IMAGE Business Club members on the small habits that have improved their productivity
IMAGE Business Club members on the small habits that have improved their productivity

Sarah Finnan

Tried & Tested: IMAGE staff shares their favourite hydration hero
Tried & Tested: IMAGE staff shares their favourite hydration hero

IMAGE

Weekend Guide: 9 of the best events happening across Ireland
Weekend Guide: 9 of the best events happening across Ireland

Sarah Gill

Co-founder of the Hygiene Hub Ciára Dalton: ‘I wanted to make a tangible difference’
Co-founder of the Hygiene Hub Ciára Dalton: ‘I wanted to make a tangible difference’

Sarah Finnan

Winter wreaths you can use year after year
Winter wreaths you can use year after year

Megan Burns

There’s a new hydration mist on the market, and it didn’t come to play
There’s a new hydration mist on the market, and it didn’t come to play

IMAGE

Long live Irish shopping: inside Irish boutiques
Long live Irish shopping: inside Irish boutiques

Sarah Finnan

Dr Caroline West’s guide to talking to your teenagers about consent
Dr Caroline West’s guide to talking to your teenagers about consent

Megan Burns

This Art Deco Donnybrook house has been adapted for multi-generational living
This Art Deco Donnybrook house has been adapted for multi-generational living

Megan Burns

Havana Boutique owner Nikki Creedon on subversive monochrome
Havana Boutique owner Nikki Creedon on subversive monochrome

Suzie Coen

Inside this stunning apartment in a listed Georgian townhouse

Inside this stunning apartment in a listed Georgian townhouse


by Lauren Heskin
04th Feb 2024

A two-storey apartment has been carefully restored by international architecture and design studio Red Deer.

Brought on to redesign a two-storey apartment in London’s Marylebone, the Red Deer architecture team admit it was empty and in slight disrepair upon first viewing. The floors were carpeted, there was a mishmash of cheap 1990s light fittings and the kitchen dated back to the 1970s. But the bones of the grade-II listed building were there, just waiting to be awoken from beneath a grubby late-20th-century iteration.

Built around 1774, the building had undergone a number of changes since then, resulting in a mix of influences, from the Jacobean mouldings and ornate neo-classical plasterwork to the huge industrial-style windows. Rather than prioritise one era over another, the Red Deer team decided to use this eclectic set of influences as an “approach for the design as a whole”.

However, before they could begin to work on restoration, the layout needed to be reconfigured. “The kitchen area was in an ancillary outhouse looking out onto the terrace to the west and felt like an appendix of sorts and completely severed from the living area,” the Red Deer team explains. They decided to move the kitchen into the central space and convert the original room into an ensuite for the master bedroom.

Now, an open-plan living, dining and kitchen space, as well as the master bedroom with its ensuite and entrance to the terrace sit on the ground floor, while upstairs is a second bedroom.

From there, restoration could begin and as well as working on existing historical elements, the team also sourced period fireplaces and reclaimed Douglas fir floorboards. Most of the lighting was reclaimed and sourced online from sites like Vinterior, Pamono or 1st Dibs. The team confess that the interior design approach resembled that of “a magpie in a reclamation yard more than anything else!”

While working with a simple colour palette to let “form and fixtures do the talking”, Red Deer also felt that the ceiling was too intricately beautiful to simply paint it white. Deciding on a pale grey, it not only accentuates the details but also highlights the apartment’s soaring volumes.

The kitchen, now moved into the centre of the space, is framed by a curved alcove that Red Deer added. “This was added to help frame the units further and provide a second axis to the kitchen and living areas.”

When it came to the interior design, it was hugely influenced by the owner, who brought a huge amount of inspiration into the design aesthetic, as well as all her own furniture and a vast collection of art.

In all, the project took 17 months to complete, though quite a lot of that time was caught up in Listed Building Consent applications. Now, the apartment adds its own patina of 21st-century living to the 350-year-old building, though always with a magpie-like eye, accentuating the best of all of the building’s design history.

All imagery by Billy Bolton

This article was originally published in November 2021.