22nd April 2020 | IN PROJECT OF THE WEEK | BY SBID ShareTweetPinterestLinkedIn Project of the Week This week’s instalment of the #SBIDinspire interior design series features a contemporary loft apartment situated above the famous Soho Theatre. Angel O’Donnell redesigned and reconfigured this central London duplex apartment on behalf of a private client. The apartment, which spans 1750 sq ft across two floors, boasts a generous open plan living and entertainment space with a spacious kitchen centred around an island and a large, yet cosy living room providing the perfect place to relax above the hustle and bustle of Soho. The show stopping centrepiece of the space is an 20 ft tall retractable roof which can be pulled back almost entirely, opening the room up and flooding it with natural light, creating a sense of inside/outside living. Practice: Angel O’Donnell Project: Soho Loft Apartment Location: London, United Kingdom What was the client’s brief? The client hadn’t touched the property for 15 years and needed to bring it up to date before putting it on the market. They wanted a fresh looking scheme that reflected the location of the apartment and were concerned that the apartment lacked proper zoning – currently arranged as a totally open plan, one bedroom, totalling 1750sqt – they wanted our help to maximise the cost per sq ft. What inspired the interior design of the project? Soho provided us with a wealth of inspiration, from its architecture, nightlife, creativity and its unique blend of old and new that works so perfectly in this part of town. We took inspiration from nearby venues like Soho House Dean St which is directly opposite as well as of course the theatre downstairs. We don’t have a ‘house style’ as such, we prefer to take our lead from the properties we work with and the nearby surroundings to create an environment that we believe best suits each particular project. To further enhance the feeling of bringing the outside in, we adopted an organic and natural colour palette in the living room with green, blue and turquoise hues. A dramatic feature wall was painted in Farrow & Ball’s Inchyra Blue and creates ambience at one end of the room, whilst bar stools in a forest green velvet provide a subtle reminder of Soho’s nightlife. An ivory coloured sofa is also decorated with a mix of cushions in Mulberry and Zinc textiles. What was the toughest hurdle your team overcame during the project? The toughest hurdle was how to turn the huge open plan space into something more commercially viable without breaking the bank & keeping that airy, light filled feeling. Our proposition was to build a wall across the original snug area, with sliding pocket doors. This created a separate room which was multi-functional; snug, study or second bedroom. We also advised the client to keep the kitchen and spiral staircase. These looked dated but by adding the dramatic dark paint colour behind them, gave them a new lease of life and made them look contemporary once again. What was your team’s highlight of the project? Really the highlight was the client’s reaction at the result. They were literally lost for words when they saw the transformation and even though we had created a second room in an open plan space they thought that the space felt bigger. They genuinely felt like this was the home they had been wanting to create for years. Hugs all round ! Questions answered by Ed O’Donnell and Richard Angel, founders of Angel O’Donnell We hope you feel inspired by this week’s Residential design! Let us know what inspired you #SBIDinspire If you missed last week’s Project of the Week featuring beautifully bespoke, authentic and consciously curated interiors for a boutique hotel in the mountains of Italy, click here to see more.