Interior Designer · W4
Interior design in Chiswick
Katherine Varnava Interiors is a luxury interior designer for homes and commercial spaces in Chiswick. A BIID Registered Interior Designer® studio based in Mayfair, London, it offers full interior design, technical design and bespoke joinery, FF&E procurement and a single design-and-build service, with Katherine personally involved in every project.
Homes in Chiswick
Chiswick runs from the Thames-side houses of Chiswick Mall and Strand on the Green to Bedford Park, the Queen Anne Revival suburb begun in 1875. Many of its period houses are listed, so interior work here often starts by establishing what is protected inside the building as well as outside.
Hounslow's appraisals describe Old Chiswick as largely Georgian, with most houses on Chiswick Mall dating from the late eighteenth century and built in brown brick with sash windows. Bedford Park was built from 1875 to designs by E.W. Godwin, Richard Norman Shaw and E.J. May, in a Queen Anne Revival idiom of red brick, tile-hung gables and white-painted bays. Grove Park, the Duke of Devonshire's estate, mixes 1870s Italianate terraces and villas with Queen Anne houses of around 1900 and interwar homes and moderne flats from the 1930s. Interior projects here tend to involve careful replanning of period rooms, new kitchens and bathrooms that respect surviving fabric, and joinery and lighting that work with original fireplaces, cornices and window shutters.
How the studio works
Every project, from a single room to a whole house or a commercial space, follows the same five-stage, RIBA-aligned journey: Define, Develop, Resolve, Deliver and Complete. The studio works alongside your architect and contractor, or delivers a single design-and-build service from concept to completion.
- Full interior design, from a single room to a whole house
- Interior architecture and spatial planning
- Technical design and bespoke joinery
- Lighting design
- FF&E design, procurement and installation
- Commercial interiors
- Design and build, or alongside your architect and contractor
The studio takes on projects across W4, including streets such as Bedford Park, Chiswick Mall, Strand on the Green, Grove Park and Church Street.
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Before you start in Chiswick
The consents and local rules that most often shape an interior project here, each linked to its official source. The studio checks them for your property at the start, so they are planned into the design and the programme.
Hounslow's Bedford Park Conservation Area Appraisal records that the surviving buildings of the original suburb were listed at Grade II in 1967, and that listed status requires attention to internal character and fabric. It identifies the removal of interior walls and the loss of chimneys as harmful pressures. An Article 4(2) Direction made on 24 July 2001 also controls design details on unlisted buildings. The west side of Woodstock Road and The Avenue fall within Ealing rather than Hounslow.Source: hounslow.gov.uk
The Old Chiswick Conservation Area Appraisal (updated January 2020) states that statutory listing covers the whole building, internally and externally, and warns that brief early list descriptions should not be read as meaning interiors lack significance. It says most alterations need listed building consent apart from small like-for-like essential repairs. It also advises that historic timber windows can often be repaired rather than replaced and does not recommend uPVC.Source: hounslow.gov.uk
Hounslow has 29 conservation areas. The council states that alterations to a listed building, within or outside a conservation area, will always require listed building consent, and that Article 4 directions in the Gunnersbury and Bedford Park conservation areas restrict works that would otherwise be permitted development on unlisted buildings.Source: hounslow.gov.uk
Hounslow Council lists construction and building work hours as Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm and Saturday 8am to 1pm, with no noisy work on Sundays or bank holidays. Dispensations can sometimes be granted.Source: hounslow.gov.uk
Residents and businesses can apply to suspend a parking space for building or maintenance works, house moves or a skip, at least ten working days in advance. One on-street space for one day costs £25 plus a £40 administration fee, and a skip permit needs an approved bay suspension first.Source: hounslow.gov.uk
Questions
Interior design in Chiswick
Our Bedford Park house is listed. Can we still open up the ground floor?
It needs listed building consent and a strong justification. Hounslow's Bedford Park appraisal says listed status requires attention to internal character and fabric, and it names interior wall removal and the loss of chimneys as harmful pressures on the area. We start with a survey of the original plan and fittings, then design changes that keep the historic room structure legible, and agree the scheme with the council's conservation team before work begins.Source: hounslow.gov.uk
Should we repair or replace the old windows in a listed house on Chiswick Mall?
Repair is usually expected. The Old Chiswick appraisal says historic timber windows can often be repaired rather than replaced, that repair is usually better value over a building's life, and that uPVC is not recommended. Most alterations to listed buildings there need consent beyond small like-for-like repairs. We coordinate window repair, secondary glazing options and shutter work with the interior scheme so the room and the joinery are designed together.Source: hounslow.gov.uk
What hours can builders work on a Chiswick project?
Hounslow Council lists 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 1pm on Saturday for construction and building work, with no noisy work on Sundays or bank holidays, although dispensations can be granted in some circumstances. We sequence noisy trades such as strip-out, chasing and stone cutting inside those hours and agree quieter finishing work with neighbours where terraces share party walls.Source: hounslow.gov.uk
Do you take on single rooms as well as whole houses in Chiswick?
Yes. Projects range from a single room, which can also be designed remotely through the Virtual Studio, to whole-house refurbishments, new builds and commercial spaces. Every project follows the same five-stage, RIBA-aligned process: Define, Develop, Resolve, Deliver and Complete.
Can you manage the build as well as the design?
Yes. The studio can work alongside your architect and contractor, providing contractor coordination and design oversight on site, or deliver a single design-and-build service that takes the project from concept to completion.
Will Katherine be involved personally?
Yes. Katherine Varnava, a BIID Registered Interior Designer®, leads every project herself. The studio takes on a deliberately limited number of projects each year so that she stays involved in every detail, from concept to completion.
Updated 17 October 2026
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