Colville Terrace is a lower-ground refurbishment in Notting Hill, conceived as a calm, restorative retreat for a private client—set just moments from the energy of Portobello Market. The design centres on maximising natural light and refining the existing plan to create a quieter, more balanced sequence of spaces.

A carefully curated palette of complementary materials and textures supports the project’s atmosphere: warm, tactile, and deliberately understated. The result is a private hide-away that feels composed and restorative, while remaining closely connected to its vibrant urban context.

In the kitchen, the scheme is conceived as a standalone piece of architectural joinery – integrated, reflective and picking up the tones and colours of the garden and time of day. A warm, tonal palette of timber and soft matt finishes is carried across cabinetry, panels and adjacent built-ins that link the rooms together so the kitchen reads as part of the wider envelope, not a separate intervention. The surrounding joinery is detailed with flush lines, minimal junctions and concealed storage, creating a continuous backdrop that emphasises texture over contrast and supports the project’s overall restorative mood.

The language of the project is tied together by a series of soft, curving arches—each doorway formed as a gentle portal that subtly slows movement and frames views between rooms. These arched openings are echoed within the joinery itself, where curved “cut-through” portals and rounded reveals are carved into the built-in elements, creating moments of depth, shadow and connection. Rather than feeling decorative, the arches become a unifying architectural device: they temper the geometry of the plan, reinforce the home’s calm tone, and give the circulation a distinctive, rhythmic sequence of threshold moments.