Above A dressing
room by Canterbury-
based Herringbone
Kitchens. Right, from
top The hers and his
dressing rooms in
Alice Byrom’s home.
The wallpaper in
Byrom’s is by Lewis
& Wood, while her
husband’s is painted
in Stiffkey Blue by
Farrow & Ball
shoes showcased in a glass cloche to wedding dresses
on display in the duplex dressing room (yes, two floors!)
being built for one of her clients in Saudi Arabia. It
might also include a safe for Hermès Birkin bags.
So when did dressing rooms cross the threshold from
the silver-carpeted suites of millionaires and Premier
League footballers’ mansions to being a middle-
class must-have? William Durrant, owner and designer
of Herringbone Kitchens, has noticed a significant
increase in its cabinetry being requested for dressing
rooms and believes that “fitted bespoke furniture is
very luxurious, and [thanks to] more home-renovation
TV shows and Grand Designs, the want and need for
this has really been elevated”.
For Alice Byrom, a mother of three and founder of the
knitwear label Blake LDN, a walk-in wardrobe made
good use of a tiny bedroom in her former house and
proved a draw when it came to selling up. She managed
to create one in her new home in west London by
claiming the principal bedroom’s en suite; her husband
has his own, accessed through the new en suite that was
created out of the spare room next door. “I’m aware it’s a
very lovely thing to have, and what I love is that it means
the bedroom stays very serene,” she says.42 • The Sunday Times Style