A Notting Hill Duplex Pairs Art and Victorian Architecture
Tucked behind a pillarbox-red door on one of Notting Hill’s most storied streets, a white-stuccoed Victorian townhouse holds a creative secret.
Once the home and studio of celebrated poster artist John Hassall, the building’s artistic lineage finds fresh expression today in a luminous 1,500-square-foot duplex designed and lived in by Amanda Hoyle, founder of Sey Studios.
Drawing inspiration from Notting Hill’s enduring creative spirit, Hoyle has reimagined the Victorian framework with a distinctly modern hand.
Guided by a curated collection of works from emerging and female-identifying artists, she approached the renovation as both an aesthetic and conceptual exercise, treating art not as decoration, but as the soul of the design.
The result is a profoundly personal home that blends intimacy with sophistication, earning international attention, including a feature in Architectural Digest Italy.
The ground floor opens into a serene, art-led living space that celebrates its period bones. High ceilings, delicately restored cornicing, and a statement ceiling rose ground the room in its Victorian heritage.
Against this architectural backdrop, Farrow & Ball’s ‘Pointing’ offers a gentle, contemporary neutrality.
A vivid painting by Philip Maltman, titled XIX3, became the chromatic compass for the scheme. Its saturated reds, greens, and blues echoing in the original fireplace tiles and the bespoke commission that now anchors the living room.
Those same tones ripple through the space, resurfacing in the robin’s egg blue dining nook at the back of the plan, wrapped in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Kittiwake’.
A plush velvet sofa, artworks by Alba Hodsoll, and a discreetly integrated Samsung Frame TV complete the artful mise en scène.
The herringbone flooring continues seamlessly into the kitchen, where rustic charm meets modern precision. Cream cabinetry and a custom-stained oak butcher block counter evoke a quiet warmth, while softly veined porcelain and Miele, Bosch, and ILVE appliances bring function into elegant focus.
From the blue dining nook with a custom-built-in bench, you have views of St Peter’s Church through stained-glass windows. Soho Home’s Elba chandelier hangs above the table.
The apartment’s three bedrooms and two bathrooms are located on the lower ground floor.
Downstairs, the tone softens. Two bedrooms unfold with an emphasis on tactile calm and curated detail.
In the principal suite, marble-topped bedside tables and patterned upholstery sit against pale, light-reflecting walls. Floor-to-ceiling glass doors lead onto a private patio garden, filling the room with natural light.
The guest bedroom, decorated in green tones, continues the narrative of natural textures and curated art.
The smallest room is turned into a home office with built-in furniture. The walls are painted in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Setting Plaster’, a sophisticated blush hue inspired by a bold, feminine work by Alli Pilli.
One of the bathrooms is designed using Victorian-style tilework, a dark aubergine vanity paired with brass fittings, and the Wee Thistle Wallpaper by Lucie Annabel.
The duplex apartment is listed for sale at Domus Nova.
