Veere Grenney transposes his classic style to a light-filled newbuild apartment

'The great maxim while working on this project was: time is not of the essence. And, if you live like that, life is far less stressful.' Veere Grenney is describing the temporally luxuriant attitude he and his clients adopted while they brought what is now an impossibly glamorous apartment to life. Bought off-plan as a holiday home for an English couple and their extended family, the apartment takes over the top two floors of an attractive high-rise in Tel Aviv with sea views. 'Too often people think time is something they can control,' he continues. 'When you are working in a bespoke way, it just takes time. But it's always worth the wait.' In fairness, a series of planning issues also conspired against progress, which meant it took a staggering 12 years to get from blueprint to bolthole. 'We managed to finish a wonderful house for the clients in London during the process as well,' Veere adds.

'When we first saw the plans for the property, it looked like a car park it was so enormous,' recalls Natasha Greig, Veere's longtime right-hand woman and his studio's creative director. Thankfully, the designers were brought onboard at an early enough stage to make some significant changes, notably in the placement of the apartment's independent lift and the addition of a striking, sculptural staircase. The latter is now one of the defining architectural features of the impressive, double-height main space, which snakes its way round roughly half of the fully glazed building.

It is a huge volume to contend with and one that takes great confidence and skill to tame. 'In some respects, spaces like this are a bugger to furnish,' Veere admits. 'You don't want your clients to feel like they are living in the reception of a grand hotel.' The brief was to create a home where family and friends could gather en masse, so it required plenty of seating. A Berber carpet on a larger rug creates a comfortable island refuge on a sea of polished concrete tiles in the soaring main space, with a mix of seating that could easily accommodate 10 or more: just off this is an area with two Pierre Jeanneret lounge chairs - the ideal spot for more intimate conversations. The space progresses to incorporate a dining area and its live-edge walnut table by US company BDDW and, finally, a kitchen, which is partially concealed by a half wall. With three different terraces and balconies on this floor alone, you can imagine that it is a wonderful place to host parties.

Just next to the dining area is a library-cum-television room, which sits under the run of seven bedrooms upstairs. It is separated from the double-height space by a series of raffia panelled screens, which pivot open or closed at the touch of a button. The screens have a slightly Japanese feel, which ties in nicely with a number of furniture designs by the Japanese-American woodworker George Nakashima that Veere and Natasha decided to include. Their idea was to add a strong element of mid-century craftsmanship and plenty of natural materials. Alongside the Nakashima furniture, there are interesting pieces in wood by other American designers, including Paul Frankl, Adrian Pearsall and Paul McCobb Elsewhere, there are rattan chairs, sisal lampshades and cane stools, some of which have a Scandinavian accent. 'In a concrete box, you need lots of texture to make it feel human,' Natasha says. 'Otherwise, it feels like a mausoleum.'