City Life in Colour
Interior Design| Maide Vale
In order to enjoy the vibrancy of work and entertainment in the capital, this family of four with grown up children purchased a spacious three bedroom apartment to function as their city base from where to host dinner parties and spend weeknights after work or theatre before heading back to the country for the weekend. The apartment is located in a smart stucco fronted street in Maida Vale with access to communal gardens. We were appointed to oversee the redecoration and furnish everything as a turnkey project.
Defining the Brief
The client admitted she would never be able to ‘’make it work’’ and wanted us to select everything down to the last detail for fear of ruining a beautiful flat with terrible accessories. Her accustomed comfort zone were white walls, but we agreed that short stays in London ought to be cherished as vibrant variations and as such a more daring color scheme was permitted.
The palette of paints and fabrics we proposed is anchored by the lush green foliage of the garden which is on view from the main spaces. We opted for a rich combination of purple and pinks with dashes of orange and copper against backdrop of walls in shades of mint green, soft pink and plaster.
Space Planning
Swapping places
The apartment has a generous layout but one oddity of the conversion from single dwelling into flats is that a large passage area in the kitchen has little daylight. We recommended to place the dining area in this dark section which then frees up more generous entertainment space in the reception room. The vibrant mint walls and copper lights, paired with plenty of reflective surfaces such as the marble, glass backsplash and mirrors make the kitchen much fresher. We replaced the old halogen downlights with the best quality LED which resulted in much improved colour rendering. The long corridor is extra wide and we used this opportunity to build a bespoke hallway unit with additional storage for shoes, books and a work-from-home-desk space.
Art Sourcing
New Horizons
The adult daughters chose schemes in pinks and oranges and we added desk to each bedroom to allow for work from home flexibility. Everyone embraced their colorful city life bedroom and we notice that clients are definitely more willing to engage with new ideas and take some risks on second homes which offer the opportunity to experience a kind of luxurious holiday feeling. A crucial ingredient in each bedroom scheme and throughout the property was the search for affordable art and we relished the opportunity to adorn the walls with a mix of vintage oil paintings, modern abstract oils and colorful graphic reproductions and prints.
