GARY RHODES Star Gazing - Mayfair Times

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22 interior designers Shaun Clarkson the designer behind Denim and The Atlantic Bar and Grill, has a mixed repertoire: from mad gay clubs in the heart of Soho to country pubs in Highgate. The project The Pigalle Club, Piccadilly. The brief To create an elegant jazz club where you could imagine Mae West sitting and having supper. The challenge Designing an intimate performance area in such a small space and to get it finished within a six-month timeframe. It took just under a year. The look Forties. It feels like you are stepping back in time, although contemporary materials give the club a rock and roll element. The clients A variety of interesting people turn up to see people like Boy George and Marianne Faithfull perform. What sets you apart from other designers? We have a fairly uncompromising view; people come to us to get our product and we are good at what we do. Describe your design style We’re quite inventive.We don’t do the same thing every time. We use a lot of colour. Kit Kemp is design director of Firmdale Hotels, which she runs with her husband, Tim. Their portfolio includes the Charlotte Street Hotel and The Soho Hotel. The project The Haymarket Hotel, Suffolk Place. The brief To keep the detail of a historic (Grade 1 listed) building outside but create a contemporary jewel inside. The challenge The swimming pool as there appeared to be a river running below the hotel that had to be diverted. The look English art and colour. A little voyage of discovery through the rooms. Surprise and fun. The clients All types. We love the variety – as long as they smile when they walk through. What sets you apart from other designers? I use colour and scale differently. I balance rooms by not thinking in pairs. I am daring in mixing and matching modern and period pieces. Having said that, function and comfort come first. Describe your design style A feast for the eye. What’s the best designed place in <strong>Mayfair</strong>? Dover Street Market (as a concept).
24 25 Long live art deco It’s been around for a while, but the art deco style, with its elegant proportions, pretty detailing and liveable practicality looks set to stay. “It’s a 1920s and 1930s feel – glamorous and Hollywoodinspired,” explains Kamini Ezralow, director of Lifestyles Interiors. Kamini advises getting the glamorous look with a chaise longue luxuriously upholstered and scattered with sumptuous cushions. But there are other, smaller ways to bring this look into your home – a bevelled mirror brings light to a room, or you could update an existing sofa or bed by adding some cushions in art deco inspired fabrics. This is a style you can afford to have fun with too – for quirky detail, invest in a classic piece that harks straight back to the inter-war years. Designer Katharine Pooley says that nowadays it’s all about cocktails and rather than people hiding their drinks away in cupboards, they’re getting them out on show. Keep an eye out for a curved cocktail cabinet – or invest in Pooley’s beautiful black cocktail tray on legs which comes with an inlaid silver tray on top, divided into sections for different bottles. Indulgence in luxury Forget minimalism, austerity and pared-down living; this coming season it’s all about indulgence. Fabrics are fabulous – silks, velvets, chenilles – anything with texture and a whiff of glamour about it and they cover everything from the walls to the floor. “Very luxe materials are coming in – marvellous silks and textured fabrics,” says Jacqueline Duncan, head of the Inchbald School of Design. “You can back an awful lot of fabric with paper and it looks very good – do a whole room.” “There is much more fabric on walls now – from suede to silk,” agrees Katharine Pooley. “You don’t go into a room now and just see a white wall.” If covering walls is too much, look at reupholstering furniture with an extravagant material. Exotic skins look fabulous on classicallyshaped furniture. Don’t just think fabric either: add a touch of luxury with finishes such as highly-polished wenge or walnut wood – not just in furniture but as panelling on a wall, too. If you really want to splash out, have something specially created for your home. “There is a massive trend towards bespoke,” says Brigitta Spinocchia, senior interior designer at top-end designers Candy & Candy. DRESSING YOUR HOME THESE DAYS IS AS SEASONAL AS CHANGING YOUR WARDROBE. WE ROUND UP THE KEY INTERIORS LOOKS FOR THE COMING SEASON Spotting trends Natural materials Bamboo – ultra-sustainable, cheap and good-looking – is in, sisal flooring is staging a comeback and you should prepare yourself to rip up the rubber flooring and replace it with real stone. “Using natural materials is key,” says Superna Sethi, interior designer for Manhattan Properties, a <strong>Mayfair</strong>-based development company, who says she has recently been using a lot of antique marble and limestone in the properties she has been decorating. It doesn’t have to mean ripping up every surface in the house, however – get the look for less by replacing plastic furniture with natural wood, adding a bamboo bowl for trinkets to your coffee table – even filling glass jars with beautifully-shaped stones. Especially in the heart of London, where urban living often takes over, sometimes it’s good to bring the outside in. Jewel colours While in recent years, interiors have been tastefully muted in earthy tones and natural hues, now it’s all about warming up your home with the richness and intensity that comes from colour. “It’s an opposite to the eternal blandness of office beige,” says Jacqueline Duncan. Katharine Pooley agrees, attributing the emergence of hot pinks, juxtaposed with dramatic black to a Russian influence. One of Habitat’s themes this autumn is “The Dark Room” – inspired by the opulence of a gentleman’s club. It’s all about intense colours, such as a rich berry red and vivid satsuma orange. Colours are, however, tempered with deeper shades – Katharine predicts the resurgence of warm chocolate brown,while Habitat is also using a deep brown to offset its brighter shades – making them sing out even more. If the thought of colour terrifies you, accessorise to start with: cushions in jewel-like shades on a neutral sofa, a richly coloured vase in a corner – even a bowl of bright green apples in the kitchen. Don’t be afraid of using colour … a splash of brightness brings life to the grey winter months. Eclectic Not a look one can create, as such. This is rather a movement away from the tastefully constructed “matching-ness” of a room to a looser, more informal style. “It’s no longer about being a square box of cream and brown and matching,” says Brigitta Spinocchia. “It’s nice to have something a little off key – the eye will enjoy it more.” In practice, this means mixing things up a little – juxtaposing the old with the new, expensive with bargain, traditional with modern. “Having a vintage, battered sofa mixed with something really beautiful and brand new makes things eclectic – it’s fun, but liveable,” says Brigitta. Stella McCartney has it bang on in her shop, she adds – she has mixed cheap plywood on the walls with beautiful limestone on the floor, creating a look that is unique without being super-expensive to achieve. And even the cheapest materials can look fantastic if you treat them right – Candy & Candy recently did a house in Geneva with polished concrete floors – “the price per square metre of the concrete as opposed to slab marble is non-comparable. But the overall effect was seamless and fantastic,” says Brigitta. The rule is, if you like it, go for it. interiors
Page 1: GARY RHODES Star gazing INTERIORS S
Page 4 and 5: 6 news A brilliant mind A month in
Page 6 and 7: 10 what’s on events what’s on m
Page 8 and 9: 14 art MAIN PICTURE: JULIAN AGNEW W
Page 10 and 11: 18 19 One for the Rhodes Meeting Ga
Page 14 and 15: 26 food THE PRETTY COURTYARD at Mir
Page 16 and 17: 30 health & beauty Five tips on how
Page 18: Extra copies of Mayfair Times are a
Page 27 and 28: 52 property When, last year, the To
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