AD100 Designer Pierre Yovanovitch Revives an Arts and Crafts Home in London
The client knew exactly what she wanted: not too many floors. High ceilings. Lots of light. And a south-facing garden. Her husband had two requests: a small hammam and a swimming pool in the garden.It was a tall order for a family home in central London, but eventually they found it—an unassuming but generously proportioned Arts and Crafts property nestled on a quiet street in Chelsea, the once-bohemian enclave turned posh residential district. After glimpsing the overgrown gardens—now planted with climbing honeysuckles, hedges, maples, and magnolias by the Natural Gardening Company—and a yard just big enough to carve out a narrow, stone-lined lap pool, they were sold."When you look out the window, you almost feel like you're in the country," says the wife of the home she shares with her husband—they're both globe-trotting businesspeople—and two teenage daughters. "We woke up one morning and found ducks swimming in the pool. "That feeling of the countryside...