THE DILEMMA: NICOLE and Olivier have just moved from Paris to Knightsbridge, into a house on a small estate built in the 1970s. The house is arranged over three floors but cannot be described as pretty: the brutality of the flat façade is barely alleviated by a course of brown glazed tiles, and the interior is redolent of the 1980s – a perverse combination of Mediterranean, rustic and gilded themes. It’s Miami Vice pastels mixed with rural ethnic feature.

The layout is also a little eccentric: adjacent to the kitchen is a room too small to be usable living space. And although the couple are thrilled to have outside space in the middle of town, the patio garden has decorative terracotta tiles and stone-style concrete bricks that form flowerbeds, all covered with an ugly, antiburglar pergola. In addition, the windows of the rear façade are fitted with “decorative” security grilles.

How can the couple make their home reflect its chic location?

THE SOLUTION: Nicole and Olivier’s new home is full of really exciting potential. Large aluminium framed windows and brushed aluminium ironmongery offer a glimpse of the architect’s ambition for modernity, a fine foundation for further development into a contemporary design scheme, beginning with removal of the wall between the kitchen and the adjacent room (perhaps requiring a structural steel beam) – along with all the terrible brass light switches, sockets and door handles, dusty swags, Mediterranean-style floor tiles and “antique” light fittings. The paint effects also need painting over.

I would then suggest that the perimeter wall between the new enlarged kitchen and the patio garden outside is replaced with full-height folding glass doors. Retiling indoor and outdoor floors in a gorgeous brushed, soft grey limestone such as Lymerat from Stonell (www.stonelldirect.com) will look crisp and modern, as well as being hardwearing.

The new larger kitchen will also be able to accommodate an informal dining area and this style of house would ideally accommodate something like a Bulthaup design (www.bulthaup.com ).

Outside, I would recommend that they work with a garden designer such as Karena Batstone (www.karenabatstone.com ) who designed a garden for Nigella Lawson, naturally including an outdoor kitchen, and who will turn their patio into something quietly stunning and delightfully functional, doubtless removing the dreaded pergola and security grilles.

Moving up a floor I notice that the living room is a rather difficult shape. To make sense of its long and thin proportions I would recommend introducing two groups of seating: one formal and one informal.

On the top floor the bathroom seems far larger than is necessary, especially if only one of the two bedrooms will be used as such, the other functioning as a study. Given that wardrobe space is a squeeze I suggest that clothing storage in the study bedroom is considerably enlarged, borrowing space from the adjacent oversized bathroom and making the study double as a dressing room.

For freestanding furniture I would suggest choosing from Matthew Hilton’s new website, www.matthewhilton.com .

The refinement of Hilton’s designs will be a suitable complement to the angular architecture of this house. Finally the dreary front elevation can be simply remedied by the installation of a smart new door from Urban Front (www.urbanfront.co.uk ), any of whose designs will suit the building’s 1970s styling.

A tall bronze planter from Planters Paradise (www.plantersparadise.co.uk ), to chime with those brown glazed tiles, and planted with a cascading coppered Phormium, will be a lovely leafy foil too, next to the new door. A Toronto outdoor light fitting from Mr Light (www.mrlight.co.uk ) will illuminate this part of a sorely needed refurbishment.

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