Villa Sanctuary

The garden is treated as another edge of the room. Slim glazing holds the view, and the furniture sits back far enough to leave a route along it. A timber roof and pale plaster bring warmth to the larger volume without filling the walls with decoration.

Villa Sanctuary is an imagined residential study in Richmond, London. Its rooms and images explore a design proposition; they are not evidence of a built renovation or a real client’s home.

The concept puts the kitchen near the garden-facing living space, with a small breakfast table beside the glazing. Pale oak gives the cabinets a domestic scale, and limestone connects the working surfaces to the floor. A person can cook, read or sit outside without each activity taking over the whole room.

The bedroom draws the palette back further. Linen, timber and the changing light do most of the work. Storage is placed where it can be useful without becoming the main thing to look at from the bed.

Deep window reveals make a place for a bench; a lamp and a small table turn a corner into somewhere to read. The selection of objects is deliberately short, leaving the texture of the plaster and the garden shadows visible.

The bathroom uses honed stone and oak rather than a separate decorative scheme. The same family of materials changes character as the light moves through the house, giving each room its own pace.