{"id":2993,"date":"2025-07-01T16:48:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T08:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/2025\/07\/01\/mark-lewiss-neo-victorian-london-the-designers-inspired-reinvention-of-his-familys-own-quarters\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T16:48:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T08:48:22","slug":"mark-lewiss-neo-victorian-london-the-designers-inspired-reinvention-of-his-familys-own-quarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/th\/mark-lewiss-neo-victorian-london-the-designers-inspired-reinvention-of-his-familys-own-quarters\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0e25\u0e2d\u0e19\u0e14\u0e2d\u0e19\u0e22\u0e38\u0e04\u0e27\u0e34\u0e01\u0e15\u0e2d\u0e40\u0e23\u0e35\u0e22\u0e43\u0e2b\u0e21\u0e48\u0e02\u0e2d\u0e07\u0e21\u0e32\u0e23\u0e4c\u0e04 \u0e25\u0e39\u0e2d\u0e34\u0e2a: \u0e01\u0e32\u0e23\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e49\u0e32\u0e07\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e23\u0e04\u0e4c\u0e43\u0e2b\u0e21\u0e48\u0e17\u0e35\u0e48\u0e44\u0e14\u0e49\u0e23\u0e31\u0e1a\u0e41\u0e23\u0e07\u0e1a\u0e31\u0e19\u0e14\u0e32\u0e25\u0e43\u0e08\u0e02\u0e2d\u0e07\u0e19\u0e31\u0e01\u0e2d\u0e2d\u0e01\u0e41\u0e1a\u0e1a\u0e15\u0e48\u0e2d\u0e1e\u0e37\u0e49\u0e19\u0e17\u0e35\u0e48\u0e02\u0e2d\u0e07\u0e04\u0e23\u0e2d\u0e1a\u0e04\u0e23\u0e31\u0e27\u0e15\u0e19\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e07"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Back when we first met Mark Lewis, he had recently left a career as a set and costume designer to open his North London interiors firm. That was several years ago and since then we\u2019ve avidly followed his many adventures, from inventing a historic Hoxton loft out of whole cloth to introducing his own line of cast-bronze shelf brackets, drawer pulls, and broom hooks. But we\u2019ve never been invited to see his own place\u2014until now.<\/p>\n

Mark lives with his partner, Abi Leland, who works in the music business, and their children, James, 10, and Olive, 5, in a three-story Victorian row house in Highgate that had been converted into a trio of apartments in the sixties. And though he says he never wanted to be a serial remodeler, the place has undergone three progressions since they bought the garden floor nearly 10 years ago. Initially, they cleared space in their one-bedroom flat by turning the bathroom into James\u2019s room (\u201cwe put a bath in our room to make it work.\u201d). Along the way they petitioned to add an extension onto the side yard, and when permission was granted three years later, they added a new living and dining area to the setup. Then, in 2015, they bought the upstairs flat and rented it out while searching for the loft Abi envisioned as their next step.<\/p>\n

Short on possibilities near their kids\u2019 schools, Mark hit upon the idea of carving out a lofty living space himself by taking over their second floor. The family moved into a small rental, and over the course of eight months, Mark came up with a remarkable new look and feel for their place. It was a major undertaking done inventively and often frugally: Mark is a master upcycler. And as with all of his work, it\u2019s hard to tell what\u2019s old and what\u2019s new.<\/p>\n

\u0e20\u0e32\u0e1e\u0e16\u0e48\u0e32\u0e22\u0e42\u0e14\u0e22 Rory Gardiner, \u0e14\u0e49\u0e27\u0e22\u0e04\u0e27\u0e32\u0e21\u0e2d\u0e19\u0e38\u0e40\u0e04\u0e23\u0e32\u0e30\u0e2b\u0e4c\u0e08\u0e32\u0e01 Mark Lewis Interior Design.<\/p>\n


Above: A Clearview wood stove serves as the focal point of the snug living room\u2014\u201dyou have to have something to stare at,\u201d says Mark. He used surplus Moroccan tiles from another project on the stove wall: they\u2019re flipped back to front, so the textured, unglazed side is exposed: \u201cI was already spending all the money I have in the world on this flat, so this was a case of using what I had.\u201d <\/p>\n

The built-in multipurpose shelving includes a row of painted apple crates, one for each member of the family: \u201cthey\u2019re where all that nonsense that comes home from school goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Above: The space has a sloping open ceiling featuring one of the four skylights Mark added to brighten the main level (scroll down to see an exterior view of the extension). That\u2019s the new glazed pantry next to the armchair, a 1980s Heal\u2019s design passed down by Abi\u2019s father.
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Above: Mark and Olive make use of the bay window seat he built into the dining half of the extension. The Upton Ribbed Glass Pendant is by Fritz Fryer, a favorite lighting source of Mark\u2019s.
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Above: The brick is the old garden wall. Mark fitted six drawers under the window seat for storing arts and crafts supplies. The Victorian Cast-Iron Radiators throughout are reproductions\u2014\u201dthey\u2019re such good quality now,\u201d says Mark\u2014from the Period House Store.
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Above: Mark\u2019s big move: he sacrificed what would have been a guest bedroom and bath on the second floor to create a dramatic lofty kitchen with \u201cchurch-like triptych windows.\u201d,<\/p>\n

The standing shelf for cookbooks is built from \u201cmarled steel flat bars\u2014something like \u00a320 for six meters\u201d\u2014and leftover floorboards. \u201cOf course we had to hire a fabricator but it didn\u2019t cost the earth,\u201d says Mark.<\/p>\n


Above: Mark always designs kitchens in a single line\u2014\u201dwhen you turn a corner, they look like fitted kitchens, which feels wrong in a period house.\u201d All of the cabinetry was built for the space and the fridge is set in a paneled box tucked under the new back stair (the existing front stair is shared with the occupants of the third floor). Note the new mezzanine on the second floor landing.
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Above: The cabinets are raised on little legs to make them furniture-like. They\u2019re painted (Mark mixes his own shades) and then finished with wax for an aged look. The cast-bronze pulls are Jake Handles from the Mark Lewis Home Store. <\/p>\n

Mark is a brand loyalist: he sources kitchenware for himself and clients from the Conran Shop, kitchen sinks from Shaws, faucets from Aston Matthews, and simple sconces from Urban Cottage Industries.<\/p>\n


Above: The range and hood are by Smeg. The floating shelves are concrete\u2014\u201dyou make molds and put reinforced bars into the walls, then pour them in place.\u201d,<\/p>\n

For a textured finish on the walls, Mark opted for lime plaster: \u201cit can\u2019t be applied to modern plaster, so we went back to the brickwork and then added the lime plaster in layers ending with hand sponging. (See Expert Advice: 7 Ways to Use Lime Plaster.) The distressed oak Wide Plank Flooring is from Havwoods.<\/p>\n


Above: The side extension and new double-height kitchen viewed from the back terrace.
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Above: The new back stair is situated at the end of the kitchen opposite the pantry.
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Above: All of the family\u2019s dry goods are kept here. Mark reports that since this was photographed, they\u2019ve gone package-free thanks to Fair-Well, a new North London delivery service that offers bulk staples, from pasta and cereal to laundry soap and shampoo: \u201cI just book a visit and carry my jars out to their little truck.\u201d
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Above: Mark designed the stair to take up as little space as possible. Like the cookbook shelves, it has blackened steel railings with brass screws: \u201cthey\u2019re vintage screws from an amazing screw-monger called Screws Line. You call up Andy, he\u2019s a font of knowledge. We spend a lot getting the right screws.\u201d,<\/p>\n

Under the stair is a pullout trash bin and painted crates used to hold recycling<\/p>\n


Above: Set at the Victorian front of the house on the main floor, Mark and Abi\u2019s bedroom was given a new guise thanks to Robert Kime wallpaper in a pattern called Karabak Sand. The slim door pull is the Gareth Handle from Mark\u2019s shop.
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Above: The Carved Bed is from Soho Home. The bedside shelf sits on Mark\u2019s own Strong Boy Bronze Brackets.
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Above: The kids\u2019 former bedroom became the parents\u2019 en suite bath\u2014with a working fireplace. The cast-iron tub is the Epoca from Aston Matthews. The frosted window looks into the WC.
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Above: A marble-topped vanity with Aston Matthews sink and wall-mounted brass faucets.,

Above: The WC is a patchwork of patterns: \u201cit\u2019s got salvaged tiles on the floor, the house\u2019s original brick, what had been external tiling, and the wood cladding is our old kitchen floor.\u201d
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Above: Upstairs, James has a large new bedroom painted a soothing gray and lit with bulkhead lights: \u201cI do a lot of wall lights versus a single pendant,\u201d says Mark. \u201cI find it much more relaxing this way than having a central light.\u201d <\/p>\n

The headboard, like the WC cladding, was made from the kitchen\u2019s original floorboards.<\/p>\n


Above: Olive\u2019s new cottage-style room has built-in bunks set far enough apart so that \u201cwhen one of the grannies stays, they can sleep on the bottom bed and not bang their head. It\u2019s an adult-safe space.\u201d Her wallpaper is Gilly Flower Blue from Robert Kime. <\/p>\n

The pillow on the top bunk is one of many that Mark made from his mother\u2019s old William Morris curtains. Of his transition from creating sets for commercials to home design, he says, \u201cBuilding something only to tear it down weeks later was depressing, what I do now is soul food.\u201d<\/p>\n

More Mark Lewis projects:<\/p>\n