For this private residence in London’s St John’s Wood, we were tasked with using leather to bring warmth, texture and interest to the central staircase in a remarkable modern home with a classic interior feel. Working alongside SHH Architects and Robin Samuel Associates; the client’s choice to integrate leather elements brought a tactile, handcrafted quality to this central space. 

The architect’s ornate balustrade runs the length of the four-floor building and is constructed using a trio of finely worked metals in different tones. We were asked to create a continuous and seamless leather handrail that would work with these finishes and the handrail’s tight bends. Leather is a very pliable material, and over the years we’ve developed a deep understanding of how it can be most effectively applied to handrails, no matter the style of staircase or interior they are paired with. In this project, we clad the handrails in a dark brown, vegetable-tanned Italian shoulder leather and added a hand-stitched detail at each joint in a contrasting ivory thread. For a reading area located in the ground floor landing, the same dark brown leather was used to create hand-stitched seating cushions, uniting the handrail and seating area elements in this modern space.

The crafting of leather handrails is a speciality that we pride ourselves in – providing that all-important finishing touch for the senses – and a final piece of handcrafted detail that is highly durable, aesthetically interesting and wonderfully tactile.