This bijou London apartment has evolved into a home that feels spacious with clever use of shapes, storage and smart design
LIVING ROOM
A mini office was created in one corner. The desk was positioned at an angle for a more relaxed look and to zone the space.
DINING AREA
The round table is ideal as it allows for better movement around the open-plan living and dining room. ‘We chose one whose colours and texture echo the decorative elements of the fireplace,’ says designer Olga.
LIVING ROOM
‘We took as many opportunities as we could to reflect the light,’ says Olga, who backed the alcoves with mirrored panels. She also put a framed mirror between two windows and added a light.
LIVING ROOM
‘We added panelling to the walls for an elegant Parisienne look,’ says Olga. ‘And I enjoy the tension created between linear and rounded shapes.’
The fact that interior designer Olga Ashby is ‘tuned into every possible shade of white’ is something that she attributes to a childhood spent in Siberia.
There, she grew used to the nuances of sunlight bouncing off snow on the coldest winter days, or the particular cool light of a crisp, clear morning. That, says the interior designer, was a useful skill when it came to lending this apartment a sense of understated airiness, with its off-whites and deep creams, underpinned by the occasional shot of blue or green.
Olga was given one instruction when she took on the project: ‘Don’t play it safe.’ And despite an easy-on-the-eye colour palette, the scheme uses texture and a touch of trickery to fulfil that brief. Created for a busy working mother of two and inspired by Parisian interiors, the apartment has been reworked to incorporate a host of intricate design details, from discreetly placed lighting to make the ceilings look taller to the entrance hall’s softly curved built-in storage created to stand proud of the wall rather than flush.
‘I knew the owner had a certain design confidence when she rejected my first suggestions for her bathroom,’ says Olga. ‘She told me it was too conventional and I needed to go back to the drawing board. That was music to my ears.’ The designer introduced a deep midnight blue to ground the scheme – one of the owner’s favourit
