At Home in London with Alidad

This is my first flat that actually my parents very kindly got for me. I was still at Sotheby's, wasn't even thinking about becoming interior designer. I always wanted an old flat with high ceilings and a good view and I saw this flat as it was perfect for me. It was really a bachelor's flat, had three rooms and great proportions and I thought this is it, I can live here forever. I got it and then I became an interior designer and then soon I realized it might be a little bit too small for me to stay here for a long time. So I was very lucky the flat next door became available and I got that and then it's been like this for over 30 years and you know I hope I never have to leave it. It's absolutely perfect for me. Aligot, on my last day of London this is the best parting gift of all to see your opulent amazing apartment. How would you describe your style? If you had to sum up what your influences and how you layered this spectacular space what would you say? Well I'd like to think that my style is a timeless style. I mean for me that that's the most important thing that no matter what style I'm working in and I do quite a lot of different things for different clients is that it is a timeless that is still good in 10 years time, 20 years time, 30 years time and all you've got to do and in most of the houses that I do you just have to tweak it a little bit. I mean my main thing is to do rooms that look layered as if different generations added their own marks and somehow you came in and you added your own mark. I always say to my clients think of the female line in your family what your mother did, what your grandmother did, what your great-grandmother did. I like that, I've never heard of that. It's still there. I want to keep that you know create that aspect but in such a natural way that you feel as if it's there. If someone isn't as lucky to have this space or the budget but they want to create a very deeply layered room with some richness and a soul what would be the one piece of advice that you would give them? I think go with what your heart says. Most of us nowadays become so insecure with all these magazines and hotels and this and that and we're afraid of doing things. Intimidated. Completely and if you just let go and say this is who I am, I like the Oriental look, I like the English look, I like the French look and then add your whatever you like into it and not worry about it. Maybe combine them all if you like them all. I combine them all anyhow. I've got everything in one room quite often because again it's this sort of layered look of different generation having added different things to it. I love surprises and for me the architecture of a house is the most important thing. I always have to balance it so one of the things that brings the two things together is jib doors because I like the idea of a surprise and not knowing what's beyond it and jib doors quite often sort out the problems with architecture so you see a lot of jib doors in my interiors. This is the dining room. I cannot believe Alivad how much attention and how creative you are with every surface. The ceiling, the walls, the way you do textiles, the way you layer everything. Yes well it causes a lot of problems but that's my nature. I can't do anything differently. I'm into detail and everything has to be right and here for example we've got stamped leather on the walls which we created ourselves but then that dictated it sort of much more with it so the ceiling became a sort of this faux coffered ceiling. The dado area had to be sort of faux wood sort of finished and you keep going because you can't suddenly do an amazing wall and not have things to hold it together. Rise to the occasion. That's right. If you do the walls like this the ceiling better. Precisely. This is what happens. A lot of people would do the wall but then they would be worried about doing too much with the other things because they're going to think oh we've gone too far but you can't. Once you're on that path you've got to go all the way otherwise it's just not going to work. So people shouldn't worry about it ever be I mean more is more. There are times that one more step, one more pattern, one more color, one more texture can ruin the whole room but you don't have to go absolutely to the far end. You can go three quarters of the way. Most people go a quarter of the way and panic but go at least three quarters of the way. I have an obsession with details. I mean I wish I didn't because there comes a point that you know it becomes ridiculous. You know every inch, every centimeter matters whether it's architectural or decoration and this reflects in every interior I do. I don't care if somebody's going to notice it, if it's the back of a sofa that it's never going to be seen or somewhere that you're never actually even going to visit. For me it's got to be perfect. Word on the street says that you actually have design workshops here. Yes I do. I try and do one every month or every five weeks and it's something I really enjoy because I love sharing ideas and sort of inspirations with people and in fact I always say to everybody I learn more out of each workshop because I never know what I'm going to say. It's all very spontaneous so I want everybody to be very involved and ask me questions. So at the end of each session not only I'm full of energy but somehow something's triggered some new way of thinking and that is the crucial thing for me because that means I've learned something again that day. And what's fun is that people can come and they're actually seeing the examples of your design philosophy in real life in your own home and that's the greatest example I think that you can give is I live this way. Absolutely because here I can point to the corners and say why it is like this or why I did the flooring like that or how could I choose you know I could have so many fabrics in a room and for it to be still okay. There's a lot of that sort of talk that happens and it's so much easier to explain to people when they're actually sitting in the room. And with my rooms we've got three completely different atmospheres in three rooms so we can actually talk about different things in each of them. Now I'm coming back to London next June. May I come to London? Of course you can. But you must let me know in advance because we get booked up. I promise. Okay. Don't miss another video visit. 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