There is something intriguing about visiting the home that a world-famous designer has created for himself - it's a bit like popping round to Gordon Ramsay's house for supper.

Ou Baholyodhin is the Ramsay equivalent of the design world. His recent projects include Patara restaurant in Mayfair, Spencer Hart on Savile Row and Benares Restaurant and Bar on Berkeley Square, all in Central London. He has created designs for exclusive events and parties, given exhibitions and talks worldwide and written two books. But if you take away the clients and the critics, what kind of interior space will he design for himself?

To find the answer I visited Montpelier Walk in the tangle of streets in Knightsbridge village, just behind Harrods. It was here that Baholyodhin last year renovated a narrow, four-storey, 1950s terraced house with the intention of making it his London home. It made quite a contrast to his previous abode - the former penthouse of the architect Berthold Lubetkin on top of Lubetkin's Highpoint apartment complex in Highgate, North London.

“But [the Montpelier Walk house] was liveable-in and it was a homely home, which was important to me,” says Baholyodhin, on the phone from Thailand. “I could see its potential. There was logic to the layout and a good flow of light from front to back.”

But lack of space was a drawback. The small rooms were stacked on top of each other, overlooking a garden at the back measuring about 7.8m x 3.8m (26ft x 13ft). Baholyodhin's solution was to extend the ground floor into the garden and create a terrace on top of the extension.

Now when you enter the house you are immediately in the living room, leading through into a kitchen and dining area. A chunky gas fire and charcoal-coloured oak flooring give the living room a feeling of solidity and formality.

The kitchen and dining room, meanwhile, is almost solely in black and milky white, making it neat but not stark. At its far end a light well gives an infusion of daylight. “I find the length of this room very satisfying,” says Baholyodhin. “There is no step so one room flows easily into the other and it was conceived to match my own lifestyle. If I wanted I could carry out all my daytime activities here - there would be no need to go upstairs. I like that.”

On the floor above you find the drawing room, which leads on to a roof terrace. This is the room of which Baholyodhin is most proud. “I tried here to create the feel of a café in Provence,” he says. “I see it as a cool place to be in summer, with the breeze streaming through the French windows.” Other little things, too, make this room appealing, notably the cast-iron radiators, the marble fireplace and the tiny, wooden, New England-style conservatory in its corner.

On the second floor are the master bedroom and the main bathroom. With its white tiles, heavy twin basins, wooden lavatory seat and unconcealed cisterns and pipes, the bathroom is masculine in tone, with a touch of the municipal baths about it. The bedroom, which has Art Deco light fittings, is extremely light, despite being in a crowded street in Central London. There is a simple reason for this - there are no curtains or blinds on the windows.

“It is a matter of personal choice,” Baholyodhin says. “I just love to come awake with the sunrise and by leaving the windows clear you make the whole house brighter, lighter and less suffocating. Windows don't have to be covered.” Another nice touch on this floor is the mini-study, directly above the mini-conservatory on the floor below. There is just enough space for a laptop, a desk and a chair.

The third floor has two guest bedrooms but the pièce de résistance is the electronically controlled glass roof, which peels back to reveal the second, main roof terrace. From up here, four storeys above street level, there are the most wonderful Mary Poppins views across the rooftops, taking in the Brompton Oratory, the Victoria and Albert Museum, several Russian Orthodox churches and Harrods. And the decked roof garden, rather than having a

mere barbecue area, has a whole outdoor kitchen built of iroko, the wood used on ocean-going yachts.

This whole renovation has cost Baholyodhin more than £500,000, on top of the £2 million he paid for the house. Yet having invested all that capital and creativity in the project he now intends to sell it, without having actually lived in the house.

What brought about this change of heart? “I spent three months in the Sahara and I made certain decisions,” he says. “I decided that I was tired of London. In the world of design everything seems so harsh nowadays; everyone is obsessed by lighting, sound systems and the latest high-tech gizmos. So I'm going to take a break from the rat race and live on a coconut farm in bamboo huts next to the beach in the south of Thailand for a while.”

Ou Baholyodhin's house is for sale for £3.15 million through W.A.Ellis (020-7306 1620). It can be bought fully furnished

for an extra £60,000.

Dateline

1966 Ou Baholyodhin born in Bangkok

1976 Visits London for the first time. Hates the street lights

1979 Starts at Rugby School

1984 Bartlett School of Architecture

1986-95 Studies in London and Paris; spends time in Florence

1998 Designs and re-brands K Bars throughout the UK

2000 Appointed creative director of Thai silk manufacturer Jim Thompson

2000 Writes first book, Living with Zen

2001 Writes Being with Flowers

2003 Designs a collection for Ocean Glass

2008 Returns to Thailand

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