In recent years a flood of new Russian multi-millionaires has hit the London property market, sending waves through Belgravia and Knightsbridge. But the spending doesn’t stop on completion — the competition to keep your interiors just as opulent as the Ivanovs’ on the other side of the square is fierce.

“Russians want the very best of everything — the best marble, the best type of wood, the most expensive entertainment systems,” says Anastasia Matuzny, 23, a Russian interior designer.

She moved to London in 1987 to go to boarding school and her family followed seven years later. Matuzny trained with society decorator Nicky Haslam before moving on to advise her countrymen, flush with Siberian oil money.

One Russian businessman even ordered an exact copy of a room at the palace of Versailles for his house in Knightsbridge, complete with identical cornices and plasterwork, as well as real gold leaf and plating.

“Clients want everything in their homes to be unique,” explains Matuzny, whose family is in the construction industry. “We go to great lengths finding them antique and hard-to-get items to decorate their homes. For one Russian client we found an extremely rare type of pink marble, which is being cut from a quarry in Russia.”

This “unique” element — perhaps a backlash against the Soviet era, when everybody was stuck with identical furniture — is more important than mere money. “The budget is not strict,” says Matuzny airily. “In prime locations such as Belgravia and Knightsbridge, it ranges from £3m to unlimited.”

After decorating a penthouse in Odessa, in Ukraine, she moved on to her own apartment in London — a £600,000 gift from her parents, so that she could live away from the family home in Hampstead and nearer university. “They said I could decorate it how I wanted, and it was a chance for me to show my creative skills.”

After a £200,000 refurbishment, the flat is for sale, so Matuzny can find a new place to do up. Set on the ground floor of an imposing Victorian mansion block in Marylebone, it features almost every conceivable entertainment feature, including a surround-sound Bang & Olufsen audio system in the main room, as well as two systems in other rooms.

An oak-panelled wall in the reception area has two plasma televisions side by side, so that you can “watch different channels at the same time”.

There is a cinema room, complete with a 60in plasma screen, the largest of its kind on the market. Even the big screen, however, is dwarfed by the giant, custom-made red leather couch that faces it.

The feeling of space in the huge main room is magnified by a mirrored wall on one end. Throughout the flat, the floor is covered by 60sq m of large slabs of white marble.

“The big budget meant that I didn’t have to worry about money,” says Matuzny, “and could get the things I really liked.” Unusual features include a fountain in the middle of the main room, based on her drawings. “I got the idea from seeing pictures of Turkish palaces in magazines. I like the calming sound of the water flowing.”

The overall style is monochrome with the occasional burst of colour, such as the bright orange and purple sinks in the bathrooms and pink chairs in the main room. The table, bound in leather, has a Perspex surface, underlit in blue neon. The kitchen, a combination of custom-built cherry wood and black granite surfaces, has a wine-chiller cabinet and plate-warmer.

Next stop? Matuzny reckons the Chelsea embankment — near the designer shops of the King’s Road — is right for her. Besides, she says, the river views remind her of Moscow.

The flat is for sale for £865,000 through Manors & Co, 020 7486 5655, www.manors.co.uk

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