Monday
I was in Kings Cross for the start of my working week. It’s a glorious autumn morning and we are surveying our latest project here. Ignoring my bad back after my landlord duties this weekend I grabbed my laser measure and headed to site.
The first part of any project is the architectural survey. We have a great architect who joins our team when we need him. The ‘Existing’ plans are an essential tool as we re-plan the internal space. At London Contemporary we are interior designers, not decorators – there is a huge difference! We plan the space for your lifestyle, we don’t just choose your colours and fabrics. Lots of space changes here, can’t wait to get started.
Tuesday
A miserable wet London day but we had lots of colours and textures in the office today. Initial design schemes for a project at a new build apartment were completed today. They are heading off to our client so just a sneak peak here!
For each project (once floor layout has been agreed) we start with two concept boards for each room. These are our initial thoughts of the look of the room – colours, wallpapers, fabrics, finishes.
This project is a two bedroom apartment so we have 4 bedroom schemes – greens, blues, pinks and a neutral calm one. 2 schemes for the living room, and some hallway thoughts.
Mounted on boards and left with our client they kick off our design process.
Wednesday
More work on our Regent’s Park project today. The property is a beautiful Georgian townhouse where we have been gradually updating, replacing or refurbishing the interior.
This chair was pretty unremarkable until it got a new lease of life with this fabulous Designers Guild fabric. Christian Lacroix no less and gorgeous, it’s transformed this simple slipper chair.
Today’s visit was in preparation for more decorating that starts next week. We will be using the Arquerite from the Little Green palette in the master bedroom. Follow our instagram stories for updates next week.
Thursday
Met a potential client today to discuss the bathrooms for their home. Designing and specifying for bathrooms is one of the more technical aspects of my job – lots to think about, it doesn’t just have to look nice!
This bathroom we designed for an apartment is standing up pretty well 3 years down the line. The property only has one bathroom but we decided to rip out the bath/shower combo. The smart Matki shower surround is a much neater solution – and very few urban apartment owners want to wallow in a bath.
We used Domus to supply the tiles for this project. The feature strip round the middle of the room was also supplied by them. Not the easiest thing to install, and our contractors didn’t like us for a while – but nothing worth doing well is ever easy.
Friday
More bathroom planning today when I visited Claybrook in Shoreditch to look at tiles. I’m on the hunt for some gorgeous blue tiles, letter box style – last week I found these ones in Domus, but we do like to give our clients options.
So Giardinetto in colour Pond (great name eh!) have been added to the mix. However as I was leaving the showroom these faux marble tiles really caught my eye.
Many people love marble but are put off by the maintenance. In the past faux tiles were often just poor photocopies onto porcelain. Thankfully this has improved and this range is beautiful. Definitely one to consider for future projects.
Another great week in the office is over. Projects are moving through the different stages of the design process – and our new social media efforts also paying dividend. Hope you’ve had a great week too? Pop any interior questions below for us and we’d be happy to help.
Have a great weekend,
Andrew & Andrew, London Contemporary Interior Design