Say “a small house in Chelsea’ and the image that instantly comes to mind is of a chic little Georgian red-brick box, or perhaps a former artist’s studio from the greenery-yallery years of the late 19th century. What one is less likely to imagine is an undistinguished terrace of post-war housing, of the kind that can be seen from Bracknell to Basingstoke. Yet step inside this particular house and you’re in for a big surprise. For it’s an object lesson in how to conjure up a striking amount of grandeur in a relatively small space, within an outwardly unpromising shell.

The magician in this case is Paolo Moschino, the charming, Italian-born decorator who learned his tricks with Nicky Haslam and who, in 1995, bought the Nicholas Haslam brand, enabling Nicky to concentrate on interiors under the name of NH Design. The owners, like Paolo, are no strangers to House & Garden: their house in Cornwall, which Paolo also decorated, featured in the August 2013 issue. But it was thanks to a much larger previous house, also in Cornwall, that this London scheme came about; though, in fact, it all really started in rather more exotic surroundings.

‘We first met when I was on holiday in Parrot Cay,’ explains Paolo. ‘The owners came over to our table and asked me whether I would be able to take a look at their country house in Cornwall. Of course, I said I would be delighted to, though at the time I didn’t have the faintest idea where Cornwall was. It was only when I got back and visited that I realised quite how far from London it was.

‘When we were discussing the Cornwall project, we always met here in Chelsea,’ he continues. ‘It was a small two-storey house and they needed more space, so first I suggested adding a basement, and then we ended up redoing the whole house. The challenge was to make it look grander, to open up the spaces and make more room for entertaining.’

In the drawing room, a pair of antique sang-de-boeuf Chinese vases, now converted into lamps, stand on a nineteenth-century console table. The mahogany table was bought from Christie’s, then painted white.

Tim Beddow

The owner and her husband bought the place from an old friend of theirs, Sarah McAlpine, around 15 years before they met Paolo, ‘It was already in extremely good nick,’ remembers the owner, ‘but it had started to look a little tired and in need of a facelift, which is when we called Paolo in.’

Digging out the basement was the usual dusty and disruptive job, but it was the only structural work that needed to be done, and it meant that the house could be refashioned in a logical way. So today the front door opens into an L-shape hall, roomy enough for a small French sofa and commode, with the living room directly ahead. In the arm of the L to your left are the top-lit stairs to the first floor and basement, and the door to the owner’s study, which looks back to the street.

Tim Beddow