It’s only fitting that a stucco eagle looms over the portico to the home of Alison Loehnis, an American powerhouse in London. “Actually it’s a very British eagle,” notes the fashion executive, president of Luxury and Fashion at Net-a-Porter, Mr Porter, and The Outnet. Two years ago, her family of four landed at the Georgian row house, set on a 19th-century garden square with ionic colonnades and aquiline statuettes. Attributed to Scottish landscape architect John Claudius Loudon, the residence is one of several allegedly built to house Wellington’s returning victorious officers.
© Simon Brown
The London home of Alison Loehnis, the president of Luxury and Fashion at Net-a-Porter, Mr Porter, and The Outnet, was designed by De Rosee Sa; in the drawing room, Picasso prints, Vaughan table lamp, Arne Hovmand-Olsen chairs, and Paolo Moschino LTD. sofa fabric.
© Simon Brown
Fabrics by Soane, Romo, and Colefax and Fowler mingle in the primary bedroom; Massimo Vitali photograph.
The homing instinct for the Loehnis family was also strong. Her husband, Alexander, who works in financial communications, grew up on the square and took Loehnis to see his childhood residence early in their relationship. “It was a tucked-away secret oasis, with a wonderful sense of privacy yet somehow community,” she recalls.
When their current house came up for sale, Loehnis looked past insensitive interventions to see great bones and proportions. Claire Sa and Max de Rosee of the architecture-and-design studio De Rosee Sa revived the house’s classical character, enhancing Georgian moldings and architraves and restoring much of the original layout. On the lower ground, a narrow garage became a boot room that leads to the pantry and kitchen, freeing the formal entrance from everyday mess. (“I like warmth but not clutter,” Loehnis notes.) Dropping the existing rear extension, meanwhile, allowed for a kitchen and family room (they call it the “snug”) across a single level.
<span class="image" data-attrib="Simon Brown" data-caption="The kitchen opens onto a dining area …….
