This house belongs to two music industry execs and is the hippest mix of the trad and the contemporary
KITCHEN
‘Originally the kitchen felt a little disjointed,’ says Michelle, ‘so we painted the cabinets in an elegant green to add colour and definition.’
DINING AREA
A new fireplace, stove and smart table create a defined zone within the new open-plan kitchen, dining and living area. ‘Our architect did a brilliant job of opening up the space while making sure it still feels authentic to its original period,’ says owner Briony.
As co-president of Atlantic Records, the legendary music label with a roster that reads like a who’s who of big-league international artists, it’s fair to say that Briony Turner has a pretty busy schedule. Which is why, when it came to designing her home, particularly while pregnant with her son George, she did the smart thing and called in reinforcements.
Backup came from Hackney-based interior designer Michelle Kelly, whose husband, Iain, is also in the music industry. It was thanks to this serendipitous link that Briony had seen and admired several of Michelle’s previous projects. ‘I’m not very brave if left to my own devices but I love Michelle’s st yle and basically begged her to help me recreate that energ y for my family,’ Briony says. ‘What I really wanted was for the space to feel welcoming, vibrant and fun, and for it in no way to feel like a stiff show home.’
Though the four-bedroom Edwardian house was structurally in good shape –Briony’s brother, Tom, founder of Brighton-based Tom Turner Architects, had already opened up some of the spaces and installed a new kitchen – it still lacked the personality that she and her husband, also Tom, were keen to bring in.
A key element of the project was a reappraisal of the openpla n kitchen, dining and living area, which at the time was being used as an office, too. ‘There was the beautiful new cabinetry, which we repainted in a chic dark green, but we also needed to accommodate Briony ’s work, Tom’s love of cooking and somewhere for George to play,’ recalls Michelle. ‘Much of this space felt wasted and it had become a bit of a corridor, so we installed a new fireplace and stove and brought in a sofa, as well as a smart dining table, to create more defined zones.’ As a result, the homely yet functional room is where the family spend most of their time, while the velvet
