APARTMENT THERAPY

| DREAM HOUSE |

A t TMENT erapy

BL CONTEMPORARY

FINI H PERIOD DETAILS,

TOM AND ANTONIA GAME’S MANSION BLOCK FLAT HAS BEEN

CAREFULLY RECONFIGURED TO CREATE AN ELEGANT HOME FOR

A GROWN-UP FAMILY OF FOUR

WOW MOMENT

Contemporary armchairs in Pierre Frey fabric inject a burst of pattern and colour against a refined palette

Living room

Antonia and Tom focused on how each space would be used socially. Here, a trio of round side tables in varying styles and sizes ensure everyone has a spot for their coffee cup.

BUY THE KEY PIECES

Mad armchair, price on request, Poliform. Crosby mirror, price on request, Ochre. Similar nesting coffee tables, £299 for a set of two, Cult Furniture. Bespoke fireplace, Chesney’s

Stylish light fittings create a statement throughout the apartment

HOME NOTES

WHO LIVES HERE? Tom and Antonia Game live here with their two grown-up children. THE PROPERTY A three-bedroom apartment in an Edwardian mansion block in Marylebone, London.

when it came to finding a London base, this mansion block apartment wasn’t Tom and Antonia Game’s first choice. Despite having well maintained communal spaces, its traditional layout of narrow corridors flanked by separate kitchen, dining and living spaces seemed out of sync with the open plan home the couple envisioned.

‘We had been living in Surrey, and wanted to find a spacious home in central London that had a community feel,’ says Tom. ‘It had to be a place with enough room for us to be together as a family, but where our grown-up children could also have their own space. The agent showed us this apartment almost as an afterthought.’

The flat is set on the second floor of a red-brick Edwardian building, and it was its doublefronted reception room with bay windows looking out over the lively high street that drew the couple in. The rest of the property, however, needed thinking about. ‘There were functional

WOW MOMENT

Secret storage hides behind panelling under the window seat

Dining area

A layout that encourages the family to spend time together was crucial to the design. The original bay window acts as a frame for the dining table, which is situated to take advantage of views of the street below.

BUY THE KEY PIECES

Knoll Saarinen chair, £1,452; Flos ICS2 pendant light, £495, both The Conran Shop. Edelweiss table, £479, Made.com, would work

WOW MOMENT

The pendant light, which mirrors the length of the kitchen island, highlights the pleasing proportions of this open-plan space

Kitchen

A section of the room behind was used to create a recess for cabinets; the dishwasher and oven are housed in the island.

BUY THE KEY PIECES

Kitchen, price on request, Crafted Cabinetry. Compendium light, £766, Viaduct. Basic Modern clock, £13, Amazon, is similar

WOW MOMENT

The stunning artwork fills this neutral space with colour

Kitchen

Rich blue-black woodwork and textures, such as leather on the bar stools, add contrast and interest to the design.

BUY THE KEY PIECES

Fiber bar stool, £669, Muuto. Try the Talbot vase, £34, Abigail Ahern

Full-height DOORS alwayshelp LIGHTER, BRIGHTER andmore “ a SPACE feel important“

but tired bathrooms, and a separate kitchen with almost no natural light,’ says Tom.

The property had been done up to be let in the 1980s by a developer who added melamine flooring and incongruous columns, while stripping out all of the original details, such as cornices, fireplaces and architraves. ‘Almost nothing that had been left was fit for purpose,’ he adds. At this point their agent introduced the couple to Katie McCrum (katiemccrumstudio. com), an interior designer who had worked on similar properties nearby. Imagining an urban pad that would accommodate the whole family, their brief to Katie was precise and ambitious. ‘We were inspired by the luxurious feel of Parisian apartments, and an open plan living area where we could all spend time together was a must,’ says Tom.

The predictable solution might have been to position the kitchen at one end of the long living

Bedroom

The new Arts and Crafts-style panelling in this room, painted a lush blue, conceals handy storage behind sliding doors for an elegant, streamlined feel.

BUY THE KEY PIECES

Buster & Punch hooked wall light, £291, Holloways of Ludlow. Similar duvet cover, Luna, £229, Soho Home

WOW MOMENT

A compact bedside table suits the room’s smaller proportions

Sliding doors within PANELLING is a subtle way to hide a MULTITUDE of STORAGE sins “ “

area. Instead, Katie encouraged the couple to take a risk and reconfigure the apartment’s whole layout. A chunk of space was stolen from the main bedroom and they were able to open up a wall so that the new kitchen sits in a recess echoing the shape of the bay window opposite.

‘Because we’d already taken space from the main bedroom, it made sense to start again and remove other walls in order to create a layout that would best suit the family,’ says Katie. Where there were previously two bathrooms, there are now three bathrooms and three bedrooms.

The serenity of the finished main bathroom, which had previously been the kitchen, gives away no clues about the endless decisions behind its design. ‘Almost everything in the space was wrong – the odd shape of the walls, the pipework that couldn’t be moved, the impossible drainage. It forced us to get creative.’ Instead of a solid wall, a glazed partition was designed to screen

Main bathroom

Once the dark, awkwardly configured kitchen, this room has been transformed into a beautiful bathing space, which feels both visually stunning and tranquil thanks to the glazed screen and floating vanity units.

BUY THE KEY PIECES

Picasso bath, £1,395, Lusso Stone, is a match. Harbour vanity unit, from £299, Drench, would work here. Mirrored cabinets, price on request Crafted Cabinets

WOW MOMENT

Enclosing the bathtub behind glass screens creates a spa-like feeling of privacy and luxury

Second bedroom

Next to the built-in wardrobe, a floating desk brings interest to a corner where the combination of mirror and shelf create an unexpected feature.

BUY THE KEY PIECES

Try Trigala wall desk, £126, La Redoute. Similar stool, Utah, £79, Cult Furniture. JWDA concrete lamp, £189, Royal Design UK.

WOW MOMENT

An elegant desk can double as a dressing table for the smartest use of space

Shower room

In this new bathroom, the walls are clad in microcement, which glows like traditional plasterwork, adding depth to the compact space.

BUY THE KEY PIECES

Try Ayla encaustic cement tiles, £109sq m, Terrazzo Tiles. Milano Amara wall-mounted tap in Brushed Copper, £184.99, Big Bathroom Shop, would work here

WOW MOMENT

The intricate floor tile design draws the eye and creates interest within the neutral scheme

The bathrooms had many CHALLENGES butwere the most SUCCESSFUL part of the PROJECT “ “

the double showers and bath, at the same time maximising the daylight. To create cohesion within the space, the same porcelain used on the walls tops the lacquered vanity units. Brass mirrors echo the shower fittings and the raised floor, which conceals drainage, creates a division between wet and dry areas.

Throughout the flat, a range of design tricks has been used to enhance space and light. Microcement walls add the appearance of depth to the compact bathrooms, while plenty of mirrors reflect light around to illuminate dark corners. Additionally, the couple have reinstated the original features that had been removed forty years previously, such as cast iron radiators and elegant Arts and Crafts style panelling, which now cleverly conceals much needed storage. Deftly redesigned to suit 21st century living, the apartment now accommodates the whole family and is endlessly stylish to boot. n