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      The Mint List brings mid-century influences to north London family home

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      Interior design studio The Mint List has brought light, space and warmth to this Edwardian house in London with multiple extensions, a hidden playroom and plenty of tactile materials.

      The renovated end-of-terrace house in Kensal Rise belongs to a film-industry couple that wanted a cosy family home with mid-century elements, in particular referencing the work of designers Charles and Ray Eames.
      The Mint List has renovated and extended an Edwardian house in north London”The clients had a leaning towards mid-century style but they didn’t want that to overwhelm the scheme,” The Mint List founder Camilla Kelly told Dezeen.
      “The Eames House was a good mid-century reference in terms of encompassing warm, repurposed textures, a sense of scale and an abundance of light.”
      A new rear extension houses the home’s kitchen and dining spaceThe brief was to open up this formerly dark and “unremarkable” home and create an improved sense of flow.

      As well as adding two bedrooms and a small study in the newly converted loft, The Mint List created a rear extension to house the kitchen-dining space and absorbed the property’s former garage into the house, providing a mudroom, pantry and playroom.
      The custom-built kitchen island has two levelsThe playroom is cleverly concealed behind a bank of new storage in the hallway, which has also been enlarged by opening it up into the former porch.
      “There was huge importance given to light in the design,” said Kelly. “Wherever possible, we created tall windows benefiting from the south-facing aspect.”
      Bookshelves act as room dividers to form a hybrid library and snugThe house is full of custom-designed features and finishes at the request of the client.
      The floor uses unusually slim lengths of oak, laid at right angles to each other in huge grids, while the thresholds were distinguished with slender fins of brass that add subtle visual interest.
      The children’s playroom is hidden inside a wall of storage in the hallwayDrawing on the design language of mid-century furniture, the kitchen was completely custom-built for the space with a clean-lined, yet playfully asymmetric design.
      “We centralised the assembly and used high windows on either side of the cabinets to emphasise the cubic nature of the design,” said Kelly. “The asymmetric cubes that form the cabinets were built using walnut, with cream-painted doors for the covered storage.”

      The Mint List fits out London office with mid-century-style movable furniture

      The material mix includes walnut veneer, reeded glass, olive-coloured door fronts and antique brass detailing, as well as concrete and reclaimed iroko wood worktops.
      “I’m averse to keeping things all in one colour,” the designer said. “It’s a missed opportunity to bring texture, colour and character to a space.”
      The children’s bedroom is located on the first floorThe kitchen island was designed to account for the owners’ love of entertaining, with a section of the worktop raised to bar height to draw guests away from the cooking area.
      “The island is even more asymmetric, with different levels, drawers, shelves and openings that served to show how the geometry of a design can sometimes be off-kilter and still look neatly intentioned, as long as it sits correctly within the scale of the space,” Kelly said.
      A small study now occupies the loft alongside a primary bedrooms suiteThe curved bar provides a visual link to the rounded steps that lead down into the kitchen area, as well as to other curved elements throughout the house.
      “I like to include some curves in my projects through room openings, joinery and countertops,” Kelly said. “They help to soften spaces and improve flow from one area to the next.”
      The main bathroom is held in pale blue and green tonesAdjoining the kitchen is a hybrid library and snug, which is partially enclosed with oak shelving finished in glass and raffia, that double up as room dividers and nod to the Eames House in California.
      “We didn’t want this to be a dead space,” Kelly said. “It’s a quiet spot where you can curl up with a book or listen to music. And when the couple is entertaining, this is a soft space where you come to catch up with someone.”
      Four bedrooms are spread across the home’s upper levels, including a shared children’s bedroom with bunk beds on the first floor and two added bedrooms in the converted loft.
      A baby pink sink provides a pop of colourSince founding The Mint List in 2011, Kelly has completed a number of interior projects in London.
      Among them are the headquarters of music management company Everybody’s in Highbury, which she kitted out with mid-century-style movable furniture.
      The photography is by Dave Watts.

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    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in Rooms

      The Mint List fits out London office with mid-century-style movable furniture

      by

      Bespoke furniture with a mid-century feel can be rearranged to alter the use of this office space in north London, which interior design studio The Mint List has created for a music management company.

      Camilla Kelly and Lucy Tudhope of The Mint List designed the headquarters for management company Everybody’s, which recently upgraded to larger premises on the ground floor of a former shipping depot.
      Everybody’s office is located in a former shipping depotArchitect Duncan Woodburn developed plans to reconfigure the large, light-filled unit as an open-plan workspace including a high-ceilinged entrance along with a kitchen and dining area.
      For the interior scheme, The Mint List focused on retaining the building’s existing character and creating a flexible workspace with a midcentury feel.
      The Mint List designed custom joinery to divvy up the interior”We wanted to ensure that we respected the modernist nature of this industrial site, whilst integrating a sense of creativity that was absolutely key for the client,” Kelly said.

      One of the main challenges was zoning the large space to create different functional areas. This was achieved using custom-built joinery to separate self-contained yet open-plan spaces.
      Modular furniture features throughout the office interiorMuch of the joinery is modular, allowing the space to be reconfigured if required. Large storage units at the entrance are accessible from both sides and completely movable so they can be rolled away to create an open event space.
      Most of the time, the units serve to separate the office from the entrance area and provide staff with a degree of privacy from visitors.
      The office also houses a lounge for playing musicThe main workspace is flooded with light that enters through the building’s glazed frontage. It contains desks and bespoke oak credenzas that can also be easily moved to completely clear the open-plan room.
      At one end of the office is a kitchen with built-in storage, including coloured drawers and cupboard fronts that complement the African sapele wood joinery.

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      The kitchen contains bar seating next to the windows and a dining space arranged around a three-metre-long leather-topped artist’s table.
      A full-height glazed wall specified by the client separates the workspace from private offices and a cloakroom on the ground floor, as well as a mezzanine that houses an acoustically sealed meeting room and a lounge for playing music.
      Glossy tiles feature in the stairwell”The brief was a seamless, vertical grid of glass,” explained Kelly. “So we helped to translate that in terms of the finishes – textured glass to obscure vision through to the office and a beautifully finished oak frame that complements the midcentury scheme.”
      Throughout the project, The Mint List applied a palette of tactile and honest materials including sapele wood, oak, concrete and burnished brass.
      The Mint List added wood surfaces and brass detailsA colour scheme based on natural hues including greens, creams and earthy browns adds visual richness to the spaces.
      The office’s Marmoleum flooring is a custom design that subtly separates the space into different zones. The renewable material was chosen for its excellent acoustic properties in order to help absorb sound within the open spaces.
      The bathrooms are playfully decorated with colourful tilesBathrooms located on the ground floor feature retro sanitary- and brassware complemented by playful tiles, with each wall laid in different patterns and colours.
      Other recent office makeovers in London include Office S&M’s self-designed studio inside a former paint-making workshop and creative agency Ask Us For Ideas’ Soho office, which is split across two diametrically opposed floors.
      The photography is by Dave Watts.

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