Before you even enter Kate Halfpenny’s mews house, on a cobbled west London street, you can practically hear wedding bells. Hanging in the windows of the designer’s home are bridal gowns of vintage lace, draped with cream furs and pinned with silk flowers, sparkling retro-style jewellery and her trademark gold-insect brooches.

Inside, through solid black coachhouse doors, the ground-floor studio is filled with racks and mannequins hung with hundreds more gowns, in shades of white and ivory, some dating from the 19th century, others Halfpenny’s own hand-embroidered bespoke designs. Dotted around are vintage Louboutin and Westwood shoes, and hanging on the wall is a sample of the delicate black spotted-tulle dress Kate Moss wore for her 35th birthday bash. It’s a fashionista bride-to-be’s dream room.

Interesting, then, that Halfpenny, 34, who is also a costume designer and personal stylist to stars including Emilia Fox, Erin O’Connor and Charlotte Church, has spent the past year putting the finishing touches to the rest of what is strictly a one-woman home. “My environment is important to me,” she says, “and I’m sensitive to it. So I need candles and flowers everywhere to feel right. I’m not really tolerant of other people’s mess now. You know, it’s great being single in your thirties.”

Although Halfpenny bought the house on Scampston Mews, near Ladbroke Grove, six years ago with her then boyfriend, the artist Philip Handsley, for £415,000, she has been living on her own for a year after they split. Instead of falling apart, she set about putting her personal stamp on the 1,380 sq ft, three-storey property’s living space, arranged over the top two floors, filling it with vintage furniture from nearby Portobello market and eccentric trinkets and art discovered on trips to Iceland, Brazil, Portugal and the Far East.

“As a stylist on commercials for everyone from Littlewoods to PlayStation, I travel a lot,” Halfpenny says. “It’s great being able to fly by the seat of your pants, but it means I’ve only just got the place exactly how I want it.”

The Derbyshire-born textiles graduate is known in the fashion industry as a no-nonsense, straight-talking type who wouldn’t dream of letting you leave the house in a frock your bum looked big in. Although it is clear she can turn her hand to interior design as easily as she can to whipping up a beaded gown or filigree necklace, Halfpenny is quick to credit her ex for his work on the place. “He’s incredibly talented,” she says, “and spent a lot of time creating the layout to maximise space and light. It was a perfect collaboration.”

When they bought the house, it stood empty and broken, but they decided to move in immediately. “The place was a bomb site, used for storage, and there was no heating,” Halfpenny recalls. “But we saw the potential and restored all the brickwork.

“It was good to live in a space and get to know it slowly — it’s so important to get the feel of a building before you do anything to it. When some of the walls were knocked through, though, I had to sleep with screens around my bed to keep out of sight of the builders. That was a bit ridiculous.”

The pair spent about £200,000 extending landings, putting in an open-plan kitchen/dining room and laying oak parquet flooring, salvaged by Lassco. Three natural-stone bathrooms and a 16ft 4in by 12ft loft-style snug on the top floor, decorated with intriguing trompe l’oeil bookshelf wallpaper by Deborah Bowness, completed the layout. “The main thing was not to have any dead space,” Halfpenny says.

Between advertising commissions, (she worked on the fresh look, as sported by Twiggy and Lizzie Jagger, in the M&S ads), bridalwear design and styling, she has found time to trawl local flea markets and second-hand shops for treasures. Les Couilles du Chien, on Golborne Road, The Last Place on Earth, in north Kensington, and Lots Road Auctions are favourite sources. “I love to mix up different periods and mess around with them,” she says.

The usual vintage fare — distressed mirrors, modernist furniture and unusual glassware — features throughout, but it is Halfpenny’s rather eccentric obsessions that make the place so interesting. For the designer, three is a magic number, and objects in triplicate are everywhere: there are painted wooden dolls from Thailand lining the stairwell, and, elsewhere, tea cups, mini heads and ornaments. Birds are another preoccupation — “I just love them” — from the mechanical tweeting robin in the kitchen to the lifelike black crow sitting on a papier-mâché shelf in her ensuite bathroom, as well plates and ceramics decorated with birds.

Old typography is another passion. Huge 1930s drawers are stamped with original advertisements for dairy goods, and above her Vi-Spring bed, draped in a rabbit throw (a present from Fox), a fabric-covered placard bears the words: “All Goods Direct from the Manufacturer — No Middleman Profits”. The classic second world war poster bearing the exhortation to Keep Calm and Carry On hangs on another wall. In the spare bedroom, Halfpenny’s own handiwork is embroidered on Union Jack-style cushions: “Just Say No” and “Yes, Please”.

Interestingly, for a woman who lives and breathes clothes, there is little sign of her own wardrobe, except for the odd frock hanging on a door — it is all tucked away in storage space. “I spend my life dressing other people,” she says, “and don’t have time to concentrate on myself. I even find myself sewing the dress I plan to wear to an event while I’m on my way there in the car.”

The house also lacks outside space, but says Halfpenny, “there is an incredibly artistic community living here, and we all set up tables in the street. I parked a big red tent in it for my birthday party last year”.

Much as she loves the mews, and the area, Halfpenny is selling up. Romance is in the air for her again, but she is keen to set out independently. “I want to get my hands dirty on a new project,” she says, “although I’ve yet to find the right house. And this time, I’ll be employing an architect and project manager.”

The vintage telephone in the studio trills for Halfpenny — a bride is on her way to the house for a fitting.

Having just finished revamping Fox’s London home, surely she could consider adding an interiors branch to her business at some point? “Hmm, I wouldn’t rule it out,” she muses. “I might well look at a collaboration between textiles, fabrics and objects.”

The Scampston Mews house is for sale for £1.2m with Bective Leslie Marsh (020 7221 0330, bectivelesliemarsh.co.uk ); halfpennylondon.com , katehalfpenny.com

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