chose a pale blue shade for the walls (Edward Bulmer's ‘Welmish Blew’) that actually has the effect of warming the space up. “The yellow ochre used in this colour warms the cool pigments," explains Carlos, "in this case the black, white and blue pigments, while chrome allows the light to bounce, rather than absorbing it, so it gives a sense of luminosity.” The soft yellow tones in the walls were then picked up in the curtains, necessarily a prominent feature in the room and another warming element. With fairly large-scale patterns on the curtain and rug, Carlos then kept the rest of the room simple with blocks of colour and upholstery in plain fabrics.
Colour is one balancing act neatly managed in this room; the other is the balance of formality and comfort that a drawing room always needs. This is not the family's everyday sitting room and it requires a certain elegance, but it still needs to be comfortable and welcoming. Carlos has achieved this by a formidable level of fine-tuning. The more formal shapes in the room, such as the pair of armchairs in front of the window, and the bespoke pedimented bookcases at the back, have been deliberately knocked back in some way; those upright chairs are upholstered in a decidedly informal ticking stripe, while the classical lines of the bookcases gain a sense of fun from the contrasting colours they are painted in. And there is plenty of squashy seating to invite the visitor in, but the relaxed sofa and skirted armchair retain a smartness and a dignity in their outlines.
The detailing in the house is extraordinary; a striped runner runs all through the hallways and corridors of the house in perfect twists and turns, and the windows in these spaces are lined with patterned curtains, again to add warmth. “Often people hurry along hallways to get where they are going,” remarks Carlos, “but here there are areas of interest as you pass through, so you can take your time a little more.” In the entrance hall, bespoke benches provide a place to perch and take off shoes by the huge bay windows, and pretty voile cafe curtains offer privacy while allowing light to enter. The subject matter of the architectural prints in the same space is echoed in the pier mirror, in the lamp in the style of a Corinthian column, and chairs with Gothic detailing, yet again the whole is knocked back by a pretty, chintzy gathered lampshade. The hallway was the scene of Carlos' greatest triumph with colour, having persuaded his client little by little to accept the bolder hue of Edward Bulmer's earthy ‘Trumpington’ on the walls. “Now she says it gives her joy every time she passes through,” he proclaims.
Meanwhile upstairs, Carlos has proved that a busily patterned wallpaper can be the perfect backdrop to a calming, serene bedroom. A relatively small-scale chinoiserie pattern is the focus of the main bedroom and dressing room, but in order to keep things calm, everything else defers to the wallpaper. Soft kilims on the floor lend an informal, casual feel, while the curtains and headboard are done in a plain, neutral linen. Scandinavian-style painted furniture suited the cool atmosphere of the room, and gathered lampshades diffuse the light as evening draws in.
One of the best proofs of an interior designer's success comes when a client ends up using a room more than they initially thought they would, and this has indeed been the case here. “The client told me that originally they would go into the drawing room just every now and then when guests came over, but now they go and sit in the room of their own accord and relax and put the fire on. The room is asking to be used in a certain way, and that's how you know it has worked.”
Watch out for our January issue, which goes on sale on December 1, for another beautiful project by Carlos Garcia. carlosgarciainteriors.com
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Christopher Horwood2/12One of a pair of bespoke bookcases, painted in ‘Chocolate’ and ‘Azurite’, both by Edward Bulmer.
Christopher Horwood3/12A pair of 19th-century French empire walnut fauteuils from Brownrigg are covered in Namay Samay's ‘Gamcha Birch’ with a Samuel & Sons gimp.
Christopher Horwood4/12The walls in the hallway are painted in Edward Bulmer's ‘Trumpington’.
Christopher Horwood5/12Voile curtains in Robert Kime's ‘Marmara’ line the windows in the entrance hall, with a custom-made pole so that the curtains can be pulled smoothly around the generous bay window.
Christopher Horwood6/12A Regency pier mirror is the centrepiece for a collection of architectural prints.
Christopher Horwood7/12A bespoke runner unifies all the corridors. A sitting room at the top of the stairs features cushions by Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler.
Christopher Horwood8/12The curtains on this landing are in Nicole Fabre's ‘Grand Crocus’.
Christopher Horwood9/12The main bedroom is papered in Hamilton Weston's ‘Swakeley’s Chinoiserie’. The chair is the Gustavian ‘Fleur’ design by Georgia Lacey Antiques.
Christopher Horwood10/12The headboard, like the curtains, is made up in Claremont's ‘Milano’ linen in 506.
Christopher Horwood11/12The armhair is upholstered in Claremont's ‘Toile Chenonceau’ in pink with binding and piping in Romo's ‘Launay Hickory’. The cushion is in Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler's ‘Leopard Stripe Brown’ with the same binding.
Christopher Horwood12/12In the dressing room, a rug from Luke Irwin provides a soothing backdrop. The bench is also from Georgia Lacey Antiques, and is covered in Namay Samay's ‘Pankeb Sansam’ in walnut.
