The art of curation: an elegant Kensington home

Rebecca Willer has elegantly dedicated her professional life to curating modern art and design, so it should come as no surprise that she took the same exacting approach to the aesthetic of her own home. 

Rebecca, who runs the Willer art gallery, has sympathetically modernised and enlarged a 300-year-old Georgian home in Holland Street, Kensington, creating an elegant backdrop for her collection of furnishings and art. But now she and her husband, Robert, a retired barrister, have decided that “age and stage” means they need to bid farewell to the 4,000 sq ft house they share with their Italian Spinone dog, Gina. 

The House on Holland Street 

When they bought the Holland Street house in 2002, they saw it as the perfect space to share with their university age children. “I was looking for somewhere we could all have our own private spaces but still get together as a family,” Rebecca explains. 

A basement level with its own private entrance for one son, a garden annexe for the other, and a main house where they could be together – Holland Street ticked many boxes. “We had brilliant spaces to be together when wanted – mostly revolving around food – but could be very private when wanted too,” says Rebecca. 

The house was in good condition when the Willers moved in, but Rebecca always knew its layout and design could be improved. After living in and getting to know the house the couple embarked on obtaining permission to make changes. 

An “aberration of a pastiche Victorian conservatory” was replaced with a more elegant glass and Corten steel extension which opens out onto the courtyard garden. A stainless steel, brass and microcement kitchen continues the luxe industrial theme. 

On the top floor, the roof space was exposed. “This added many feet to the height of the rooms and turned a dark rabbit warren of spaces, where my tall sons had to stoop, into a very light and airy series of rooms.”  The basement was reconfigured to add plenty of storage and service areas, including a second kitchen and a stunning wine cellar. 

Beyond the main house was a 1970s-built annexe, which family members derisively referred to as ‘the shed’. It was replaced by a stylish three-storey annexe with a library and home cinema in a new basement level, an open-plan kitchen and reception room, and a bedroom with en suite. 

The home’s interior design 

As a design expert, Rebecca wanted the house’s interiors to act as a simple backdrop. This meant using a restricted, but carefully chosen palette of materials – reclaimed floorboards and hardware, rare marble, bespoke metal lights and bare plaster walls. “Paramount throughout was the choice of materials that would patinate and age over time,” she says. 

The spaces Rebecca loves most in her home include the light, airy and “beautifully proportioned” drawing room, with its mix of modern and vintage furniture, as well as the dramatically high ceilings and rusted steel shelves of books in the library. 

Having completed the work to her satisfaction Rebecca is sad at the prospect of moving on, but confident the decision is the right one. “After having spent a short but lovely time in the house we’ve come to realise that what we created was in fact perfect for the previous phase of our lives,” she says. 

“I’m sure there are aspects we’ll miss, but I hope to compensate for those with other new attractions in our next homes – including, I hope, a donkey in the country.” 

18 Holland Street is for sale with a guide price of £9,750,000.  

For further information please contact james.pace@knightfrank.com