"This House is Not a Cookie-Cutter Space" — How Focusing on Wellbeing Brought Character Back Into This Renovated London Townhouse

Creating this forever home was about breaking rules, building trust and focusing on the power of soft, subtle textures

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Compilation of house images
(Image credit: Vigo Jansons and Yolande De Vries)

"We made some controversial decisions with the space," says Bee Janaye, the 29-year-old founder of up-and-coming design studio Janaye. Bee had been instructed to reconfigure a four-storey London townhouse (in collaboration with an architecture practice) that had previously been divided into four separate apartments into a modern home for one family.

And with the client keen for a "deeply personal forever home", says Bee, she was free from the constraints of designing for resale.

Cream living room with burgundy painted shelves either side of alcove, wood coffee table, marble fireplace and brass mirror

Designer Bee Janaye was the mind behind this home’s makeover. Here, standout shapes, beautiful materials, and a colorful artwork make this neutral space anything but typical. The room connects to a study and can be sectioned off with pocket doors. (Image credit: Vigo Jansons and Yolande De Vries)

For starters, the largest bedroom in the house, located on the first floor, was converted into a home gym. Another bedroom was sacrificed on the top floor in order to get one main suite with a large bathroom and a walk-through dressing area.

"That bathroom has a walk-in shower and freestanding bath — with space to move around," explains Bee Janaye.

Cream dining room with oak table, pink velvet dining chairs and green glass chandelier

The dining table is the heart of this home, and it extends to a vast size so that friends and family can gather around. (Image credit: Vigo Jansons and Yolande De Vries)

Perhaps most radically, the utility room was moved to the top floor and concealed behind a mirrored door, which has proved far more practical for putting away clothing.

"This house is not a cookie-cutter space; instead, it’s designed around improving the client’s life," Bee explains. "People are shifting their mindsets around interiors and starting to invest in homes that are good for their wellbeing."

Green Shaker-style kitchen with dark wood herringbone floor and white stone island countertop

"This basement room was always going to be a more cocooning, grounded space — deep, dark, and atmospheric," says Bee. "It opens out into a stunning garden, so we leant into the natural tones and textures of the exterior." (Image credit: Vigo Jansons and Yolande De Vries)

Given the property’s fragmented past, there was work to do to create a sense of cohesion. The starting point and design thread throughout was the use of encaustic tiles. Bee’s client was "very specific" about wanting them "everywhere".

Inspired by her travels in South America, she loved their chalky, worn-in feel. The pattern of an encaustic tile is inlaid, rather than stamped onto the surface, "but they’re high maintenance," says Bee. "They stain easily, and they’re hard to lay."

Office with burgundy built-in shelving and portrait

"This space started with the artwork, which is part of Babajide Olatunji’s A Series of Scarves," says Bee. "It felt right to envelop the joinery in this deep aubergine tone, which brings out the warmth in the portrait." (Image credit: Vigo Jansons and Yolande De Vries)

It was an inspired choice, though — after designing the tiles from scratch ("based on the client’s references"), Bee ran them throughout the ground-floor hallway ("It draws your eye through the home," she says), as well as most of the bathrooms.

And with their "subtle aesthetic", they lend "a balance of softness" to the stronger design elements in the house.

Cream fireplace with pink and brown encaustic floor tiles

"The entrance is one of my favourite parts of the house — it’s got this unexpected grandeur, thanks to its length and flow," says Bee. "The encaustic tiles sweep you through the space." (Image credit: Vigo Jansons and Yolande De Vries)

There was also the client’s statement artworks to place. With this other strong element brought into the design, Bee added calm, neutral colors, "to let these two forces speak for themselves and ensure that the rest of the scheme really melts into it".

Bathroom with fluted shower screen, pink and green encaustic tiles and dark brown vanity

"I see this room as a pause in the design story," says Bee. "It’s a tropical, tactile, exploratory space where we deliberately mixed metals and materials to keep the eye moving." (Image credit: Vigo Jansons and Yolande De Vries)

The client also wanted dark timber flooring and pale walls, referencing her time spent in Latin America and the Caribbean.

"It’s warm, grounded, and full of personal meaning," says Bee, who opted for a "dark chocolate" herringbone flooring inlaid with brass. "It feels like this golden thread running through the house, and it allowed us to switch up the vibe."

Brown bedroom with white fireplace and figurative artwork

"This is the only space where we went truly dark, enveloping it in a deep, embracing tone that has a sort of weighted-blanket effect," says Bee. "The client calls it their sanctuary." (Image credit: Vigo Jansons and Yolande De Vries)

However, there was also some client pushback — so, initially, it was "absolutely not" to aubergine paint for the living room joinery. The client was also opposed to the bronze glass screen for the main en suite, but "these things have turned out to be her favorite elements, because they bring so much character," says Bee.

"We spend a lot of time getting to know our clients and telling them that this is actually about them, and not about trends," Bee adds. "When you’ve shown a client that level of care about who they are and their story, I think it just innately makes them trust you."

Fleur Britten
Contributor

Fleur Britten is a well-respected journalist who for years was the Senior Features Editor at Sunday Times Style. She is known as one of the smartest lifestyle journalists around, revered for being able to decode trends and report on new zeitgeists as they happen. She now writes for the Telegraph, Livingetc, Vogue, The Times, Harper's Bazaar and the Guardian.