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    Tala Fustok fills Hyde Park apartment with contemporary art and vintage furniture

    Tala Fustok Studio has transformed the interior of an apartment in west London into a “calm sanctuary” containing carefully chosen artworks and furnishings influenced by the travels of its owner.

    The Palace Gate apartment is located on the fourth floor of a Victorian mansion block neighbouring Hyde Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
    Tala Fustok has designed the The Palace Gate apartment in LondonLocal interior designer Tala Fustok set out to turn the four-bedroom property into a relaxing pied-a-terre containing a collection of contemporary artworks.
    “I wanted to create a calm sanctuary to balance the hustle and bustle of the city and the owner’s lifestyle,” Fustok told Dezeen.
    “Our client is an ardent traveller, frequenting North Africa and copious European cities,” she added. “We wanted to ensure this was reflected in the design, as a sort of escapism and bringing a dose or reminder of those settings to their London home.”

    Integrated storage conceals steel beams in the living roomThe interior features a palette of soft colours intended to evoke a sunset, with textures of stone and earthy fabrics adding to the nomadic and natural feel.
    The 252-square-metre interior was reorganised through several structural interventions that opened up the living and dining area, as well as combining two bedrooms to form a large principal bedroom and dressing area.
    A woven chair and a vase from east London’s M.A.H Gallery stand in the entrance hallIn the main living space, steel beams are concealed within a room divider featuring curved surfaces and open shelves that allow light and views throughout, while providing spaces for displaying artwork.
    Deep hues and textures including plastered walls and velvet upholstery add richness and variety to the scheme, making the most of the light that floods into the southwest-facing spaces.
    Wooden cabinetry contrasts with brass details in the kitchenA monochromatic colour scheme forms a simple backdrop for the artworks, vintage furniture and bespoke elements created to enhance the home’s restful atmosphere.
    Fustok’s studio was involved in selecting the unique furnishings and art for the home in order to elevate the spaces and create consistency throughout the different rooms.

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    A pared-back entrance hall – containing a Venetian mirror, a woven chair and a vase from east London’s M.A.H Gallery – leads through to the dining room where a mirror from The Antique Mirror Company hangs above a painted brick fireplace.
    A 1970s Italian travertine table combines with a curved sofa to create a space for informal dining. On top of the table is a centrepiece from London’s Vessel gallery and beneath sits a shaggy rug by designer Tim Page.
    A huge pink-velvet bed is the centrepiece of the bedroomFustok added double arched doors to connect the dining room with the adjacent kitchen, where wooden cabinetry contrasts with brass details including the cooker hood.
    The living room features a travertine fireplace along with a mirror and rug that match those used in the dining room. Bespoke furnishings made of bleached plywood, brass and timber contribute to the space’s relaxed, rustic character.
    The same pink tones carry over into the bathroomIn the main bedroom, a 1960s-style bed upholstered in dusty pink velvet provides a bold centrepiece.
    The tapestry above the bed is from London gallery Schmid McDonagh, while a bespoke mirror by French artist Christophe Gaignon is positioned above the stone fireplace.
    A dressing area alongside the main bedroom is arranged around a bespoke storage island wrapped in leather and plywood, which is illuminated from above by a pendant light from British design studio Pinch.
    The dressing room is arranged around a bespoke storage islandThe Moroccan-informed en-suite bathroom contains a bespoke travertine sink and zellige tiles in the shower. The design of this space encapsulates the nomadic inspirations seen throughout the residence.
    Tala Fustok studied at the Architectural Association before setting up her studio in west London.
    Her previous projects include a Manhattan loft with a calm ambience and an office for game developer Ninja Theory in Cambridge, which features a blood-red bar and an all-blue cinema room.
    The styling is by Sania Pell and photography by Michael Sinclair.

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    London apartment features fish and chip shop-informed kitchen

    A steel kitchen that references London’s many fast food shops takes centre stage in this apartment designed by local studio Holloway Li for its co-founder Alex Holloway, which also has a bathtub in the living room.

    Located in north London’s Highbury, the apartment is set in a converted Victorian house and was renovated to create a home-cum-photography-studio for Holloway and his partner Elle Parmar Jenkins, founder of vintage furniture store Goods In.
    The apartment includes a custom-built stainless steel kitchenHolloway Li sought to update the single-storey space while also maintaining many of its original features.
    Part of this process included removing the master bedroom entirely to create an open-plan living space from what were originally separate rooms, and adding two extra windows to illuminate this interior.
    Holloway Li looked to local fast-food shops to create this design”We exposed and retained the original timber verge beam keeping all the screws and not cleaning it up at all,” said Holloway, who founded the studio with Na Li in 2018.

    “We wanted to express the formation of the external butterfly roof internally by opening up the ceilings to show the vaulted geometry internally,” he told Dezeen.
    This triple-aspect living space contains a striking kitchen clad in circle-brushed stainless steel with a curved splashback that takes cues from the kebab and fish and chip shops that Holloway grew up surrounded by in London, according to the designer.
    Pink and orange accents feature throughout”A lot of our studio work often fuses aspects of what people might consider ‘low culture’ with a more high-brow aesthetic,” said Holloway, who explained that the kitchen was not created as a parody, but rather intends to honour the materials found in fast food outlets.
    “This is what London is – a mix of high and low always across the road from one another. It’s part of what makes it interesting, and having grown up here it was important to add those vernacular visual flavours into the space,” he added.
    “Also, I hadn’t seen that material [circle-brushed steel] used in a domestic setting before so I knew it would be unique.”
    A bathtub was inserted into the living spaceThe studio chose a neutral colour palette interrupted with pops of vibrant colours such as orange and blue, which was led by the rosy-hued exposed plaster walls that frame the space.
    Breaking with tradition, Holloway decided to insert a bathtub into the living space where the master bedroom used to be to make use of its panoramic natural light and to add an alternative touch to the apartment.
    The same resin used to create the dining table top is found in the bathroomIt is positioned next to a bespoke timber Holloway Li desk and a vintage Eames office chair that Parmar Jenkins uses when she works from home, while light-hued Douglas fir flooring and chunky geometric sconce lights add to the warm interior.
    Other furniture pieces by the studio include a chubby orange armchair that Holloway Li launched at this year’s London Design Festival in collaboration with Uma Objects as well as the dining table and a shower screen that were both formed from a gridded resin off-cut salvaged from a previous project.

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    Holloway’s favourite element of the apartment is “the windows and reflections,” he said. “It is very rare to have a room in a Victorian terrace that has windows on three out of four of its sides.”
    “The kitchen in turn – on the old side that doesn’t have a window – reflects the opposite windows so it actually feels like you are surrounded by light,” he added.
    Colours in the living space are also hinted at in the apartment’s one bedroomThis apartment is not the first of Holloway Li’s interior designs that intend to directly respond to their contexts.
    Previously, the studio dressed the Wunderlocke hotel in Munich in hues that nod to the paintings of the late Munich-based painter Wassily Kandinsky, while it designed bathroom brand Coalbrook’s showroom with industrial materials that echo the building’s original function as a tobacco-pipe factory.
    The photography is by Edmund Dabney. 

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    Maison Pour Dodo by Studio Merlin is a north London flat with a “spectrum of storage”

    Studio Merlin has revamped a Stoke Newington flat for its founder, Josh Piddock, by incorporating an abundance of storage to form serene, clutter-free living spaces.

    The project’s nickname, Maison Pour Dodo – which loosely translates from French to “house for sleep” – was inspired by Piddock’s desire for a tidy, restful home that had little material noise.
    To achieve this brief, Studio Merlin decided to install a range of storage throughout the two-floor flat that could comfortably accommodate Piddock’s and his girlfriend’s belongings.
    A tall bookshelf has been erected in the living area”The ‘spectrum of storage compression’ idea was taken from previous work assessing museum collections where some objects are in dense storage and others are on display and readily accessible,” explained Piddock, who founded Studio Merlin in 2020.
    “We all filter and organise to some degree and the answer is more cupboards and shelves, but specifically repurposed for a domestic setting,” he added.

    “The real principle is of auditing one’s possessions to create a hierarchy between household articles that reflect their value, favour and practical needs on a daily basis.”
    An opening looks through to the kitchenOne of the first rooms Studio Merlin tackled was the flat’s living and dining area, where a large floor-to-ceiling shelf has been erected to hold the inhabitants’ collection of books and ornaments.
    At the heart of the space is a plump blue sofa by Muuto, which directly faces onto a wall where the inhabitants will project tv shows and movies. This solution was chosen instead of a television to avoid the space becoming “dominated by consumer electronics”.
    The room’s warm, plaster-coloured surfaces and pale Douglas fir floorboards are also meant to add to the calming ambience.
    The cabinetry features smoke-blue cupboards fronts from ReformA newly created opening looks through to the kitchen, where there’s a wall of deep-set IKEA cabinets with smokey blue door fronts from Danish brand Reform.
    Matching low-lying cabinets run along the other side of the room, topped by a concrete counter from Caesarstone where food can be prepared.
    In the corner of the kitchen, there’s also a small seating nook above which are a series of open, pantry-style shelves where the owner can display jars of cooking ingredients.
    Blue paint forms a faux balustrade in the stairwellA paint in a similar shade of blue as the kitchen cabinetry has been applied on the white walls of the apartment’s stairwell to form a faux balustrade.
    Stairs on the first-floor landing are fitted with what the studio describes as “in and out storage”, designed to hold day-to-day essentials that inhabitants need to grab before heading out the door.
    An arched cut-out leads to the cat’s litter trayThe second-floor landing houses more storage cupboards, one of which has been punctuated with an arched cut-out through which Piddock’s cat can access its litter tray.
    There’s also a small study nook for working-from-home days, complete with a desk and Douglas fir stool.
    A small study nook offers a place for inhabitants to take work callsThis second level of the home accommodates the sleeping quarters. In the principal bedroom, built-in wardrobes help to neatly conceal the inhabitants’ clothes.
    Douglas fir offcuts have also been used by the studio to fashion custom curved bedside tables, where books and other trinkets can be tucked away.
    Built-in wardrobes conceal clutter in the bedroomPart of the original bedroom was sectioned off to allow space for a tub in the adjacent bathroom, which features terrazzo-style flooring and gold-tone hardware.
    Storage has been considered here, too – above the toilet is a series of vanity cabinets that have been made to sit flush against the room’s dark green walls.
    “The effect is a composed space where each thing has a home; sometimes concealed, densely packed and understated, others as pride of place, carefully curated and easily physically or visually accessible,” concluded Piddock.
    The bathroom subtly incorporates more storageLondon’s trendy Stoke Newington neighbourhood is host to a number of design-focused homes.
    Others include Two and a Half Storey House, which has an extension that’s hidden from the street, and Gallery House, which features a huge storage wall where the owner can display his personal collection of ceramics and glassware.
    Photography is by Richard Chivers.
    Project credits:
    Architect and interior design: Studio MerlinEngineer: Elliott WoodMain contractor: H Quality Construction

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    Fettle designs apartment block The Gessner to resemble a private members' club

    Interiors studio Fettle took cues from hospitality spaces when fitting out this contemporary residential block in London, which houses 164 apartments alongside a co-working area and an in-house cafe.

    Managed by property developer Way of Life, The Gessner is set in a former pencil factory in the rapidly regenerating industrial area of Tottenham Hale.
    The Gessner’s lounge doubles up as a workspace for residentsFettle created refined and cohesive interiors for the development, informed by its experience in designing hotels such as The Hoxton in Boston and Schwan Locke in Munich
    “Most of our work as a company currently is hotel-based, so we have a strong understanding of what makes these kinds of spaces special,” co-founder Andy Goodwin told Dezeen.
    There’s also a cafe inside the apartment block”A lot of the other commercial clients we work with are aiming to achieve a very layered, somewhat residential feel to their spaces so there is a lot of overlap,” he continued.

    “We utilised many of the same suppliers we use within members clubs, hotels and restaurant projects.”
    As well as apartments, The Gessner includes guest suites for temporary visitorsAfter coming through the ground floor entrance of The Gessner, residents arrive at a lobby that’s richly furnished with sofas, patterned armchairs and a mix of vivid artworks curated by art consultant Kate Anniss.
    During the day this area serves as a communal workspace, while in the evenings it can be used as an oversized living room where residents can convene and chat.
    Nearby, there’s a cafe with wood-lined walls, tan leather seating and a terrazzo service counter inlaid with orange aggregate.

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    Furnishings and fabrics found on The Gessner’s ground floor are also incorporated throughout the apartments, which are available furnished or unfurnished, as well as in a pair of guest suites located on the building’s 13th floor.
    These can be reserved by residents who have friends and family coming to visit, or by other travellers hoping to stay in the area.
    Residents can make meals in the building’s communal kitchenThe 13th floor plays host to a number of other communal facilities, which were designed to encourage socialising among residents.
    This includes a large dining room and kitchen with wooden cabinetry and a greenery-filled gantry that stores pots and pans.
    The kitchen adjoins a private dining roomThere’s also a lounge and a spacious outdoor terrace complete with sun loungers, beach-style umbrellas and a BBQ station set beneath a shady pergola, where residents can while away the warmer summer months.
    “One of the key things with both hotels and apartment buildings is having some synergy between the public and private spaces, which was successful at The Gessner as they feel like a continuation of each other,” Goodwin said.
    Residents can also make use of The Gessner’s roof terraceFettle was established in 2013 by Andy Goodwin and Tom Parker.
    The Gessner isn’t the only project to come from the studio this year. Last month, the duo finished work on The Malin, a homely co-working space in New York with loft-style interiors.
    The images are courtesy of Way of Life. 

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    EBBA Architects remodels London apartment with bespoke joinery

    Structural ash and pine joinery – including a staircase, mezzanine and double-height storage wall – delineate the space within this refurbished, open-plan apartment in London by EBBA Architects.Located in an old matchstick factory in the city’s East End, the one-bedroom, 80-square-metre apartment belongs to a young professional couple, who asked the emerging local firm to “completely reimagine” its layout.

    The apartment features a bespoke wooden staircase, top image, and a double-height shelving unit, above
    The former plan featured subdividing walls, which created a small kitchen and lounge area, and a dark bedroom upstairs. An enclosed staircase took up almost a quarter of the floor space.
    EBBA Architects began by removing most of the walls and the large, existing staircase to provide a more functional and flexible living space.

    A dining area is tucked under the mezzanine

    The remodelled apartment is split across a ground floor and mezzanine level, both finished in a palette of subdued neutrals. A double-height living area is located downstairs alongside a dining room and kitchen, which are tucked under the mezzanine.
    Upstairs, a bedroom and en-suite bathroom sit next to a desk area, dressing room and a snug that doubles as a guest bedroom and can be sectioned off with a curving curtain.

    The staircase is made from white-stained ash
    “Key to the brief was extending the mezzanine to add space upstairs and rearrange the bedroom from the dark corner of the flat,” EBBA Architects founding director Benni Allan told Dezeen.
    “The need to extend the floor upstairs prompted us to imagine the new stair and mezzanine as a large, functional piece of furniture.”

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    Made from a slender framework of white-stained ash, the staircase helps to prop up the new joists to the mezzanine, which the architects left exposed.
    The apartment’s bespoke joinery also includes a double-height shelving unit made from white-stained pine that helps to emphasise the height of the main living space.

    The shelving system stands next to the open kitchen
    “We looked at the brief as a way of questioning how to provide a mix of spaces in the compact plan, including places to rest and work,” added Allan.
    “Budget was tight, so we maximised the potential to express features in the project through the joinery and exposing all the timber.”

    White-stained pinewood was used to create the storage unit
    According to the architects, the white-stained ash serves as a “soft background to the apartment”, which is in harmony with the interior’s other neutral-toned materials.
    This spans everything from the cement floor to the kitchen counter – a terrazzo-like slab made of translucent aggregate and fine black basalt – and is complemented by simple, unobtrusive lighting fixtures.
    Other interiors where furniture merges with structure include the Spinmolenplein penthouse in Ghent by Jürgen Vandewalle, where a “bed-cabinet”, kitchen island and boxed-in bathroom help organise the floor plan.
    Photography is by Benni Allan.

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    MWAI designs Mayfair apartment as if it were a hotel suite

    From a mini-fridge to a folding desk and a concealed make-up mirror, this compact London apartment designed by local firm MWAI features a variety of space-saving solutions.Commissioned by a busy, professional client who works internationally, the architects were asked to transform a 37-square-metre, one-bedroom apartment in a Mayfair mansion block into a minimalist “pied-à-terre”.

    Top image: an open-plan area includes the kitchen, living room and workspace. Above: neutral colours were used throughout
    “We thought accommodating sleeping, living, dining and working in a 37-square-metre apartment while also delivering the feel of a spacious interior was a very challenging brief,” said the practice.
    “We decided we should not look at it like a residential project but rather like a hotel suite, where all functions are carefully and discreetly planned to provide a functional response to business and leisure travelling needs.”

    The apartment’s built-in storage includes a folding desk

    Finished in a palette of natural materials like wood and stone, the apartment features an abundance of bespoke, built-in storage.
    According to MWAI, the main challenge was to maximise the limited amount of useable space in the apartment. Restricted by sloping ceilings, the apartment had a poor existing layout and was in need of renovation.

    Walls in the bedroom are painted grey
    In order to create a more efficient footprint in the London apartment, the practice began by removing and replacing all of the walls, floors and ceilings.
    Particular attention was paid to minimising the footprint of the bathroom and kitchen by placing them into the centre of the plan, sandwiched between the living room and bedroom.

    The bathroom walls are finished in waterproof cement
    A wet room is now accessed from the bedroom, with a pivoting flush door used to separate the rooms.

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    The bathroom walls are clad in a waterproof cement polymer render, providing a textured finish that is enhanced by recessed lighting. Sleek industrial fixtures and sanitaryware were chosen to offset the textured walls.

    The kitchen conceals appliances and features sleek hardware
    To maximise floor space in the kitchen, the architects concealed units and equipment, including a mini-fridge, behind panels in the wall lining.
    A kitchen island accommodates the hob and oven and also doubles as a dining table.

    Light flooring runs throughout the apartment
    A wall of bespoke storage is built into the bedroom, including a make-up cabinet with a concealed mirror and clothes steamer.
    In the living room, custom-made cabinets with an integrated folding desk are installed along one wall and furnishings are kept to a minimum. A simple fireplace made from Vicenza stone acts as a focal point for the space.

    The stone fireplace is a focal point
    Other architecture firms that have created clever, space-saving solutions for compact apartments include Ukrainian firm Ater Architects, which hung curtains in place of walls in a Kyiv flat.
    In Madrid, Spanish studio Husos Arquitectos designed a 46-square-metre plywood-lined apartment that features a vertical garden and sleeping pod.
    Photography is by Billy Bolton.

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    Ben Allen completes overhaul of his own home in east London

    Artworks by Olafur Eliasson informed architect Ben Allen’s revamp of his two-storey maisonette in London’s Bethnal Green, which features mirrored furniture elements.The maisonette is set inside Keeling House, a 16-storey residential block that was designed by English architect Denys Lasdun in 1957.

    Reflective artworks by Olafur Eliasson are presented in the home’s stairwell
    The founder of Studio Ben Allen and his wife decorated their home’s interior with an array of personal possessions so that it looks like a cabinet of curiosities.
    Amongst these possessions are a number of optical artworks gifted by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, whom Allen worked for over a 10-year period.

    Oval mirrored side tables have been placed beside the bed

    Several of the artworks are crafted from glass or mirror, and this prompted Allen to incorporate reflective elements in other spaces throughout the home.
    The architect was also inspired by the round convex mirrors that appear in London’s Sir John Soane Museum, which playfully skew how visitors perceive the exhibition rooms.

    The bedroom’s vanity table is also mirrored
    A pair of oval mirrored side tables feature in the bedroom that’s located on the maisonette’s upper floor.
    Another mirrored panel has been mounted on the wall to form the backing of a vanity table, which boasts a semi-circular brass ledge where jewellery, perfume bottles and other trinkets can be displayed.
    The bedroom has otherwise been simply finished with white-painted walls, larch wardrobes and exposed-wired lighting fixtures.

    More mirrors have been affixed to the bathroom’s cabinet and walls
    In the bathroom, half-moon-shaped mirrors have been affixed to the doors of a storage cabinet, which sits directly above a bespoke green-concrete sink.
    The image of the sink is repeated in an arched mirror on an adjacent wall.

    The bathroom’s hardware is made from gold-hued brass
    Surfaces are clad with jade-green tiles, while taps, spouts and the tubular shower head are made from brass. Perforated shutters have also been installed in front of the windows to allow just a little amount of natural light to seep through from the outdoors.
    “We wanted the bathroom to be purposefully darker to contrast with the brightness of the rest of the flat and to imbue it with a sense of refuge,” Allen explained.

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    At this level of the house, there’s additionally a study that has a green cushioned daybed and a larch work table.

    A study with larch-wood joinery is on the home’s upper floor
    Most of Eliasson’s art pieces can be seen in the maisonette’s stairwell, displayed alongside arched mirror shelves that hold candles or tiny architectural models.
    Steps lead down to the lower floor, where Allen has exclusively applied a selection of “robust” materials which are meant to age well over time.
    “[Materials] have also been chosen to give a sense of tactile warmth both when the flat is flooded with daylight, as well as on overcast days and at night,” added Allen.

    Downstairs is the kitchen, which features a green-concrete counter
    The kitchen, for example, has oak cupboards and a green-concrete countertop. A grey-tile splashback is dotted with brass pegs where crockery or cooking utensils can be hung.
    Just opposite there’s a book-lined sitting room complete with a black leather sofa and a cosy oak seating nook that doubles-up as a storage box.

    A tall shelving unit separates the kitchen from the sitting room
    To loosely divide these two spaces, Allen and his team have erected a trellis-style shelving unit that stretches from floor to ceiling. A small work desk can be pulled out from the blue fibreboard drawers that sit at the unit’s base.
    The presence of the unit acts as a small homage to architect Lasdun, who had originally designed the flats inside Keeling House with galley kitchens that were separate from the sitting rooms.
    This was changed in the 1990s when, at risk of demolition, the building was completely revamped to feature minimal, open-plan living areas.

    The sitting room includes a cosy window nook
    Expansive panels of glazing look through to the maisonette’s balcony, where Allen has added a planter filled with wild grass and a Rhus Typhina tree. Beyond lies views of Hampstead Heath park and the city of London.
    Allen established his self-titled studio in 2014 and has since gone on to complete a number of projects. Just last year, the studio created an artichoke-shaped garden room for a home in southwest London, and renovated a Barbican flat to include colourful fold-out furniture.
    Photography is by French + Tye.
    Project credits:
    Architects: Studio Ben Allen (Team: Ben Allen and Marco Nicastro)Main contractor: Sullivan and CompanyBalcony and window planting scheme design: Todd Longstaffe-Gowan

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