This established house had to go through a complete refurbishment that necessitated eighteen months of building works. The clients, ardent art collectors with a museum-quality collection, were clear that they didn't want the pieces to dominate or for the space to feel too formal. Balancing the house's grand ambassadorial scale with its role as a comfortable family home was both the brief and the challenge here. In the interests of this, we put the formal dining room downstairs to enable more casual family dining upstairs. We introduced lacquer walls, and the client had a collection of Chippendale chairs which we allied with a stainless steel and glass table and modern lighting to make it ultra glamourous. The client wanted her dressing room to be both big enough to work in – there is sofa and desk here – and to function as a contained sitting room that enabled family time. The bathroom off this is a world of different whites, from the plaster ceiling light to the muslin to the marble floors. Our golden rule with this project was not to treat the space with too much reverence.