Alidad: The Timeless Home

ALIDAD

THE TIMELESS HOME

Foreword by

MIN HOGG Photography by

JAMES McDONALD Text by

SARAH STEWART–SMITH © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.

Š 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.

sixth sense THE VISION

A

lidad’s interpretation of vision is as much about how he sees a detail or scene as it is about his instinct, what he calls a sixth sense for creating an elegantly balanced interior. e vision is the beginning, the energy and spark of an idea that drives the subsequent design.

A vision can begin with a color or texture or with the way mirror reflects light. A vision for a room can be triggered by the scale of a seventeenth-century tapestry.

Vision can be an interpretation of history. Equally, vision can come from a client’s comment or reaction. Alidad’s sixth sense is bound up in surprise, expectation, anticipation and excitement.

All of these comprise Alidad’s overall vision, which embraces logic, practicality and application. Alidad’s vision will create the start and his instinctive sixth sense will carry it to completion.

“Vision can come from an old fabric fragment, a small detail from a photograph that evokes memories, or it can be from something historical I saw a long time ago. When I see a

house for the first time, I have flashbacks of small and large details of historical houses that I have seen and known in the past, and I use these to create a new picture.” e time taken with a client is the most valuable part of the initial design process because it gives Alidad an understanding of the needs and expectations that will underpin all the subsequent design work. is gives Alidad the information and detail that he uses to create spaces that have relevance and embody what he always refers to as “the essence of home.”

Whenever Alidad talks about the home, the words, comfort, coziness and protection are spoken more oen than style or decoration. He takes a logical, practical and human approach because he sees the home as being the most vital need of any human being. Alidad is engaging at the deeper level to seek solutions to make the home fit the client’s way of thinking and living. Like all great couturiers, Alidad believes that you wear the clothes, they don’t wear you, and he applies

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Main picture: e design for the hall and dining area in this Queen Anne London house developed through my fascination with the contrast in view as you look from one space into another—this is one of the ways I can create surprise and a delightful kind of interest and vision for a space. Each of the verre églomisé mirrored sections within the dining room’s wood paneling depicts a hand-painted portrait of a fictitious Ottoman Sultan that I designed for the sheer beauty and fun of color and light reflection. By over-hanging a portrait of a be-ruffed seventeenth-century gentleman onto an eighteenth-century textile in the adjoining room, there is an immediate sense of historical intrigue and authenticity even though these rooms were created from scratch in 1999. e furnishing also includes eighteenth-century chairs and a rare seventeenth-century carpet used as the tablecloth on the round hall table.

Detail, above: e stunning series of reflections appears infinite, filling the room with warmth and magic. ese are among my earliest gilded, or verre églomisé, wall panels, which began my design journey through the qualities of reflection and historical fusions.

© 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.

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Main picture: Despite its apparent formality, the Dutch Room at Buscot Park has a gentle and inviting charm. e new hand-dyed, green silk damask walls are based on an old design, but I colored the fabric to be unique to the house—the walls below the dado are painted trompe l’œil sections designed to trick the eye into believing they are three-dimensional molded panels. e joy of this room is the fine English furniture and the paintings—that include Rembrandt and Rubens—all of which belonged to the house. My job in this respect was to reposition, restore and reupholster with subtlety. e uncluttered and elegant design for the new Zeigler rug was based on late nineteenth-century Zeigler designs that were specifically made in Iran for houses such as this.

Detail: Another view of the Dutch Room.

© 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.

Š 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.

Š 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.

Š 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.

sixth sense THE VISION

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Main picture: My vision for this anteroom, which adjoins a formal dining room, grew from the idea of Ottoman yalis, wooden houses that overlook the Bosphorus. e romantic charm of the idea was perfect for this space and even though it is relatively small, I knew it would make the perfect place to retire aer dinner for coffee or tea. I let my imaginings run free in order to create the right concept—the design uses a combination of intricate but highly geometric Islamic patterns that I have adapted to suit my vision of mirrored walls. To further the rich effect, both the cornice and ceiling are finished with printed and hand-painted papers to achieve this highly decorative but essentially Oriental look.

Comfortable velvet-upholstered banquettes run the length of the walls with many intricately metal-threadembroidered cushions. e shutters, made by the New England Shutter Company, add the final layer of chic to the room, and every section is louvered in order to open and close, which is a feat in itself considering the complex shapes of some of the shuttered sections.

Detail: To make the space feel more substantial, I put mirrors on all the vertical surfaces, each of which features a brass-work geometric design with an overlaid hand-painted design on the surface of the glass. e ceiling presented its own challenge when devising how to fit the air-conditioning units. ere is a specific pattern of brass grilles within the hand-painted decoration in the soffits and within the ceiling itself that conceals the units, but you would never guess their existence. Each corner of the anteroom has a humorous red glass lantern hanging into the space, positioned more for decoration than real lighting, as there is also a hidden lighting system that soly lights the space for nighttime use.

© 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.

Š 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.

Š 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.

Š 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.

Š 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.

Š 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.

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Previous page: Having produced perfectly symmetrical architecture and plasterwork for this grandiose drawing room, I then appointed it with a perfect kind of Alidad “off ” symmetry in the layout of the furniture. Each sofa sits within its own alcove, giving it a specific setting and therefore giving the room a cozier, more intimate mood within a room of such scale. While each of the individual furniture layouts are precise and symmetrical in their formations, the way they are positioned in the room is not. e extraordinary 10-meter-long Zeigler carpet was specially made for this room in these exact shades and bold pattern, and it forms the ideal background to all the richness of color and texture in the furnishings.

Main picture, this page: In this part of the room, the red sofa is recessed into a highly ornate carved-wood alcove that houses a collection of nineteenth-century bohemian glassware and other artifacts. e sofa design is a blend of mirrored neo-classical legs with arms that are more baroque in style. To the red velvet and damask upholstery I have added characteristic Alidad braidwork to enliven the plains and soen the textures. I believe the design as a whole expresses a sense of fun and irreverence within such a formal room. A detail of the mirror inset within the design of the plasterwork, above.

© 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.

Š 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.

mood RELAXATION & TEXTURE

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Main picture: I designed these colored glass windows, having taken inspiration from historic Lebanese architecture. is was once an open verandah, but I felt that the house would benefit from having an enclosed anteroom that could be used on a daily basis. e fine wool bouclé embroidered cushions are among the many details that further enhance the space. Its charming, informal character is inviting, coaxing you just sit and be.

Above: e ceiling has a trellis design in painted wood with a brass stud at each junction. To this I added a combination of verre églomisé panels and hand-painted motifs in shades of gold. It would have been impossible to have had a plain ceiling in a room like this because the walls needed something of equal strength to make the room work from all views within the space.

© 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.

Š 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.