Interview with a Creative: Temza London’s Julia Janosa

This month we are chatting to Temza London, an interior design studio who design, manage and build their projects to create beautiful and functional spaces for their clients. They recently took on a project in North West London and incorporated Catchpole and Rye into their wonderful bathroom design.

Julia Janosa, Senior Interior Designer, is talking to us this month about their creative process, what makes the ideal bathroom and an exciting array of projects on the horizon.

How do you start the design process with a client? What’s your favourite way to brainstorm a design?

Generally speaking, we like to organise showroom visits with our clients early on. As the quality is very important for our clients, we like to make sure they see the items we are proposing and can make sure they like the touch and feel of it. This usually kicks off the process as they see roomsets in the showrooms, so we can already discuss with them the whole space, not just items in isolation.

What inspired this specific project?

I have to say, the main inspiration was the house itself. It’s a beautiful listed building with romantic architectural details, original fireplaces and floral corbels and it was a joint effort from the client and the design team to restore the spirit of the house best we can – while of course also providing all the comforts of a modern home!

We were really lucky to work with a client who shared our values and appreciation for the history of the house and gave us the freedom to create a truly beautiful home for them.

Do you have a preferred style of design, strength of colour or a feature you love to work with?

To be honest, we work with both classic and contemporary style interiors and we love to mix things up as well! Clifton Hill is strictly traditional, however, we have some very contemporary minimal style projects on the way and everything in between.

I think to describe what makes a beautiful design is rather complex and we always create something that’s suitable for the client and the project, which is different every time.

Being designers we have an instinct for harmony and composition, but we think it’s one of the most important parts of the job to get a feel for the client’s style and create something that’s very personal for them and that they will really love and will be happy to show to their friends.

Why did you choose to work with Catchpole and Rye products on this project?

Quality was very important for the client and I think that is the main reason we chose Catchpole and Rye.

Our client was simply in love with the soft silver nickel finish; the customisable bespoke details that meant she could have a traditional style, high-level cistern in her cloakroom featuring the house name and number on these beautiful decorative brackets and so on.

The vanity unit we used for the master bathroom was also one of the key items, it is the La Parisienne with the curved splashback, a very pretty piece.

What would your dream piece be to incorporate in a room?

Temza’s philosophy as a Design Studio is to start with a strong concept and work our way through from the big picture to the small details, always referring back to the initial concept. We think this gives the best result and makes sure we don’t make many compromises during the design process. So in that sense, we would never try to incorporate a piece, even if we love it, only if we think it’s the most suitable for the project and space.

After saying all that, we do still have personal favourites! If we had a project where we could use the Swarovski encrusted ‘Crystal Bateau’, that would be a dream come true for everyone in our design team. That bathtub is just a whole other level, and even though it clearly needs an extremely well-designed interior to showcase it, we would be more than happy to take on that challenge.

What makes the ideal bathroom? Have you had any particularly challenging bathrooms?

When it comes to bathrooms, a good layout is the most important. Finishes, tiles, and sanitary-ware are important of course, but since it’s very personal there is no right or wrong as long as the client is in love with it.

On the other hand, working on the layout requires a great designer and superb 3D thinking skills. No matter how big a bathroom is there’s always more things to fit; if there is space for both a bathtub and a shower then the client will want to squeeze in a his and her’s basin and if that can be incorporated they will want a bench and more storage space.

It’s down to the designer to come up with creative options and optimise the layout, making it practical but looking great as well.

The project we are just finishing at St. John’s Wood was tricky. The layout was not straightforward as the family bathroom and the master bathroom were back to back so we needed to design them together. We came up with a clever solution of creating a recess for the vanity unit in both bathrooms, which allowed for a much better layout. It looked very complicated on the plans and plumbing-wise it wasn’t easy either. This is why it’s great to have the construction team in-house, so we cut out the back and forth on the technical details and came to the client with the best possible solution.

What are you working on right now and what’s next?

Amongst the many others, we have a project in Hampstead at the moment which we are very excited about! The clients love rich elegance and luxury, but they also like a minimal style, so we are fusing two very different things and creating something very special that suits them. The house is over 4 floors with a massive garden and we are redoing pretty much everything apart from the front elevation, we are very happy to be working on it.

Of course, we are also doing commercial projects and next up is a Body Transformation Studio in SW1 that we just started working on recently. They have a holistic concept of coaching, nutrition, and machine therapy and we will be involved with the branding as well as the interior, which is great because I think the two can really work together and strengthen each other.

The best way to keep up with us is through Instagram, @temzalondon where we share the latest from our studio as well as giving lots of practical advice on refurbishment and decoration. Don’t be afraid to get in touch, we love hearing from anyone and help out where we can!