Interior Designer · SW1X, SW1W, SW3, SW7
Interior design in Knightsbridge & Belgravia
Katherine Varnava Interiors is a luxury interior designer for homes and commercial spaces in Knightsbridge & Belgravia. 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 Knightsbridge & Belgravia
Belgravia was laid out from the 1820s by Thomas Cubitt and Thomas Cundy on Grosvenor land, and its stucco terraces, squares and mews remain highly uniform. Knightsbridge is more varied, from small early nineteenth-century houses around leafy squares to large mid-Victorian stucco houses, and it straddles the boundary between Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea, which affects hours and consents.
Belgravia's grander streets are long stuccoed terraces of uniform height with classical detailing, set around squares and crescents, with brick houses with stuccoed ground floors on the entrance streets and mews houses behind. In Knightsbridge there are small-scale houses around squares such as Trevor Square and Montpelier Square and large stucco houses around Princes Gate and Rutland Gate, with over 275 listed buildings in Westminster's Knightsbridge conservation area. Many houses have been divided into lateral and duplex apartments, while others are being returned to single homes. Interior work typically involves restoring formal reception rooms, reworking service floors and basements, and fitting kitchens, bathrooms and joinery within listed or estate-controlled buildings.
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 SW1X, SW1W, SW3, SW7, including streets such as Eaton Square, Belgrave Square, Chester Square, Wilton Crescent and Montpelier Square.
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Before you start in Knightsbridge & Belgravia
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.
The Belgravia Scheme of Management, approved by the High Court on 5 December 1973, says the owner may not cut or alter internal load-bearing walls or timbers, or change the external appearance, without previous written consent (Clause 17). This means a freehold Belgravia house can need Grosvenor's consent for an interior remodel, in addition to planning permission or listed building consent.Source: grosvenor.com
Westminster's guide to the Belgravia conservation area, first designated in 1968 and extended in 1990, records about 500 listed buildings, mostly Grade II, with properties around Belgrave Square mostly Grade I. Because listing protects interiors as well as facades, listed building consent is a routine part of interior projects here.Source: westminster.gov.uk
Grosvenor's London Estate Contractors' Obligations set tighter hours for Eaton Square: 8.30am to 5.30pm on weekdays and no works of any kind on Saturdays. Elsewhere on the estate the rule is 8am to 6pm on weekdays and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays with no noisy works.Source: grosvenor.com
Long leaseholders on the Cadogan estate may need a Licence to Alter before any alteration; Cadogan says the lease decides what is allowed and some leases prohibit alterations entirely. Its June 2023 guidelines allow hard floors only where the lease permits them, subject to acoustic testing before and after installation.Source: cadogan.co.uk
Westminster's normal working hours are 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 1pm on Saturday; Sundays and bank holidays are outside them. Work outside these hours needs a Section 61 prior consent application made at least 28 days ahead.Source: westminster.gov.uk
In the Royal Borough noisy works are allowed 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and not at all on Saturdays, Sundays or bank holidays, so programmes for western Knightsbridge need to allow for no Saturday working.Source: rbkc.gov.uk
Questions
Interior design in Knightsbridge & Belgravia
Can I take down an internal wall in my Belgravia house?
Possibly, but if the wall is load-bearing and the house is within Grosvenor's Belgravia scheme, Clause 17 requires Grosvenor's prior written consent before it is cut or altered. That consent is separate from planning and, for a listed house, listed building consent. We establish early which walls are structural so the layout can be tested with Grosvenor's building surveyors before detailed design.Source: grosvenor.com
Can I have timber or stone floors in a Cadogan flat in Knightsbridge?
Only if your lease permits hard flooring. Cadogan's June 2023 Licence to Alter guidelines require sound tests to BS EN ISO 16283 before works in each area to receive hard floors, set 43dB airborne and 64dB impact as the Building Regulations benchmark, and give existing carpet performance precedence where it is better. If later tests fail, the estate can require carpet and underlay to be reinstated.Source: cadogan.co.uk
How do we suspend a parking bay for deliveries in Belgravia?
Westminster suspensions are booked online, where you can check which bays are available on a map and pay by card. The council needs 10 working days' notice and charges per space per day, with the daily rate rising for longer suspensions and varying by zone. We book suspensions for large deliveries, such as joinery and stone, well ahead of installation dates.Source: westminster.gov.uk
Do you take on single rooms as well as whole houses in Knightsbridge & Belgravia?
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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