Cover Thick-edged marble coffee tables from Dara Huang’s furniture line, Dara Maison, sit at the centre of the living room, flanked by the original fireplace and windows onto the square
Thick-edged marble coffee tables from Dara Huang’s furniture line, Dara Maison, sit at the centre of the living room, flanked by the original fireplace and windows onto the square
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Architect Dara Huang, founder of Design Haus Liberty, rescued a half-abandoned London townhouse and filled it with her own Dara Maison furniture, work by emerging artist and a few trade secrets
When the architect Dara Huang first stepped onto the rear terrace of her house on Connaught Square, the boards gave way beneath her. Contractors had started a renovation before the pandemic and walked off the job during lockdown, leaving the six-storey London townhouse half finished. “Some parts were done, and then some parts were completely a disaster,” she said.
The house first came to her as a commission. “The first time I saw the house, I’d been invited to quote for the design, but the client couldn’t afford to hire us at the time,” Huang said. “Two years later we crossed paths again, and a romance blossomed. My company took on the design and turned the house into a home we could live in. I covered the costs on the understanding that he would pay me back once he was in a position to. It took almost two years, but I’m finally happy with the result."
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Above Dara Huang, founder of Design Haus Liberty and Dara Maison, on the winding staircase in the entrance lobby, framed by the original arch with its dentil moulding
Dara Huang, founder of Design Haus Liberty and Dara Maison, on the winding staircase in the entrance lobby, framed by the original arch with its dentil moulding
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Huang, who founded the architecture and interiors practice Design Haus Liberty in 2013 and has offices in London and Hong Kong, rebuilt the 4,000-square-foot house while living in it, often without drawings. She tells clients such as Cartier and Nihi Resorts not to change a design once it is on paper. At home, she broke that rule daily. “I was like, ‘Just put it here. Put it there,’” she said, likening herself to the cobbler whose own shoes have holes.
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Above Seen through the arch, the lobby’s fluted marble fireplace was built from Lusso tiles mitred at the edges to read as solid stone
Above The lobby’s organically shaped table, from Dara Maison, sits with ribbed bouclé stools beneath a brass chandelier
Seen through the arch, the lobby’s fluted marble fireplace was built from Lusso tiles mitred at the edges to read as solid stone
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Above A bay window on the landing opens onto the terrace, beside a black-and-white abstract canvas
A bay window on the landing opens onto the terrace, beside a black-and-white abstract canvas
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The square, on the edge of Mayfair and Marylebone just north of Hyde Park, is lined with single-family houses rather than subdivided flats, and rarely puts one on the market. Huang only grasped how unusual her plot was after touring others nearby. Hers runs deeper than most, so where neighbours walk straight into a kitchen, she enters a lofty lobby with a broad arch and a winding staircase, followed by an internal garden, the kitchen and a large back terrace. “Most houses in London are what I call pancake houses,” she said. This one has volume, and the staircase looks onto greenery at almost every landing.
“You can change the internals, but you cannot change its bones,” she said. One thing she inherited intact was the parquet, laid immaculately by the previous builders, and it changed her mind about floors. Having studied at Harvard and then worked at Herzog & de Meuron, she had long favoured wide-plank boards and modernist restraint. “From now on, it’s parquet or nothing,” she said.
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The living room, Huang’s favourite space, combines a curved bouclé sofa, burgundy velvet armchairs and a geometric rug from the Rug Company
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Above Tall sash windows look onto the square’s garden, with a brass chandelier above twin marble coffee tables
Above A sculptural white vase and a carved wooden sculpture sit before the original marble fireplace and antiqued mirror in the living room
Tall sash windows look onto the square’s garden, with a brass chandelier above twin marble coffee tables
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There were no mood boards or renderings. Brands approached her instead, and offcuts from other projects filled the gaps. Visual Comfort supplied lighting, de Gournay hand-painted wallpaper, and Gaggenau for the kitchen, while Lusso provided ready-made marble vanities, basins, and fluted tiles that arrive within days. Spare wallpaper went onto a bathroom ceiling. The same champagne-toned metallic paper reads silver against white marble there and gold in the dining room, where the evening sun catches it and shifts the room’s colour through the day. That paper was made to order, and guests ask about it so often that she is considering producing it for sale.
In the dining room, a tiered glass chandelier hangs over a marble table, with a bar built from Amazon brackets and shop-cut glass
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Above Huang in the kitchen, where stainless-steel cabinetry and a mirrored splashback sit beneath the original plaster cornicing
Above The cloakroom, glimpsed from the doorway, where a marble vessel basin on a brass-framed stand sits against fluted travertine tiles beneath a graphic ceiling paper
Huang in the kitchen, where stainless-steel cabinetry and a mirrored splashback sit beneath the original plaster cornicing
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In the dining room, oversized Venetian glass chandeliers draw the eye to the high ceiling. A large mirror above the fireplace was split into three bevelled panels so it could be carried in. The bar shelves rest on brackets bought on Amazon, topped with glass cut at a local shop for about £30 a piece. Elsewhere, what appears to be a solid fluted Carrara fireplace, which she estimates would cost £20,000 to £50,000 to carve, is Lusso tile mitred at the edges and laid without visible joints.
The walls are her go-to Dulux warm white, which she says works in any orientation and any country; the lobby has a lime wash in the same shade. Painting the cornicing to match the walls, instead of picking it out in white, is her way of mixing old and new. She never got round to the ceilings.
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The rebuilt terrace, now laid with new decking, holds a lounge and dining area with woven outdoor furniture.
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Most of the furniture comes from Dara Maison, the furniture line Huang founded with the entrepreneur Chris Burch, a co-founder of Tory Burch, as her business partner. The pieces are handmade, several with built-in storage, and share curved, organic outlines, which she attributes to her time at Herzog & de Meuron, where Jacques Herzog would sketch circles over and over until they became blobs. The Frank coffee table, in Arabescato marble, has the thick, rounded edge she prefers to thin, glossy slabs. Every piece is stain-proofed, a requirement she set with her young son in mind.
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Above The main bedroom, where long linen curtains, one of Huang’s go-to touches, soften the windows above white-painted floorboards and an abstract rug
Above In the main bedroom, a sculptural glass lamp and a brass-and-alabaster wall light sit beside a curved bouclé headboard
The main bedroom, where long linen curtains, one of Huang’s go-to touches, soften the windows above white-painted floorboards and an abstract rug
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Above A freestanding marble basin, fluted marble tiles and a metallic leaf ceiling in one of the bathrooms, where the dining-room paper reads silver
Above A ribbed marble basin from Lusso on a brass-framed vanity, with brushed brass taps and textured ceramic wall lights
A freestanding marble basin, fluted marble tiles and a metallic leaf ceiling in one of the bathrooms, where the dining-room paper reads silver
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The art leans towards young painters the company represents. Kristen Giorgi, a Georgia-based artist Huang discovered on Instagram, is represented by her Le Chateau diptych and Nude Study IV, and she held her first London show in the house. Works by Arran Rahimian, including Walk Five, Play and Consistent, sit alongside an abstract expressionist canvas and ceramics by ULA, with a Rug Company rug underfoot.
With the work largely done, her favourite room is the living room, with gardens at front and back and shadows moving across it through the day. Her parents were academics, she said, and design never came up at home, but she has come to believe that a home shapes everything else. "There’s no place we spend more time than our homes,” she said. “We sleep there, we eat there, we raise our children there.” The house still lifts her spirits. "There’s not a moment when I don’t walk home, and I’m just like, I love it.”
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Jennifer Choo is Regional Managing Editor of Tatler Homes, covering architecture, interior design, and art across Asia. Based in Malaysia, she oversees regional content on luxury residential design and contemporary art collections. Legally trained but choosing to pursue her passion for design, she previously led notable design publications and worked as an interior stylist and art consultant for property developers, design firms, and private clients.
