A 1930s Chelsea apartment reconfigured for modern life by Daniel Slowik
If you live in a house or flat which has the slightest amount of extra space, whether that's a spare bedroom, a second living room, or even an indeterminate corner of a kitchen or sitting room, how often do you really examine its function, or think about how you might treat it differently? “It's so important to question yourself about how you use your house,” says Daniel Slowik. “When was the last time you actually used your dining room? If you have a spare room in London but all your friends also live in London, do you really need it? Should you splash out on a high-tech kitchen if you don't cook very much?” All were questions that came up during the renovation of this mansion flat in Chelsea, owned by the daughter of a longstanding client of Daniel's, and the eventual answers have made it a considerably cleverer and more functional space.
The flat started out life with two bedrooms and a dining room, but once his client had admitted that she used neither the dining room nor the spare bedroom, Daniel was free to create a more efficient layout, with more storage and more usable space. A new snug took the place of the dining room, and the spare room became a luxurious dressing room. “We gutted it, and then put all the walls back in more or less the same place, but we shifted the dimensions a bit here and a bit there to achieve much more cupboard space and storage, and to make sure there was a feeling of space and lightness when you move around the flat.” It's remarkable how much such tiny shifts can achieve. The hallway is a good example: the narrow passage typical of this kind of mansion flat has been slightly widened, and one of the doorways removed and replaced with a mirrored niche, which gives the illusion of a more generous corridor. Daniel has also reinstated a small boot room and utility room just next to the front door, in a space that had at some point been rolled into the kitchen. The finished layout makes perfect sense for the way the client actually lives. A keen equestrian, she now has plenty of space to store riding kit, two sitting rooms in which to spread out, and a luxurious bedroom uncluttered by too much stuff.
While increased functionality was one important part of the client's brief, the other was to bring plenty of colour into the interiors. Shades of green run throughout the house, from Farrow & Ball's ‘Cooking Apple Green’ on the walls of the drawing room to the bright jade of the Jean Monro curtains in the bedroom. “When I first opened up the curtains on the side of the house where the drawing room and bedroom are,” explains Daniel, “there's a lovely view over a garden outside, so I felt green was a really vibrant and energetic colour to put in to connect with the trees outside.” A Bennison chintz used throughout the bedroom makes it feel doubly connected to the garden. Red elements provide a cheerful contrast – the rich chintz of Claremont's ‘Tree of Life’ on a slipper chair, and a graphic blind in Nicky Haslam's ‘Shutter Stripe’ in the kitchen.
The 1930s origins of the building were another fruitful source of inspiration. “I wanted it to have a bit of an Agatha Christie feel,” says Daniel. “We did fitted carpet throughout the flat, which feels quite 1930s, and I added in some chintz for that country house feel.” Although it is a smart building, it was never designed to be immensely luxurious, and so the 1930s elements that have made it back into the scheme feel restrained and pared back. Daniel had chimneypieces made for the drawing room and snug that mimic modernist designs of the time, but in wood rather than stone or marble. “I felt strongly that they shouldn't be marble,” he says. “Wood felt more sympathetic to the mood of the building.” The mouldings and skirting boards are all done to a period design too, but the pièce de resistance is the kitchen, which was designed by Daniel and made from scratch. “I became obsessed with 1930s utilitarian kitchens. “A fitted kitchen at the time was an excitingly modern concept and you see these sorts of cupboards on yachts." The tiles were inspired by the designs in early 20th-century tube stations, and Daniel made trips to Russell Square to inspect the details.
“I think with small flats in the city you want a bit of restraint, a sense that things are under control,” says Daniel. Simple, uncluttered, and extremely well thought-out in the way that it works, this one is rather the dream for all of us London-dwellers.
Boz Gagovski1/13Entering the flat, a smart boot room opens off the hallway, with a utility room hidden beyond a jib door behind it. Both these spaces had been combined with the kitchen, but a look at the original floor plans revealed that they had originally been a utility room. The hooks were a custom design for the project.
Boz Gagovski2/13The flooring is a brussels weave carpet suited to high traffic areas and it travels throughout the flat (apart from the kitchen and bathrooms). Daniel reorganised the door openings in the hallway to remove one of them, and created a shallow mirrored niche in its place. The walls are specialist painted in a stippled oil glaze lacquer (a treatment John Fowler loved). “It throws light around whilst avoiding the spray-on wet look that often is the fate of gloss walls,” says Daniel. The lights are from Collier Web and complement the Deco antique gilded iron console and the white painted 1920s mirror from Justin Evershed-Martin.
Boz Gagovski3/13The kitchen was based on a 1930s utilitarian concept which felt appropriate to the flat. The tiles are based on the design of those at Russell Square tube station. The blind is Nicky Haslam's Shutter Stripe. The green framed print is supplied by A.Prin. The floor is a custom linoleum design.
Boz Gagovski4/13
Boz Gagovski5/13The snug is lacquered in an off-white stipple finish. The fabric of the window treatments is 'Ottoline' by The Fabric Collective contrast bound. The print above the sofa is a Hockney original of the client's, the sofa is a bespoke Howard model covered in Pierre Frey 'Craft' linen. The cushions are 'Ziggy' by The Fabric Collective. The table is a custom model Daniel and his team designed for sofa suppers.
Boz Gagovski6/13The fireplace is another custom design based on a 1930s model. The wall lights are from Collier Web, and a print by John Piper hangs between. The lamp is from Tarquin Bilgen with a custom shade made in Sibyl Colefax's ‘Seaweed’ linen. The drawing is by Gavin Houghton in a Vermillion frame from A.Prin.
Boz Gagovski7/13The side chair is from Carl Hansen, the print is the client's own by Giorgio De Chirico. The built in custom joinery was created to accommodate storage and to provide access to various essential services and rationalise the pipework.
Boz Gagovski8/13The fabric of the bed and blinds is Bennison's ‘Crewelwork’, and the green fabric of the curtains is Jean Monro, supplied by Turnell & Gigon. The chest of drawers is from Pinch in a bespoke lacquer colour. The modernist brass column lamp and shade is from Svenskt Tenn.
Boz Gagovski9/13The frame is A.Prin's Serpentine model. The green reading light is from Hector Finch. The étagères were the client's existing, refinished in a soft black. The print above the bed is by Marc Chagall.
Boz Gagovski10/13The door leads to the balcony and back to the sitting room. The mirror on the right was an existing one of the client's, repainted in soft white. The lamp and shade again are from Svenskt Tenn.
Boz Gagovski11/13The bathroom was enlarged by taking in half of the over-generous dressing room next door. Mirrored cupboards provide ample storage whilst increasing the sense of space. Calacatta Arabescato marble was used to create the wash stand, shower enclosure, and the flooring. The block was carefully selected and the slabs pieced to create a sense of movement. The fittings are from Lefroy Brook and the wall lights are from Sibyl Colefax.
Boz Gagovski12/13The dressing room contains plenty of mirrored storage, and the variety of surfaces for the cupboards was to “avoid the somewhat claustrophobic feeling that rows of painted wood doors can have in such a space”. The chair is from Carl Hansen, the wastepaper basket is from Sibyl Colefax, the fabric of the blind is Paolo Moschino’s ‘Melba Stripe’.
Boz Gagovski13/13The wall light is Sibyl Colefax's ‘Ditchley’ model.
