Artist Yvonne Ayoub poured her heart and soul into renovating this London townhouse, and found a unique way to put her personal stamp on its décor
Sometimes the right house picks the wrong moment. Certainly, this elegant London townhouse couldn’t have made its appearance at a less opportune time. The paint had barely dried on the huge renovation Yvonne Ayoub and her late-husband Farouk had just completed, yet they decided to start all over again.
‘I was just unpacking the last of our belongings when Farouk told me he’d spotted a “better” house just five minutes’ away,’ says Yvonne.
The newcomer was a Grade-II listed, fivestorey, late-Georgian home: so far, so similar, but that short walk took them out of noisy Paddington into a quieter spot overlooking Hyde Park.
‘It was daunting to begin another renovation,’ says Yvonne, ‘but I was excited. I cut my teeth on the previous house and I had a file of contacts to call on for all the jobs that needed to be done.’
There was no shortage of work either. ‘The previous owner stripped it of all its character. There were deep-pile carpets everywhere, and all the finishes were mirrored, marbled or solid gold, recalls Yvonne. However, the problems ran deeper than the house’s décor. ‘It was collapsing. It’s in the middle of a terrace and the houses on the side were pressing in on the party walls, causing the floors to buckle to a ‘V’ in the middle.’
This meant stripping the building to the brick and starting again. Every floor was removed across the full width of the building, and RSJs inserted to strengthen it. ‘All that was left was a staircase – you could see up to the roof,’ recalls Yvonne.
Once the floors were back in, they started to reinstate the period detailing, consulting The Georgian Group to get the details right. The intricate plaster mouldings and cornices were recreated to match those Yvonne found when researching authentic period details for the house. It was this attention to detail, alongside Yvonne’s creativity, that helped this London townhouse to earn the ti
