Sarah Peake relishes the challenge of making awkward and transitory spaces sing.

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“In a consultation, I love it when someone says: ‘I don’t know what to do with this bland corridor, or this tiny room,’ because those are the places that, with a little bit of creativity, can become really bold and quite special,” says the founder of the London-based studio Studio Peake.

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In this Notting Hill pied-à-terre, Sarah put her theory into practice with the entranceway. Previously a drab shade of gray and larger in footprint, she squared it off and added the impactful archway where there was a change in ceiling height.

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Then came the earthy yellow paint, which creates the feeling of stepping into somewhere exotic—not your average city pad. “I wanted to lean into the darkness of the space, but if we had gone for green or blue, it would have felt too cold,” says Sarah. It took some persuasion, but the homeowner now adores her welcoming entry. “On calls, I always tell people to embrace a dark space rather than attempt to lighten it up,” she justifies.

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Yellow was a calculated choice as it grounds the apartment before leading on to a Tiffany-blue kitchen. And notably, it’s the only splash of paint: every other surface is adorned in patterned or textured wallpapers. “A lot of people don’t even consider wallcoverings, but as they are so cozy, it’s something I encourage a lot,” explains Sarah. Her finishing touch is a chic, grosgrain trim simply glued to each wall’s edges to ‘frame’ the bedrooms: “It adds a pop of color to neutral spaces, and helps the room feel very tailored.”

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Sarah—who attracts renovators desiring a richly layered slant on their decor—has strong opinions on bathrooms, which she thinks often lack curation. In this project, she created a zesty chequerboard pattern with zellige tiles for the shower surround and chose handpainted motifs for the floor. “A bathroom should feel like a continuation of the rest of the home,” she muses. “In the same way that you wouldn’t buy everything from the same place for your living room, more utilitarian spaces should feel unique.”

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But she recognizes that navigating the world of sanitaryware, IP-rated lighting, and tiling can feel overwhelming. “I point people in the direction of under-the-radar suppliers so that they can find something that feels personal to them,” she shares. And she always steers clients away from “filing cabinet-style” vanities; this find with a curved edge is a clever space-saver in a tight space where storage was key.

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Understandably for a Brit, fireplaces are Sarah’s weakness. Having found old pictures of this Victorian-era property (which once functioned as a hospital), she reinstated the mantel in its original place in honed Arabescato marble, complete with a brass register.

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When a budget doesn’t stretch to chunky stone, she recommends having a millworker supply one in wood. Her top tip is to draw onto the wall for scale, and believes in going oversize to make a dramatic statement. The fact that this exquisite dummy emits zero warmth (due to the apartments above), is beside the point: “It creates a focus and symmetry because I centered the pendant and sofas around it. A beautiful fireplace always pulls a living room together.”

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