Lon Don Family home tour | Luxury Hotel Apartment I Part One I Interior Design

Welcome to the Peninsula Project. Located above the Peninsula Hotel in the heart of London, this is one of the city's most luxurious properties ever designed. We've been working on this project for nearly two years. It's Parisian chic meets Hollywood glamour and I can't wait to show you around. We started off with the entrance hall delivering that Parisian look that our client loved so much. Starting with the walls, we added on this beautiful panelling that gives the entrance hall and the rest of the apartment a really beautiful heritage feel. And then we took that down onto the floor with this gorgeous checkerboard floor. Everything in this apartment was customised to their exact requirements and we actually went a little bit smaller on the checkerboard just to make the entrance hall feel as grand as possible. Practicality is always at the forefront of our mind when we're designing a family home and with this particular client, they had young children and they would need to have a pram. In terms of thinking about what the apartment's going to look like, we're not just thinking about the video shoot and photo shoot, but when they're living here. Early on, we realised they'd need somewhere to hide their pram and we designed them this big cabinet where they can literally wheel the pram into this cabinet. It's so deep and then shut the doors and they don't have to look at it. I absolutely love the design of this piece of joinery. It's freestanding and we really wanted to create that feel of an antique. This is something that we've done quite a lot. If you've seen our Armand project, we love to combine heritage influences with more contemporary pieces. If you look at the handle, there's some beautiful ornate detailing and this was really important to our client and a key theme that you'll see throughout. The ironmongery is really special and I love all the metal detailing around the top. When you look closely, you'll notice that it's a bare maple. It's not a linear grain, but it has that much more antique-y feel. We then took that across onto all the furnishings from the console table, which isn't an antique piece, but is very much inspired by antiques, onto the lanterns, the pedestal table and then over in this corner, we've combined some contemporary sculptural pieces. This is one of my favourite artists from Paris with an antique mirror and I feel this perfectly encapsulates the feel in the entrance hall, where modern meets traditional. Before I take you through to the living room and dining room, I just want to briefly show you these gorgeous crystal doors that we installed. Previously, there were no doors separating the entrance hall from the living space, but these were inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow's crystal doors, which we absolutely loved and I like how they add a slightly more contemporary feel into the apartment. The reception room is vast. It comprises of the dining room and the only living room in this apartment. When we first inherited this project and I came to see it, it looked completely different. There were black wooden floors on the floor and plain walls and it was a very echoey space. Because it's so large, we knew that the overall vision needed to be all about zoning the space, brightening it and making it slightly softer. So I'll go into details of exactly how we did that now. Starting off with the dining room, as you walk through from the hallway, I think one of the biggest transformations in this space was the panelling that we added onto the walls. Now behind me, each of these panels is actually an access door to all the M&E behind and previously they were just plain white flat doors with a metal finish. It felt quite industrial and cold and we really knew that we wanted to make this space feel elevated and have that heritage feel. So by adding moulding onto the doors, we were really able to transform the look of them and soften the space. When it came to furnishing the dining room, we really wanted to keep it paired back. There's not that many pieces of furniture but each one really has a lot of impact. So starting with this plinth, what I love about this piece is it's the first thing you see as you walk through the main entrance door and if you imagine when our clients are entertaining, they're full of beautiful fresh seasonal flowers so it really draws you in to the dining room. Another key consideration when designing the dining room was how are we going to make it feel like its own space. It's not only open with the walkway through from the entrance hall to the bedrooms but also to the dining room and we really wanted to ground it. So the first thing we did was we designed these custom screens and whilst they're not large, they really help envelope the and make it feel like less of an extension of the walkway and more like an actual dining room. We used this beautiful metal fabric and added spotlights at the bottom to illuminate them and these are really effective at night time. Other key furnishings in here that I absolutely love, we've got to talk about this chandelier. This is a stunning piece from Cox London. We love this piece straight away but we did customise it slightly because you'll notice throughout the whole of the interiors our client doesn't like dark metals. There's a couple of darker pieces but on the whole everything is brass or antique brass and this was a much darker bronze before which would have felt too heavy for the dining room. So we lightened it up and we also added some spotlights that shine down directly onto the table. Now this was a really smart addition because often with chandeliers, if you're relying on spotlights in the ceiling, the light will get confused by all the arms of the chandelier and you'll get these really awkward shadows whereas by having it customised and having the spotlight in the chandelier you can directly illuminate your flowers, your food, whatever it is that you want to shine the light on and you don't have lights on everyone's face while they're sat at the table. For the dining table we've gone for a beautiful sycamore wood table and it's got a really beautiful base. For the top it felt like it made sense to go for a rectangle and we've just rounded the corners so it gives you some much needed softness into the space. For the chairs we've gone for two different styles and again we've embraced curves. I love this exposed oak frame, it just feels so tactile and it's almost quite a traditional element to be able to see the frame of the chair especially at the back and we've gone for two different materials. The front looks like a really luxurious suede or velvet but it's actually a performance fabric so it's perfect for a young family and then at the back we've got a slightly warmer colour of wool with some beautiful piping. The details were really important to our client so each fabric throughout this apartment was really carefully chosen and I know she's going to love these when she sees them. In the dining room, now this is always down to personal preference, some clients don't want to have rugs, some do, but where there was a lot of hard finishes in this particular space it felt like it made sense to have a rug. We also wanted to not only ground the table and zone it but bring in a little bit more colour so by having this soft powdery blue rug it really just adds another layer of warmth into the dining room. We then brought that same soft blue onto these console tables which have a very subtle demi-loon shape, you can see it's slightly curved and we went through quite a few iterations of tables. We considered timber legs, we considered perspex because our client loved it but it really felt like it needed a bit more presence because without having that colour it would have felt quite cold here and I think what we've landed on works perfectly. And then we've added to dress the space this custom convex mirror. Now I've spoken about this before in a project tour but this is quite a traditional idea that back in the day when people had butlers they were able to peek around the corner and look into the mirror and because it's convex you can see all the guests, see if they've finished their meal and if it's time to clear the plates. The living room is the only living space in the apartment and so it's really got to be multifunctional, it has to work as an elevated elegant space when they're entertaining but also as a space where the family can relax with their young children and watch movies. So I'm going to talk you through how we struck the right balance. Starting with this bar now this was a really special piece and what I love about this entire project is how personalized everything is to the client. She was so involved in all the stages and I can't wait to see what she thinks about this. This particular bar was inspired by a piece of material that she brought to our very first meeting and this is her favourite colour and it's a colour that you'll see throughout this apartment. It's a soft sort of grey green not quite celadon but it's a beautiful tone and I feel like it really makes a nice impact. We did fluted doors at the front and there's storage below for all their drinks and then above we have this gorgeous statement calacatta oro marble top and also some chunky marble shelves. Again metal is a key feature throughout this apartment because she loves to have metal detailing and every single piece of this was custom made to our exact requirements. All the lighting's integrated and designed by John Cullen and I just feel like it makes a really nice focal point in this corner. Now as we move through into the seating area we knew that we wanted to prioritize practicality when it came to the fabrics so whilst this looks like a beautiful velvet every single fabric that you see on the upholstery pieces in here is in fact performance fabric so you don't have to worry about it. We've layered up lots of different patterns and fabrics on the cushions but you'll notice it's quite a muted palette and although we're not known for doing really colourful interiors I would say this was even more muted for us. Our client really didn't want to use any strong colours and so a key challenge in here was how did we break it up and not make it feel too flat and you'll see if you look at close-up details on the cushions we've done that through adding lots of small details like the trims the brush fringe and ensuring there's some textural contrast between all of the different items. Something I talk about quite a lot is the importance of having seating on four sides of your living room if possible and when you're doing that there's different types of seating that you want in each space so here we've gone for very low benches we didn't want to interrupt the view of the tv and this is very much secondary seating if they're entertaining then we have this really comfortable reading chair this was a really special request for our client because he loves to read so you can see we've done this cute little table lamp that's integrated as part of the table next to it and it's upholstered in a gorgeous cashmere fabric just reserved for him not the kids and then over here we've got a framed chair again mixing up the different styles and then finally this one large really comfortable sofa it's extra deep it's the perfect space to curl up and watch a movie and what we've also ensured is that the two sofas whilst both light and color a different style so it doesn't feel too repetitive when it comes to multifunctional spaces the importance of joinery cannot be underestimated this piece works particularly well because it hides the tv behind here but when the tv is not in use it creates a really nice focal point in this room we upholstered it in faux suede panels with brushed brass detailing and it feels so elegant but has real presence in the space we also really carefully combine different materials so not only do we have the timber the brass the suede but these lower doors are actually made of horsehair material and the reason why we chose this is because there's integrated speakers in some of these cabinets and this is the only material that doesn't disrupt the acoustic properties of sound but i also love how it looks it really adds some beautiful warmth and shine onto the piece again there's integrated lighting and we've just furnished it with a few key accessories including these battery operated candles these are faux candles that give you that illusion of a fireplace without all the smoke and maintenance just adds a beautiful glow in the evening a little trick that i like to use when i'm furnishing large living rooms is to use multiple coffee tables now this is something that i've done in our project in oman as well but this works so well because it gives you the presence that you need it fills the space but it doesn't feel too big it doesn't start looking like a dining table these two tables are a design that i made with loom furniture and it's got a beautiful marble top some bronze colored legs and then these gorgeous antique brass and what i like about this is it feels like a really light elegant piece but it's also nice to occasionally mix in some different metals so it doesn't feel all too monotonous i feel like there was a lot of antique there was a lot of brass on the cabinet behind me and the bar and it needed a different metal to break it all up for the flooring we chose a really light oak parquet floor and we've added an antique brass trim just to tie in with some of this antique brass elements throughout the rest of the room it really brightens up this space and then we've layered the living room with this gorgeous rug it's almost got like a 3d texture it's got some knotted texture and some tufted and all the colors in this rug were chosen just for this project so some really soft blues as the tapes and the creams and it all coordinates perfectly i mentioned at the very beginning that this apartment was very much inspired by hollywood glamour and parisian chic and this particular piece of custom furniture is really where the hollywood glamour comes into play now this was actually inspired by kathy hilton's dining table our client had seen a photograph of her table which was completely perspex and initially wanted a similar table for her dining table however in the uk there aren't any manufacturers of completely perspex furniture so we had to get this custom made and we felt like it worked nicely to mix in some different materials so we've gone for perspex legs and there's no visible fixings in this entire piece there was a lot of coordination we had to have a specialist from the us make the base and then the marble top was manufactured in the uk but i just love again how it brings that personal aspect to the apartment it was the client's vision and we were just executing the best version of what she wanted the kitchen had a huge transformation previously this kitchen had copper colored liquid metal doors it was a very strong aesthetic and it really didn't work for our client she really favored a much more american inspired kitchen again a light palette something that felt bright and airy and a beautiful space to hang out as a family in the morning changes that we made was basically everything was removed from this space the only finish that we've kept in the entire apartment is this porcelain tile floor that we were not able to remove but we made sure that it worked with all the new designs and finishes i absolutely love the combination of materials in here it feels like a really glamorous elevated kitchen but it's incredibly hard working some of the main inspiration that we used when it came to the aesthetics of the kitchen was using this antique brass mesh on some of the doors it was really nice to mix up different materials in your kitchen if you can and then on the majority of the cabinetry we've gone for an express grain so that means that you can still see the grain of the wood and then we've gone for a watered down paint so it gives you that beautiful creamy color but you still have the texture of the wood come through and it's a lot more hard wearing than just painted mdf and then the last material that we mixed up with was on the central island we've gone for a beautiful light oak color that works so well with the cabinetry around the rest of the apartment and finally i love the stone this client was happy to go for a real stone we always check with them what level of maintenance they want but they've lived with real marble in their kitchen before this color cata aura has got beautiful tones it's got some of those soft greens that we see elsewhere in the apartment one of the biggest changes we made in this kitchen that not only impacted the aesthetics but also how this space is used is by changing the central island previously there was a larger longer island that extended across the kitchen this way but there was nowhere to sit and eat and that was a key requirement for our client having young children by reorientating the island across the width of the kitchen and making it slightly smaller we still ensure there was ample storage but we freed up some space in front to have some banquette seating and then this beautiful small round table in front that's perfect for a family of four to sit and have their breakfast and lunch one consideration if you're planning on doing a banquette next to an island is elevate the back height slightly so when you're leaning on it you're not going to bang your head against the worktop some key design features in this kitchen that i think were really successful was number one this custom cooker hood that we designed and had made it's fabricated with metal and then we were able to color match the hood to the exact powder blue that our client loves then adding on this brass trim ties in with the rest of the kitchen traditional cooker hoods are having a really big moment and this is a really cost-effective way of using the aesthetic in any kitchen and then above the sink now this is often a problem area if you've got a sink under cabinets you can have a bit of a clash with the cabinet in front of your face it can feel quite claustrophobic here we overcame that issue by doing shelving instead and i really love this rail which really makes a really nice design statement but it's also great for ensuring that all your oils and all your ornaments safely on the shelf and won't fall down next thing i want to talk about is storage now this kitchen is full of amazing storage ideas and my favorite is in this corner behind this cupboard you have a bifold door and we went for a bifold door rather than pocket doors because pocket doors if you've ever done them you know they eat up quite a lot of space from with inside the cabinet and we really want to maximize every inch of space here this cabinet is a appliance pantry now if you use air fryers or slow cookers or blenders you know how cluttered they can make your kitchen look but equally having to get them in and out of a cupboard every time you want to use them is a real pain so this is one of my favorite features in this kitchen and certainly something i'm going to do in kitchens in the future where you can have your large appliances ready plugged in ready to go and when you don't want to use them anymore you just draw the bifold door across and then we've also done this really deep draw here that has additional plug sockets so again if you have multiple appliances on the go you're able to pull it out use it but then tuck it away when you've finished and shut away all those ugly appliances afterwards one of the benefits of working with sophie fastened interiors when we're designing a kitchen custom for a client is we really look at what the contents of that kitchen are and we cater all the internal storage to that so we have beautiful internal drawers for cutlery for spice racks all of these are angled so you can see all your spices easily and then over here we have a coffee station so we have a little drawer where all the coffee pods can go and it's just so satisfying to see how considered this kitchen is everything's going to work seamlessly for our client before we wrap up the tour of the kitchen i want to take a moment to look at the lighting because it really enhances the design in here we have these two beautiful custom pendants that make a real design statement in the center of the room and then they are amplified with directional spotlights everything's considered about where the light's going to go rather than where it comes so you'll notice a lot of the spotlights are shining onto the center of that's a great way to really emphasize your design what you don't want to have is just random pools of light on your flooring we've then layered up more layers of lighting we've got led strips under the cabinets that's really good for functional usage and tiny little spotlights in each of the shelves that highlight your beautiful objects the powder room brings some real hollywood glamour to london the starting point for the inspiration behind this design was this incredible wall covering that we found in la it's all hand applied plaster relief onto canvas this beautiful gold background and we found this because it was in Gwyneth Paltrow's home and both our client and i felt absolutely in love with that it's so beautiful i love how it has this 3d character to it no luxuries being spared throughout this wc we have an integrated basin and vanity unit made out of calacatta oro and one design feature that i particularly love is the legs of this vanity unit which feature a custom crest we designed for the client with two swallows and then we've then brought that same element onto the beautiful towels which have been hand embroidered with some swallows that tie in with that crest design for the mirror this is again custom made and we've integrated lighting behind it you've got an led strip that illuminates all that beautiful wall covering and gives a lovely soft glow that's all we've got time for in part one but if you haven't hit subscribe make sure you do you don't want to miss part two i'll be taking you through all the bedrooms including the most incredible dressing room and possibly the cutest kids rooms i've ever designed i burst into tears when i saw the finished result take care and i'll see you very soon