A soft colour palette brings visual flow to a Bloomsbury pad

Bloomsbury is one of central London’s hidden 'in-between' gems, offering much history and great places to live, with many purpose-built flats from the beginning of the last century.

When refurbishing such spaces, it is vital to reflect the charm of the original without the need to be nostalgic. It's about small details, material choice, proportions, fixtures and fittings, kitchen and bathroom style and all over quality of execution.

The apartments in the building at hand had already been desecrated through previous refurbishments, now the task was to find a contemporary visual tone well suited for the style and character of the flat. What we were looking for, was to bring some of its intended gentle personality back to life in a contemporary fashion. A basic requirement to make a space work is to look at its proportions and material choices of fixtures and fittings, colour, wallpaper, tiles and of course furniture. This might be obvious, but it is surprising how often the subtle differences are not observed and therefore not beneficial to the space.

I finish the slide show with a few images showing the flat at start of project.

For this small 2-bedroom top floor flat we initially looked at previous added false architectural elements we could remove, 'opening' the space visually. Then it was decided what contemporary character the space would benefit from and listened to what would make the client comfortable. The owners general brief was to present the space visually as ‘clean’ as possible with a warm touch.

To create this, we chose one base colour throughout, same colour for doors, doorframes, skirting, joinery work, wardrobes, etc. A similar tone of couleur was chosen for transition spaces, bedrooms and bathrooms. We gave the entrance and kitchen cabinets their own colour to create a gentle dynamic in the flat. The made to measure kitchen by Kent & London was chosen for its style and quality of craftsmanship, well suited for the small space and character of the flat. It has good proportions with simple handle detail, no added fixtures to keep the visual impression uninterrupted but offering a colour contrast and point of interest.

The client preferred window treatment were venetian blinds, we found a version in same colour as the walls, this way the visual impression of the background stayed non interrupted.

In the master bedroom we moved one wall towards the shower bathroom to free some space to fit a super king size bed. Both bedrooms received new built-in wardrobes with sliding doors, well suited for small spaces.

The bathroom tiles and furniture where chosen in matt ceramics, creating an easy visual transition with the over-all colour of the flat. The sanitary ware and fittings are light in character of perfect proportion for the space with a timeless feel. We installed underfloor heating in all rooms to free wall space.

The furniture had to be tone in tone to keep a ‘quiet’ flow. To create variety, we chose different surface textures.

Now art- work will add highlights and dynamics to the space.

All in all, the result was delivered on time with slight budget additions due to changes requested during the process, everyone is happy, and a new home is enjoyed by its owner.