Markus Andrews

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    Casa ai Bailucchi is a two-level apartment overlooking Genoa port

    Italian studio Llabb has combined two apartments in Genoa, creating a quirky home that combines nautical references with contemporary art.Casa ai Bailucchi is the home of a young creative couple – one is a gallery owner and music lover, the other is a freelance graphic designer.

    The L-shaped upper level contains the kitchen and living spaces
    The two-level, 135-square-metre apartment is located on the upper levels of a building overlooking the port, so the design was heavily influenced by the huge machinery that can be seen occupying the waterside.
    Locally based Llabb, led by designers Federico Robbiano and Luca Scardulla, planned the layout to take full advantage of the views and also peppered the interior with very subtle maritime references.

    Nautical details are combined with vintage furniture and contemporary artworks

    These references include a staircase with a rope handrail, a porthole window, and a colour palette featuring shades of blue and yellow.
    Other details include a mix of custom-made and vintage furniture, decorative tiles, large plants and a variety of artworks from the clients’ personal collection.

    The upper floor leads out to a 100-square-metre roof terrace
    The starting point for the design was the addition of a staircase, connecting the two previously separate apartments. With four metres of height between the two floors, it was a challenge to fit this in.

    Studio Venturoni warms up Rome apartment with earthy hues

    Robbiano and Scardulla’s solution was to create a staircase that winds up in several different sections. As well as the blue rope handrail, it features oak treads and a steel frame with open risers.

    The nautical-inspired staircase features a rope handrail and a porthole window
    “The result is pretty dynamic and allows the visitors to see the apartment from different views,” Scardulla told Dezeen.
    “It guides you, almost like the stepping stones in Japanese gardens.”

    The bedroom features plaster walls and terrazzo flooring
    Both levels have their own character. The lower level is more compartmentalised, with two bedrooms, a study room, and a bathroom.
    Original terrazzo floors have been preserved in these rooms. There are other nods to the building’s history too, for instance, the master bedroom features an arched window and exposed plaster walls.

    Patterned tiles feature in both the bathroom and the kitchen
    The upper level is mostly open-plan. The L-shaped floor plan naturally separates the lounge area from the dining space and kitchen, with the space further subdivided by cutaway walls.
    “It was a big challenge to manage the long and narrow living space on the upper floor; the risk was to have a ‘corridor effect’,” said Robbiano.
    “We used different layers of perceiving and living the space, making it more interesting to explore.”

    Studio workspaces can be found on both floors
    The apartment contains two work-from-home spaces. As well as the study room on the lower level, there is a “studiolo” on the upper floor, which the designers liken to the cockpit of a crane.
    The living space also opens out to a 100-square-metre roof terrace, which the owners have filled with even more plants.
    Photography is by Studio Campo.
    Project credits
    Design: LlabbDesign team: Luca Scardulla, Federico Robbiano, Linda Consiglieri, Laura Davite, Riccardo Gelmini, Martina Pisano, Floria BruzzoneConstruction: Zena CostruzioniCarpentry: Carlino SantoMetalwork: Metal ProjectTiles and sanitary ware: NobiliFlooring: Effebi parquet

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    Studio Anton Hendrik Denys designs Belgian office informed by 1960s colour schemes

    Studio Anton Hendrik Denys and Steen Architecten have transformed an industrial office building in Belgium by cladding it in corrugated metal and adding colourful graphic interiors.Studio Anton Hendrik Denys, in collaboration with Steen Architecten, stripped the existing office building in Heverlee back to its core and used the company’s corporate identity to create a design that it calls a “contemporary twist on modernism”.
    The AEtelier office was designed for an IT consulting company in Belgium and contains a combination of private workspaces, meeting rooms, open plan communal areas, and event rooms that can be used for events and conferences.

    Top: AEtelier by Studio Anton Hendrik Denys. Above: walls and the ceiling are painted a deep blue.

    “I love and always apply a minimalistic design-language, but simultaneously I feel the need to add something extra,” studio founder Anton Hendrik Denys told Dezeen.
    “Modernism often balances minimal shapes wonderfully with splashes of colour and new, unfamiliar materials.”

    Wood-panneled areas provide a contrast against the blue walls
    Informed by the bold interior colour schemes of the 1960s, the designer chose a deep blue colour for the walls of the office and used teal carpeting and a green floor throughout.
    A welcome desk and lockers at the entrance of the office have a muted grey colour palette and are framed by a wood-panelled backdrop, while the blue walls and ceiling create a colourful contrast.

    Midcentury-inspired seating areas are built into nooks
    An existing dropped ceiling was replaced with circular soundproofing panels that expose the height of the space and its industrial piping and fixtures.
    Circular acoustic panels have been added to the ceilings throughout the interior. These are mimicked in large halo lighting fixtures suspended over tables, as well as on cabinetry details that feature circular cut-outs, and have also been added to a wall in a private office.

    Colours zone different spaces within the open-plan areas
    Denys used colour in an informative way to define different spaces. The orange hue used for the company’s corporate identity was chosen for kitchen areas, bars, toilets and soft furnishings, to make these easy to find.

    Studio Aisslinger designs LOQI office with social distancing in mind

    “The main colour of my client’s corporate identity happened to be orange, which was both a welcome coincidence and a perfect starting point to build my midcentury-inspired colour palette,” Denys said.
    “In the meeting rooms eventually, less bright shades of the main colours were applied to create a more relaxed atmosphere,” he added.

    Bars are painted one block colour, so that guests and users can easily navigate the space
    A visual language was developed by Jaap Knevel, an information designer, to create iconography and signage so that staff and guests can easily navigate within the space.
    The green floor defines shared spaces and guides users through the building. These hard floor surfaces are juxtaposed with a soft teal carpet that covers the floors of private offices and meeting rooms.

    Halo lighting fixtures match the circular acoustic panels
    Studio Anton Hendrik Denys and Steen Architecten also renovated the exterior of the building, which is now clad in corrugated aluminium that contrasts and frames glimpses of the bold interior that can be seen through the windows.
    The aluminium cladding continues into a central landscaped courtyard that houses plants, as well as bright red furniture and a concrete bridge that connects two parts of the office.

    A concrete bridge runs through the courtyard between wild landscaping
    “For the outdoor renovation, the goal was to create a calm and subtle look that would serve as a frame for the bright interior,” Denys explained.
    “Creating a contrast between a silver-ish facade with windows framing shots of blue, orange, green and pink behind them,” he added.

    Opal-framed windows and doors sit within the corrugated aluminium facade
    “I wanted to move away from the general perception of how office spaces should look like nowadays,” Denys explained.
    “Besides that, I wanted to create a space that could be reorganised as time evolves and people might have different needs for their work environment.”
    Studio Anton Hendrik Denys was founded by Anton Hendrik Denys, a Belgian-born designer based in Copenhagen who works across art, furniture design, interior and spatial design.
    Colourful office interiors are on the rise. Beyond Space recently completed this colourful office designed around a reconfigurable grid system, while Note Studio also created a bold interior that aims to “break the grid” of 1930s office buildings.
    Photography is by Hannelore Veelaert.
    Project credits:
    Designer and creative lead: Studio Anton Hendrik DenysCollaborating architect: Steen ArchitectenLandscape design: Van Dyck Tuinarchitectuur

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    Timber Trade Federation exhibits six “conversation pieces” made from responsibly sourced timber

    Dezeen promotion: the UK Timber Trade Federation is showcasing the winning entries of its Conversations about Climate Change design competition via a virtual exhibition and event series.The competition, which received more than 100 responses from around the world, called on entrants to create an installation that would provoke discussions about global warming while showcasing the environmental benefits of responsibly sourced, tropical hardwoods.

    Top image: Joseph Pipal’s Carbon Print is one of the winning projects. Above: The Extraction pillar is by Julia and Julian Kashdan-Brown
    “Responsibly forested timber is an essential part of the climate change solution; however, tropical forests have too often been undervalued and their forest land cleared for other uses,” said David Hopkins, CEO of the Timber Trade Federation (TTF).
    “Our competition asked architects and designers to respond to tropical timber, think about the materials they usually work with and consider how the role of materials specified is vital for implementing change.”

    Tree Whisperer are sound sculptures by Sheryl Ang and Yuta Nakayama

    Selected by a panel of judges including Yinka Ilori and Julia Barfield of Marks Barfield Architects, the six winning “conversation pieces” are now on display at London’s Building Centre for the next three months (temporarily closed due to the lockdown restrictions) and via a virtual 360-degree tour.
    Among them are a series of sound sculptures by Singaporean designers Sheryl Ang and Yuta Nakayama, which are shaped like various tree species and emit different “heartbeats” that their particular response to climate stress.
    A simple teak column by UK-based Michael Westthorp shows today’s sea level as well as its projected rise by 2120, while Julia and Julian Kashdan-Brown took a pillar of sapele wood and drilled holes through its heart to visualise the impact of uncontrolled deforestation – “take too much, and the system will collapse”.

    High Tide by Michael Westthorp shows the effects of sea-level rise
    Meanwhile British furniture maker Joseph Pipal created a series of blocks reminiscent of gold bullion, made from meranti, sapele and iroko wood, each emblazoned with the amount of carbon they are able to sequester from the atmosphere and store.
    “I’ve been uplifted, as a maker, by the simple realisation that using sustainably sourced wood can help with the climate crisis,” he said.
    Design duo Jeremy Yu and Tomos Owen as well as architect Tom Wilson are also among the winners.

    The Carbon Print project shows the amount of carbon that different tree species can sequester and store
    All timber for the installations was sourced from countries that are currently working towards being licensed via the United Kingdom and European Union’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative.
    This sees countries commit to a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) and an action plan for overhauling their legal, social, business and environmental infrastructure to combat illegal logging and timber trade as well as deforestation.
    “This landmark shift in governance and procurement means that FLEGT-licensed timber is safe, responsible and legal,” Hopkins said.

    Also among the winning projects was the Sapele Sound Pavilion by Jeremy Yu and Tomos Owen
    Alongside the exhibition, Hopkins will be speaking to Dezeen’s founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs as part of a live-streamed interview that will delve deeper into the environmental benefits of responsibility sourced timber, and how the materials specified today can have a positive impact on the world’s forests and climate change.
    The talk is set to take place on Thursday 11 March at 3pm and will be broadcast exclusively on Dezeen.
    Explore the virtual exhibition and discover more about the six winning installations made from VPA tropical hardwoods on the Building Centre’s website.
    Partnership content
    This article was written by Dezeen for the Timber Trade Federation as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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    Ministry of Design creates lush “banking conservatory” for Citibank Singapore

    Offices and meeting rooms are nestled among tropical plants in this wealth management centre in Singapore by local studio Ministry of Design.Conceived as a “banking conservatory”, the verdant scheme won an international competition launched by Citibank Singapore last year that invited entrants to reimagine the conventional interiors often associated with financial institutions.

    Ministry of Design has created a conservatory within the Citi Wealth Hub
    The brief set out by Citibank was to create a wealth management centre dedicated to its high net-worth clients, over an area of 2,787 square metres across floors six to nine of an office building on Singapore’s Orchard Road.
    Across its four levels, the Citi Wealth Hub has more than 30 client advisory rooms alongside flexible office and event spaces, making it the bank’s largest wealth advisory hub in the world.

    Levels seven and eight are filled with sinuous brass planters

    The site is distinguished by its soaring atrium with tinted glass walls and skylights that create ideal conditions for growing tropical plants.
    In recognition of this, the studio proposed an office scheme based around a lush conservatory that would anchor the entire office.

    Seating alcoves are nestled into the greenery
    On floors seven and eight, a series of social spaces are nestled within the greenery, including a bar, observation deck, garden pods, banquette seating and a central garden lounge with a honed Grigio Carnico marble bar.
    “The choreographed verdant and lush greenery evokes an atmosphere where everything seems to flourish in a natural and sustainable manner – a nod to the ideals of wealth management,” said Ministry of Design’s (MOD) director of development Joy Chan Seah.

    Garden pods replace traditional meeting rooms
    “Although drawing from the virtues of biophilic design, the scheme aims to create a cultured conservatory and not a wild forest,” she added. “Introducing a measure of control and order amidst nature’s abundance, we created a series of carefully detailed planter box arrangements.”
    These sinuous, hairline brass containers are lit from below to signpost pathways and meeting spaces among the foliage.

    They are outfitted with TV screens and acoustic panels
    On the seventh floor, garden pods were installed as an alternative to traditional meeting rooms. These are lined with acoustic panels and equipped with curved TV screens, concealed power points and cables for connecting laptops.
    In collaboration with landscape architecture studio ICN Design, MOD carefully selected plants that would adapt easily to an air-conditioned environment, thrive even in the shade and create four distinct vertical layers to offer varied views at every level.

    The planters are lit from below to help signpost pathways
    For the tallest level, the designers selected betel nut feature palms, while elegant, feathery parlour palms sit below their crowns at the second level with bushy saplings and big-leafed arums in the foreground.
    Feathery Boston ferns, rosette-leafed bird’s nest ferns and money plants occupy the lowest level, fringed by jungle-floor plants that are spotlit at night.

    Marble planters decorate the eighth floor
    The eighth floor is dedicated to Citigold Private Clients, leading the design team to opt for more luxurious materials such as walnut and marble, while an observation deck offers aerial views of the conservatory on the level below.

    SelgasCano completes plant-filled co-working space inside Lisbon market hall for Second Home

    Since this floor is less open to natural daylight, the planting here is smaller in both the horizontal and vertical scale, with planters set between desk alcoves and pathways.

    Walnut wood lines the walls to create a high-end finish
    Floors six and nine were conceived as “backstage areas” offering office space for the bank’s 210 relationship managers.
    They hold a variety of hot desks, collaboration tables and a town hall for meetings.

    Collaborative tables are fringed in planters
    Large planters help create a calming work environment on these levels and are filled with shade-loving plants that, in the wild, would grow low on the rainforest floor.
    Throughout the office, the temperature of the lighting is programmed to mirror human’s natural circadian rhythm and the movement of the sun, changing from blue to reddish undertones over the course of the day.

    A marble reception centres the eighth floor
    To keep the plants healthy the project uses a hydroponic system, in which plants are held in place by absorbent granules instead of soil.
    Grow lights with special LED bulbs that mimic natural sunlight are integrated within the recessed architectural lighting.

    Integrated lighting follows humans’ circadian rhythm
    “We’ve had really good responses from Citibank and from their clients so far,” the studio said. “They’ve said this is unlike any other wealth management hub they have seen.”

    10 plant-covered buildings that point to a greener future

    Studies have shown that access to green spaces, or even pictures of nature, can benefit workers’ mental health and improve performance in the office.
    As a result, a plethora of plant-filled workplace interiors have sprung up over the past few years, including this co-working space in Lisbon with over 1,000 potted plants and trees, while tropical flora provides privacy for workers inside an office in Utrecht.
    Photography is by KHOOGJ.

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    Jean Verville Architecte inserts gridded steel lightwell into Montreal home

    Canadian studio Jean Verville Architecte has created a theatrical interior inside a Montreal house by adding a large steel structure capped by a skylight that casts dramatic shadows.For the project, called MSO; Play/Pause, the studio completely reorganised the interior of the building and built a 12-metre-high steel lightwell in the centre of the three-storey house.

    Top image: the steel structure casts dramatic shadows. Above: it runs through the house
    The house belongs to a pair of actors, Sophie Cadieux and Mani Soleymanlou, so Jean Verville Architecte designed them a  home that could double as a performance venue.
    “We subtracted floor sections from the heart of the house to insert the steel structural installation, ” studio founder Jean Verville told Dezeen.
    “The rooms on the outskirts have been kept but redistributed to new versatile functions.”

    Light from the skylight is scattered across the ground-floor kitchen

    The steel installation measures five by five metres. A skylight caps the structure, turning it into a lightwell that casts theatrical shadows in the rooms.
    Its addition breaks up the shapes of the existing rooms, creating an interesting new layout for the owners as they go about their daily lives.

    The steel grids create decorative shadows
    As the structure unfolds over the three floors of the four-bedroom house, it creates what the studio describes as “pauses,” with functional spaces at the bottom of the building followed by living spaces and then bedrooms.
    “We start with the first two scenic pauses on the ground floor with the kitchen and the multifunction room,” Verville said.
    “Then the six scenic pauses of the living spaces and artistic creation to then end with the two scenic pauses of sleeping breaks. Each space has been designed to be versatile and re-modelable with a new function, nothing is permanent!”

    A greige hue was chosen to enhance the shadow play
    Metal grid screens and low walls were also added to the interior to create intriguing divisions between the spaces.
    The studio chose a monochrome greige colour for the interior to underline the shadows and light patterns created by the steel structure, and to work as a background for potential future theatre events in the house.

    Jean Verville Architecte creates “luminous” white triplex in Montreal

    “The great calm of monochrome greige and the changing and dancing light offer as much visual spectacle as inspiring spaces for theatrical rehearsal, and even soon the possibility of performance before a small audience,” Verville said.

    Jean Verville Architecte shot a series of playful images with the owners
    To capture the final result of the renovation, the studio shot a photo series of the MSO; Play/Pause space with photographer Felix Michaud that features the owners in different staged situations inside their home.
    Jean Verville Architecte recently finished another Montreal project, a white triplex adorned with gold windows. Previous projects on Dezeen include an electropop-informed installation created with students in Quebec City.
    Photography is by Studio Jean Verville Architects and Felix Michaud.

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    Beyond Space designs colourful office around reconfigurable grid system

    Beyond Space has created a flexible office interior for a security company in Amsterdam using a colourful grid system that allows the user to change the layout when needed.Informed by an endless repeating grid system, the studio used a structure made from beams and columns to knit together two office floors.

    Top: office interior by Beyond Space. Above: white aluminium beams and columns run throughout the interior
    The rigid grid was constructed from aluminium to create a structural framework that gives the client the freedom to organise and reconfigure the space within it, by dismantling and moving walls as needed.
    “Should the nature or ambitions of the company change, the grid offers flexibility. Walls can easily be dismantled and rebuilt on another point in the grid,” Beyond Space said.

    Yellow-trimmed windows and doors frame private workspaces

    Multicoloured trimmed doors and windows create privacy for workspaces and contrast against the rigid white framework. The studio also hoped the colour would emphasise the flexibility of the space.
    “We wanted to put the emphasis on the fact that these doors and windows are infills in the grid and by making them a contrasting colour, the difference between the grid and the infills becomes clear,” Beyond Space cofounder Stijn de Weerd told Dezeen.

    Plants are encouraged to grow around and up the frame
    Painted concrete serves as a base for the office floor, while zoned areas and infill rooms were made from a wide range of materials including coloured MDF, corrugated sheets and fabrics.
    Carpets in meetings rooms and felt contouring against corrugated-metal walls add texture and softness to the otherwise rigid theme.

    Note Design Studio creates colourful interiors to “break the grid” of 1930s office building

    “The corrugated metal, coloured MDF, felt, solid surface and carpet were chosen to create a diverse palette of different colours and rich textures which don’t remind you of a typical office,” said de Weerd.
    Plants have been spread out throughout the space and add an organic feel to the aluminium grid.

    Glass partitions divide the spaces within the white frame
    A white perforated spiral staircase centres the space and links the two levels of the office.
    Pastel-hued furnishings provide a contrast against the white grid and fixtures, as the studio said it was important to maintain a balanced feel.
    “We wanted to combine the apparently opposite: strict but playful, cosy as well as radical,” said de Weerd.

    Colourful furnishings contrast with the starkness of the fixtures
    Beyond Space was launched in 2020 by Remi Versteeg and de Weerd, who had previously founded Space Encounters, and works across art, architecture and product design.
    Among the architects’ projects at Space Encounters are a tile-clad office building on stilts above a brick warehouse and also and office interior which uses soft partitions to divide space.
    Photography is by Lorenzo Zandri.
    Project credits:
    Project team: Remi Versteeg, Stijn de Weerd, Arnoud Stavenuiter, Menno Brouwer, Matilde ScaliContractor: Verwol, OpmeerPlants: Het Groenlab, AmsterdamContract furniture: Lensvelt Contract Furniture, BredaConsultant fire safety: DGMRStructural engineer: De Ingenieursgroep, Amsterdam

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    Over 40 per cent of BAME interior designers have faced racial discrimination, survey finds

    Two out of five BAME interior designers have faced discrimination at work due to their ethnicity, according to a diversity survey by the British Institute of Interior Design.Conducted last year, BIID claims its Diversity in Interior Design survey is “the UK’s first-ever survey of diversity in interior design”.
    Forty-two per cent of the 109 respondents who identified as Asian, black, mixed or other said they had been a victim of discrimination in their profession or workplace because of their race or ethnicity.
    Just over 60 per cent also believe that their race or ethnicity has hindered their advancement in the industry.
    “It is clear that racism has been a factor that has held back the career progression of ethnic minority designers,” BIID chief operating office Katherine Elworthy told Dezeen.
    White designers disproportionately represented in senior positions
    The results found that 46 per cent of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) interior designers are the only person of colour in their workplace.
    White designers, on the other hand, are disproportionally represented in leadership roles.
    Although they made up only 69 per cent of all 363 survey respondents, white designers accounted for 78 per cent of those in high-level positions.

    Fifteen per cent of all respondents have faced discrimination based on their ethnicity. This number increases to 42 per cent if only including responses from people who identify as Asian, black, mixed or other

    A total of 363 interior designers responded to the diversity survey. Overall, 37 per cent of respondents believed that they had been the victim of discrimination.
    Along with discrimination based on ethnicity the survey also identified that 18 per cent of designers believe they had been discriminated against because of their gender.
    The vast majority of these were women with 63 out of the 298 female respondents saying they had experienced discrimination.
    The survey also revealed that 10 per cent of respondents had been discriminated against because of their age.
    Issues start at university
    In addition to the survey, BIID analysed data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) on how different minority groups were represented among interior design students and recent graduates over the last five years.
    This showed that while interior design students are more likely to be from BAME backgrounds than the average UK student, a quarter of them end up having to take on low-skilled, non-industry jobs after university compared to 19 per cent of white students.

    Of all survey respondents who were in senior positions, 78 per cent were white
    This is a higher percentage than the average BAME student who studied a different subject, which BIID concluded: “suggests there may be particular difficulties for ethnic minorities who have interior design degrees”.
    “We also know from government statistics there is a correlation between being a member of some ethnic minority groups and being in the bottom income quintiles,” Elworthy explained.
    “If unpaid internships are still one of the routes into the profession then this, of course, may disadvantage designers who come from lower-income households.”
    HESA data further showed that there is an “attainment gap” at university, with only 13 per cent of BAME students receiving a first-class degree compared to 28 per cent of white students.
    Problem requires a “multi-faceted” solution
    “Whilst we are encouraged by high numbers of students choosing to study interior design, we need to explore how we can support the career progression of those students from ethnic minorities who may not be getting the opportunities to progress once qualified,” Elworthy concluded.
    “We feel that a multi-faceted approach is the best way forward. Our recently formed Diversity and Inclusion Committee is looking at how we can help support change within design practices, including recruitment, internships and opportunities for promotion,” she added.

    “Conversations about diversity need to expand to celebrate the work of people of colour”

    “We are also looking at how we can work with partners in the wider industry, such as universities, colleges, trade shows, awards schemes, suppliers and other industry initiatives to make sure our industry is diverse and inclusive.”
    The survey, which received responses both from BIID members and non-members, was conducted anonymously. “This does mean that we were unable to verify the identity of respondents,” BIID said.
    “We must also emphasise that given that this survey was entirely voluntary and based on a small self-selecting sample size, it cannot necessarily be used to extrapolate for the entire UK interior design profession.”
    In a separate effort to increase the diversity of the interior design sector, Sophie Ashby and Alexandria Dauley set up the United in Design initiative earlier this year.
    The project outlines seven concrete steps that interior design studios can take to improve their diversity.

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    Ali Budd Interiors transforms Muskoka log cabin into art-filled cottage

    Toronto studio Ali Budd Interiors has transformed a dated wooden log cabin into a comfortable Canadian holiday home, with a wood-lined sunroom, vintage rugs and art by Andy Warhol.The studio was asked to renovate the cottage in Muskoka, Ontario and turn it into a neutral but comfortable backdrop for its owners’ extensive art collection.
    “As the clients are big art collectors, we wanted to not only design the perfect space for the family to enjoy the surrounding nature, but create the perfect canvas to showcase their artwork,” founder Ali Budd told Dezeen.

    Top: monochrome furniture in the Great Room. Above: a crumpled newspaper artwork by Paul Rousso

    In each of the cottage’s rooms, fabrics designed to withstand an “indoor-outdoor” lifestyle are chosen for their practical but chic appearance.
    Mindful of Ontario’s extreme climate and the many visitors who are invited to enjoy a family’s second home, the studio made sure to choose materials that will endure considerable wear and tear.
    “While maintaining the charm of a cottage, we modernised the space by mixing textures, incorporating custom furniture designed by Ali Budd Interiors, and adding hints of black to give it that contemporary look,” explained Budd.

    Ali Budd Interiors chose materials for their ability to withstand wear and tear
    Ali Budd Interiors’ design choices balance this practical need with its clients’ love of both white interiors and natural wood.

    Mjölk Architekti updates Czech cottage with burnt-wood cladding and revamped interior

    In the cottage’s Great Room, the main living room, these design elements include neutral-coloured armchairs and a sofa by Ali Budd Interiors that have been fabricated by Cooper Brothers.

    Monochrome furniture surrounds a bespoke coffee table
    A pair of plush shearling ottomans from Luxe Pour Maison sits nearby, complemented by a bespoke Ali Budd white oak coffee table topped with a white Corian surface. A newspaper artwork by Paul Rousso adds colour to the room.
    The cottage also has a Muskoka room, a type of screened-in porch that acts as a sunroom. In this instance, it acts as an open-plan living room attached to the property’s dining area.

    Patterned Moroccan poufs add colour to The Muskoka Room
    The dining area is complete with a custom-made white Ali Budd dining table, and an iconic Campbell’s soup artwork by Andy Warhol. Black and white chairs from Restoration Hardware are positioned around the monochrome table.
    The Muskoka room’s panoramic windows give guests the feeling of being outside while they lounge on a custom curved grey sofa that hugs the room’s curved walls.
    “There is so much beauty outside this property, and we wanted to ensure that all of those elements shone through,” said Budd.
    Other interior highlights in the Muskoka room include a central round coffee table by Garcia Group, and vintage rugs and colourful Moroccan pous from Mellah Rugs.

    An iconic piece by Andy Warhol hangs in the dining room
    Throughout the house, colourful accents such as these poufs add bright texture to an otherwise white and minimal backdrop.
    “As we were working with a monochromatic palette, we were able to layer different finishes and textiles to create something part eclectic and part chic,” continued Budd.

    Porcelain countertops are seen throughout the sleek kitchen
    This monochrome theme is particularly emphasised in the black and white kitchen. Perhaps the most pared-back and modern of the cottage’s rooms, exposed natural beams are the kitchen’s only hint of the former log cabin.
    Durable porcelain forms the room’s countertops, and a Sonneman pendant light is suspended over the sleek kitchen island.

    An original artwork by Douglas Copeland fits between the staircase’s wooden beams
    More exposed beams above the cottage’s wooden staircase perfectly frame an original painting by Douglas Copeland, its bright colours offsetting the plain white walls on which it hangs.

    Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage saved by Art Fund campaign

    Upstairs in the main bedroom, a black woven bed from American brand CB2 continues the cottage’s overall monochrome theme, while wiggly Graffito-print cushions by Kelly Wearstler soften the room’s clean lines.

    Graffito-print cushions add pattern to an otherwise minimal bedroom
    A final standout feature is the cottage’s renovated powder room. Originally one of the most dated-looking parts of the property, Ali Budd Interiors redesigned the room with bespoke millwork and an elegant custom-made mirror.
    Ali Budd Interiors is a female-led Toronto-based firm founded in 2010.
    More cosy cottages include this off-grid cabin in upstate New York and another log cabin renovation for a lake house in Quebec.
    Photography is by Ali Budd Interiors.

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