Interior Designer · WD3
Interior design in Rickmansworth & Chorleywood
Katherine Varnava Interiors is a luxury interior designer for homes and commercial spaces in Rickmansworth & Chorleywood. 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 Rickmansworth & Chorleywood
Rickmansworth is a historic market town with a medieval core, Georgian houses and Victorian terraces, while Chorleywood grew around its common and the Metropolitan Railway, with Arts and Crafts houses influenced by C F A Voysey, who built his own home, The Orchard, on Shire Lane. Moor Park adds a private estate of large houses with its own covenants.
Rickmansworth's conservation area includes The Feathers, a fifteenth century timber-framed hall house on Church Street, Basing House of 1740, a largely nineteenth century High Street and Victorian terraces on Talbot Road and Norfolk Road. Chorleywood Station Estate has 203 houses, about 80 per cent Victorian or Edwardian, with steep gables, stained glass and porthole windows in Voysey's Arts and Crafts manner; Voysey's own house, The Orchard (1899 to 1900), is listed grade I. Moor Park's houses date from the 1920s and 1930s to the 1950s and sit in spacious plots. Interior projects range from sensitive work in listed and Arts and Crafts houses to complete refits of large detached family homes.
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 WD3, including streets such as High Street, Church Street, Bury Lane, Shire Lane and Haddon Road.
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Before you start in Rickmansworth & Chorleywood
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.
Historic England states that listing status covers the entire building, inside and out, and that works needing listed building consent can include internal alterations as well as replacement windows. Consent is needed for any change that might affect the building's character as a building of special interest, and carrying out unauthorised works to a listed building is a criminal offence.Source: historicengland.org.uk
Three Rivers states that an Article 4(2) direction applies in Chorleywood Common conservation area, so residents must apply for planning permission for alterations to windows, chimneys, front boundaries and hardstanding that were previously allowed without permission.Source: threerivers.gov.uk
The Moor Park (1958) Ltd residents' handbook states that under the covenants on all Moor Park properties the Company's approval is required before any building works, separate from planning permission. Work may not start until a building levy has been paid and written consent granted, and builders' vehicles and materials are to be kept within the property.Source: moorpark1958.co.uk
Rickmansworth was designated a conservation area in 1974. The July 2025 draft of its updated Character Appraisal and Management Plan records 25 designated heritage assets, all grade II listed, notes that many houses retain timber sash windows, and treats replacing uPVC windows on positive buildings and reinstating traditional shopfronts as beneficial.Source: moderngov.threerivers.gov.uk
Three Rivers District Council limits noisy work on construction and demolition sites to 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 1pm on Saturdays, with no noisy construction work on Sundays or public holidays.Source: threerivers.gov.uk
Three Rivers asks for parking suspension applications at least 10 days in advance, through its online form, with a non-refundable fee; dispensations are available for short periods where no alternative parking exists.Source: threerivers.gov.uk
Questions
Interior design in Rickmansworth & Chorleywood
Do I need permission for building work inside a Moor Park house?
Check with the estate company as well as the council. The Moor Park (1958) Ltd handbook states that the Company's approval is required before any building works under the covenants on all Moor Park properties, and limits building work to 8am to 5.30pm on weekdays and 9am to 1pm on Saturdays. We confirm early with the Company whether a proposed internal scheme needs its consent and build its requirements into the programme.Source: moorpark1958.co.uk
Can I replace the windows in my Chorleywood Arts and Crafts house?
Not without checking first. In Chorleywood Common conservation area an Article 4(2) direction means alterations to windows, as well as chimneys and front boundaries, need planning permission. Repairing original windows and adding internal secondary glazing designed with the joinery often improves comfort without changing the elevation, and we can prepare the drawings if an application is needed.Source: threerivers.gov.uk
What hours can contractors work in Rickmansworth and Chorleywood?
Three Rivers District Council limits noisy work on construction and demolition sites to 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 1pm on Saturdays, with none on Sundays or public holidays. We plan strip-out and other noisy stages within these hours and schedule quieter finishing trades and deliveries with neighbours in mind.Source: threerivers.gov.uk
Do you take on single rooms as well as whole houses in Rickmansworth & Chorleywood?
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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