Saskia Blyth on reviving Blenheim Crescent

When interior designer Saskia Blyth first came across this two-storey Notting Hill penthouse, it wasn’t the mirrored ceilings or bright white walls that held her attention – it was the light. Pouring through vast, double-height windows, ricocheting off old beams, it whispered of a former life. “We were so drawn to those windows,” Saskia recalls. “Everything else just fell away.”

Once a working artist’s studio, the apartment had long since been stripped of its soul. But Saskia – co-founder of Blyth-Collinson Interiors – could see through the noise. More importantly, so could the homeowner. An art collector with a disdain for anything overly polished or aggressively new, the direction was clear: to not only renovate, but restore.

Floors came up. Walls came down. A snug and powder room were carved into the lower level, while both upstairs bedrooms became softly cocooned en suite retreats. Pared back to the basics, but with a focus on the finishings, there’s a sense of calm that’s deceivingly effortless. In peeling back the layers, the structure was allowed to breathe again – its bones celebrated rather than concealed.

“You have to get the canvas right, then you can introduce the details,” adds Saskia. “I never want a home to feel like a showroom. It should feel like it’s been lived in, or better yet, like it’s always been this way.” That ethos anchors the entire space. Limewashed plaster meets moody, enveloping hues. Vaulted ceilings are grounded by rustic beams. Reclaimed parquet de Versailles, sourced from Belgium, adds historical weight underfoot, while bespoke furniture by R. Kightley & Son brings warmth in just the right places.

Take the kitchen – a sculptural Boffi centrepiece that doubles as a stage for entertaining. Its monolithic island conceals the practicalities of hosting, letting private chefs move seamlessly through the space while guests stay immersed in the experience. “It had to function beautifully but feel effortless,” Saskia explains. “Guests should feel drawn in – not met with a wall of appliances.”

Elsewhere, poetic touches complete the interiors: subtle but always in sight. Carefully chosen artworks introduce pops of colour that complement the tones – a splash of yellow and blue here, a glimmer of gold there. In the snug, a stone coffee table was hand-carved to resemble a river-worn pebble. “We chose the slab together,” Saskia says. “It couldn’t be too neat or perfect. It had to feel found.”

Of course, such coherence doesn’t happen by accident. Blenheim Crescent was a lockdown project that, for Saskia, proved serendipitous. “The time gave us room to source carefully, to be precise with what we chose,” she says. “As a studio, we’re not interested in having a ‘look’. It’s about listening. Clients don’t always know how to articulate what they want – but they always know what they don’t like. Our job is to listen to those instincts and translate them.”

Here, that meant no gloss, no gimmicks, no moments of flash. Just a deliberate layering of heirlooms, artworks, bespoke designs, and patina-rich pieces – curated not to match, but to resonate. “It’s beautiful because everything has been considered,” Saskia says. “Every slab of stone, every curve of plaster, every change in floor level. You look around and it all feels so natural, inevitable, even. But getting to that point takes so much care. It’s incredibly rewarding to see it come together in the result.”

Blenheim Crescent is available for holiday rental.