Taylor Howes Q&A

We had been in our previous atelier for over 14 years and the team has been growing over the years. We finally needed to make the move! It had previously been an Aston Martin car showroom and workshop, so there was considerable design and build[ing] work to turn it into our current studio. It was a year in the process but worth it.

So the brief I gave the team (nice to be the client for a change) was to demonstrate all of the suppliers and finishes we work with on our projects on the ground floor, as it is invaluable for our clients to see the quality and originality of craftsmanship that we produce. The lower ground floor is where the real hard work happens as the majority of the admin and design team are based down there and as it had been a workshop before, we wanted to keep that slightly industrial look – the contrast works really well.

I love things that have detail and embellishment and we are always looking for fabulous new finishes, so we work with a series of artisans and workshops to create truly unique pieces.

Sadly we can’t tell you much! A lot of our clients like to remain under the radar. But what I can say was that it was 86,000 sq ft and we were involved in the Orangery and the design of an amazing Olympic-sized pool and spa.

One of our most memorable projects was the church conversion that we did with Rigby & Rigby about 3 years ago now. It was a real challenge both in terms of keeping elements of the church whilst creating a fabulous family home in the heart of Central London. It is an award-winning project that we are very proud of. We are also very proud that our clients keep coming back to us. We finished, last year, the third project for one family in the South of France and we are currently doing four projects worldwide for another. We love building relationships as much as homes.

We have done projects in the Middle East, Africa as well as obviously Europe. We love travelling so we don’t stick restrictions on anything.

We have been designing apartments for St George up and down the river for 15 years and whilst Taylor Howes were working on the base specification and the penthouses, a lot of purchasers were purchasing smaller apartments that did not necessarily require a bespoke approach, so Gail Taylor, Sheila El Hadery and I set up TH2 which is a purely furnishing solution for private clients, developers and some of the large landlords such as Grosvenor Estates and The Crown. The growing team at TH2 are both talented and passionate and have a fabulous studio based at Chelsea Harbour.

Don’t design one room at a time. Even if you can’t afford to do it all, design it as though you [can] – that way you will have a cohesive scheme that flows. Also, remember scale and proportion.

We are thrilled to have been instructed on four new show apartments at One Kensington. We did the original show flats and marketing suite, which sold straight away, and we are currently completing a number in the development for private clients. We have just finished three show apartments which are about to be launched in Park Crescent [and] a fabulous beach house in Abu Dhabi. Two 18,000 sq ft houses in St Johns Wood that will be finished this year – we have about 30 projects on the go at various stages in the design studio.
 
We are working on the draft of our first book [and] we have just launched the Business of Design. We have designed more lights to be incorporated into our range with Urban Electric and, as I mentioned before, we are prototyping our first range of furniture. So a busy year ahead.