What began as a crush when Vanessa Boz discovered a Georgian town house in London’s Primrose Hill, soon developed into a passionate love affair, albeit blighted slightly by lockdown, Covid and London house prices. Relocating from New York, Boz, her Turkish husband and their three children were looking to put down roots for the next chapter in their lives and this house proved fertile ground.
Unchanged for more than three decades, the Grade II property was ripe for a new family to flourish in after re-energising every corner and cupboard. Boz, who was born in France and has North African and Italian roots, is a global wanderer. As a Parisian student she took a summer job with Air France and found herself crisscrossing the world, from Tokyo to Cairo. The experience awoke in her a deep love of travel and exploration, and she founded BozAround, an independent travel agency.
Naturally, her home is inspired by her favourite destinations and decorated with treasures picked up along the way, including a straw lion’s head from Zimbabwe, wooden cow heads from Kerala, Mauritian photography by the Algerian artist Zineb Sedira, Indian throws and fabrics and rugs from Algeria. “This house is a reflection of all the places that have touched me and our family throughout our travels,” she says.
Boz asked her friend Maria Speake, from the interior design and architectural salvage firm Retrouvius, to help. Speake suggested a radical redesign, relocating the kitchen from the ground floor to the first floor, to take advantage of the grand double Georgian drawing rooms. The move ensured the kitchen would enjoy a daily drenching of natural light from the Palladian floor-to-ceiling windows.
“Maria knew how we lived in France. We spent a lot of time in the kitchen, so to have it centred in the middle of the house was a brilliant idea,” says Boz. The tree views and connection to the bedrooms above and sitting room below turned this central living space into the heart of the home.
The kitchen is painted a sensuous and dusty pink, inspired by Marrakech, and realised by using tadelakt, a natural lime-based plaster. “We call it the pink cocoon,” says Boz. Salvaged Dutch cigar moulds have been reused as handles on kitchen cabinets, which are clad in soft off-cuts of nubuck leather. A slice of rescued Calacatta viola marble fits the worktop, while a chic ceramic light blazes above. The kitchen unfolds into the dining room, connected by the original doors, which have been reconfigured to slide open and glazed to encourage yet more light inside.
Jaipur in India was the inspiration for more pink in the ground-floor sitting-room. Known as the “Pink City”, many of Jaipur’s buildings were originally painted pink to mark the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1876.
At Boz’s house, the walls, ceiling and cabinetry are painted in various shades of pink, tempered by a turmeric yellow, zestily picked out around the door frames. A light fitting made from natural loofah, a French sofa, a Hans Wegner chair and a vintage Algerian rug set complete the scene.
The master bedroom at the top of the house has a pared-back simplicity, aimed at encouraging peaceful snoozing in the BDDW Mills bed with a vintage Indian fabric cover. A dressing room attached to the bedroom provides the perfect space for yoga. A curtain made from old Anatolian tent fabric is used to hide Boz’s collection of vintage clothes and bags behind. A woven jute carpet covers the floor, with a Turkish kilim on top. The wicker lounger gives Boz somewhere to retreat, or toss her clothes on, while admiring her favourite painting above the fireplace, a picture of her daughter painted by her mother.
In the family bathroom a bespoke washstand was made by using copper verdigris salvaged from a roof extension on the house. Vanessa chose Chateaux Vert marble and green tiles from Galleria Elena in Naples, she wanted to use as many greens as possible. The cabinet panels on either side of the mirror are covered in offcuts of soft linen and a soft dusty beige Tadelakt enhances the North Africa influences in the room, while the original pine floorboards were sanded and given a lime wash finish.
