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"View Slideshow\n\nEven in a city with as many leafy residential areas as London, Holland Park stands out for its sheer abundance of treelined streets and well-tended gardens. In this neighborhood of elegant Victorian terraces and squares, just west of Notting Hill, there's barely a house that does not look out on its own private patch of greenery and a swath of public parkland. And Holland Park itself, once the grounds of a vast Jacobean manor, is arguably central London's most romantic, filled with wildlife, woodlands and evocative architectural ruins.\n\nHaving lived mainly in apartments since they arrived in London, a highly successful Chinese banker and his resourceful wife were recently fortunate enough to secure a house just to one side of Holland Park. They greatly admired a friend's home in Chelsea that had been designed by the London-based firm Candy Candy, so they sought the company's advice right from the outset of their new venture.\n\n\"I think we were very lucky to have them with us all the way through,\" says the wife. \"My husband and I hadn't actually worked with interior designers before, and this was a big project, spanning six floors. We knew we wanted to make the most of the wonderful space and light we have here, with rooms we would really use and feel comfortable in. But apart from having been very impressed by the look and feel of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong, we were open to all kinds of ideas.\"\n\nThe designers at Candy Candy are known for their ability to work across the spectrum, from offices to airplanes and boats to private houses. They are similarly flexible in their choice of styles. \"We can do strictly minimal or the palace of Versailles,\" says Martin Kemp, the firm's head of design. \"It depends completely on what our clients want. And once they are our clients, we're happy to design everything for them, from their luggage to a kitchen specially thought out for a left-handed chef. These things happen!\" he says. \"I myself can claim to have run the whole gamut, from choosing an entire library\u2014I had a great time in the bookstores\u2014to taking a Rolls-Royce apart and customizing it for a client.\"\n\nExtravagant though this might sound, there's nothing obviously opulent about the Holland Park house Kemp designed. From the polished limestone of the entrance hall to the hand-painted silk wallcovering in the master bedroom, the luxurious quality of all the materials used is never in doubt; but the effect remains soothingly neutral and restrained, with repeated interplays of dark woods and beige fabrics. The forms and tones are predominantly contemporary, with an Art D\u00E9co inspiration, although that does not preclude an occasional splash of vivid color or a discreet nod toward Oriental patterns.\n\n\"We were certainly not looking to make a statement,\" the wife explains with a smile. \"The overriding aim was to achieve an interior where my husband could entertain business colleagues in the dining room without worrying about what the rest of the family was doing, and vice versa. So the design team helped us to create a space that could fulfill a wide variety of everyday needs, from giving a formal reception or a family party to leaving the children by themselves\u2014hopefully to do some homework!\"\n\nThe family's two sons in fact have the run of an entire floor, with separate suites that allow them plenty of room to play or to immerse themselves in Shakespeare and physics. A further enviable attraction for them and their schoolmates is the media room in the basement, where they can watch movies from comfortable upholstered sofas.\n\nNo less alluring is the pool, which, with its sauna, steam room and relaxation area, occupies the remaining basement space. \"When we moved in,\" the wife explains, \"I thought the boys would be down there all the time. In fact, I'm the one who's always there, because I like to swim every day.\n\n\"I also love the way the design team transformed the area by creating a whole new wall made up of different kinds of stone. A feature like that can transform a space, and the whole area has become a great favorite with my friends because they can come here and exercise or have a massage, or simply sit around and talk,\" she says.\n\nOther opportunities to relax are afforded by the garden and the roof terrace, which the family likes to use for barbecues. From the top of the house, the views over London highlight the immensity of the city, which stretches out in every direction toward the horizon.\n\nShould this spectacle become a little overwhelming, the family can always slip back inside, leaving the wider world behind for the luxury of a retreat where everything has been custom-made just for them."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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