A render of a Lake District living room with sculpted plaster ceilings, designed by Patience & Gough

Living rooms, halls and staircases in the Lake District

The rooms you live in,
and the way between them

Plasterworkcornice, mouldings, Lincrusta and sculpted ceilings

Staircasessteel, stone and timber, made to measure

Lightingbespoke fittings and full lighting plans

Cumbria onlyfrom our studio in Windermere

Living rooms around the fire and the view

A living room on site with the floor down and the view over the lake

Two focal points

Arranging a room for the Lakes

Most Lakeland living rooms have two things competing for attention: the fire and the view. We arrange the room so you can see both, with the main sofa facing the fire and the window in the corner of your eye, and a chair by the glass for the morning.

Seating should be close enough to talk, around two and a half to three metres across, with a table within reach of every seat. Joinery either side of the fire hides the television, the speakers and the logs, and a bespoke piece, a marquetry cabinet or a sideboard, gives the room its character.

Sofas no more than about 3 m apart for conversation
Media hidden in joinery beside the fire
A table within reach of every seat

Decorative plaster, cornice and Lincrusta

A sculpted plaster ceiling of soft, flowing layers over a living room with a view of the fells, nearing completion

Handmade plasterwork

Cornice, mouldings and sculpted ceilings

Traditional plasterwork gives a room its proportion. Cornices can be run in situ with a profile knife, exactly as they were in the nineteenth century, or cast as fibrous plaster lengths and fixed; ceiling roses, panel mouldings and dado rails restore a period room or give a new one its bones. In the Acatus living room, the ceilings are being sculpted by hand on site into soft, flowing forms.

We work with Frank Holmes of Frank Holmes Fine Décor, a master of heritage decoration and one of the UK’s leading Approved Lincrusta Installers and Restorers, whose restorations include Langdale Chase in Windermere. Lincrusta, the deeply embossed wallcovering invented by Frederick Walton in 1877, is still made today and transforms a hallway dado or a stair wall when it is painted and glazed by hand. Frank also cast the panel behind our Gilbert fabric.

Cornice run in situ or cast in fibrous plaster
Lincrusta on dados, stair walls and ceilings
Sculpted and curved plaster ceilings

Bespoke staircases

A render of a bespoke staircase tread: a steel frame wrapped in white marble

Steel, wrapped in marble

Staircases built as sculpture

A staircase is the largest piece of furniture in a house. For the Acatus house we designed a staircase with a fabricated steel structure and every tread wrapped in marble, so it reads as solid stone floating up through the hall. The steel is made off site to the engineer’s design, the stone is cut and fixed to it, and lighting is set into the treads or the wall beside them.

Every staircase in a home must meet Approved Document K: a rise of no more than 220 mm and a going of at least 220 mm per step, a pitch of no more than 42 degrees, 2 metres of headroom, and guarding at least 900 mm high with no gap a 100 mm sphere could pass through. Within those rules there is huge freedom: cantilevered treads, spirals, curved stringers, glass or bronze balustrades, and handrails turned in timber or wrapped in leather.

Structural engineer and steel fabricator from the start
Stone treads honed or with a non-slip nosing
Lighting in the treads or the wall string

A bespoke steel staircase being welded in place, with looped Art Deco balusters and a curved handrail

Made to measure, fitted on site

From drawing to installation

We draw the stair with the architect and engineer, have the steel fabricated, and fit and weld it in place before the stone goes on. This is the Acatus staircase going in: a steel spine, cantilevered treads and balustrades of looped bars that we drew with a nod to the 1930s, finished with a hand-shaped handrail that sweeps out at the foot of the stair.

The treads are templated from the steel, so every piece of stone fits exactly, and protected until the last trade has left.

The details

A handrail you want to hold

A handrail is touched every day, so we shape it to sit comfortably in the hand and let it flare out at the bottom step like the end of a ribbon. The looped balusters are spaced to the regulations and repeated on the landings, so the staircase and gallery read as one piece of metalwork.

Entrance halls

A double-height entrance hall with a steel staircase splitting to two landings, looped black balustrades and a sculpted wave plaster wall

The first impression

A hall that works as hard as it looks

A Lakeland hall has to cope with boots, dogs, coats and rain, and still be the first beautiful thing a guest sees. We plan hidden coat cupboards with heated drying rails, a bench to sit on, a hard-wearing stone or timber floor, and a boot room close by.

Then the drama: a staircase, panelling or Lincrusta up the stair wall, a statement light, and a long view through the house to the garden or the lake.

Bespoke lighting

A cascade of glass pendant lights being hung through a double-height stairwell beside a looped steel balustrade

Light through three storeys

A chandelier for a stairwell

A tall stairwell needs one light that holds the whole space. Here a cascade of glass drops is being hung at staggered heights through the double-height hall, so it reads from the front door, the landing and the gallery above, and glows against the window at night.

01
A lighting plan
We draw every light, switch and circuit before the electrician starts, so the house can be lit for any mood.
02
Custom fittings
Pendants, wall lights and lanterns designed and made for the room, in bronze, brass, alabaster or glass.
03
Picture and joinery lighting
Lights for paintings, shelves and marquetry, so the things you love are lit at night.
04
Scenes
One button for the evening, one for a party, one for night, with Lutron or a similar control system.
05
Warm white
2,700 K or warmer in living rooms, and dimmers on everything.
06
Designer lighting
We also specify fittings from makers we admire, including Bert Frank.

Fireplaces

The heart of the room

Restored, new or reimagined

We restore original stone and timber fireplaces, design new surrounds in marble or stone, and build joinery around them. A wood-burning stove needs a lined flue, a proper hearth and a HETAS-registered installer; a gas fire, a Gas Safe engineer; and any new fixed combustion appliance needs a carbon monoxide alarm in the room.

Where there is no chimney, a modern electric fire with a water-vapour flame or a carefully ventilated bioethanol burner gives the look of a fire without the flue.

Turnkey interior design in Cumbria

Our interior design service

One team for the whole job

Turnkey, from first sketch to final clean.

Start a project

We are an interior design studio in Windermere and we work only in Cumbria, so we can be on site when it matters. We draw the scheme, specify every finish and fitting, then organise and manage the people who build it: cabinetmakers and joiners, stonemasons, plasterers, electricians, plumbers and heating engineers, tilers, steel fabricators, decorators, curtain makers and upholsterers, and the builders who hold it all together.

Most of them we have worked with for years. They know how we draw, we know how they work, and you have one point of contact instead of a dozen. We handle the sequencing, the orders and the snagging, and we hand the room back finished, cleaned and ready to live in.

We work across the Lake District and the rest of the county, including Windermere, Bowness, Ambleside, Grasmere, Coniston, Hawkshead, Kendal, Keswick, Cockermouth, Penrith, Ulverston, Grange-over-Sands and Cartmel.

Makers and suppliers worth knowing

Plasterwork and Lincrusta: Frank Holmes Fine Décor; traditional fibrous plasterers
Staircases: structural engineers, steel fabricators and stonemasons we have worked with for years
Lighting: bespoke fittings, Bert Frank, and Lutron control
Fireplaces: Chesneys, Gazco, restored antique surrounds

Questions

Living rooms, halls and staircases, answered

Anything else, ask us. We reply personally within one working day.

Ask a question

What are the rules for a new staircase?

Approved Document K sets a maximum rise of 220 mm, a minimum going of 220 mm, a maximum pitch of 42 degrees, 2 metres of headroom, and guarding at least 900 mm high with gaps no larger than 100 mm. Loft stairs have some relaxations on headroom.

Can a marble staircase be built on steel?

Yes. A steel structure designed by an engineer carries the load, and the marble is cut and fixed to it as cladding, so the stair looks like solid stone but weighs far less.

What is Lincrusta?

Lincrusta is a deeply embossed wallcovering invented by Frederick Walton in 1877, the inventor of linoleum. It is still made, and is usually painted and glazed by hand. It is hard-wearing, which is why it was used on Victorian dados, stair walls and ceilings.

Can you restore original cornice?

Yes. Damaged cornice can be repaired by running new sections in situ to the original profile, or by taking a mould and casting matching fibrous plaster lengths.

Do you design lighting?

Yes. Every project has a full lighting plan, and we design bespoke fittings where nothing off the shelf is right.

Where do you work?

Throughout Cumbria, including Windermere, Bowness, Ambleside, Grasmere, Coniston, Hawkshead, Kendal, Keswick, Cockermouth, Penrith, Ulverston, Grange-over-Sands and Cartmel.