CALM & COLLECTED

The task presented to Studio QD was to turn this London apartment into a serene sanctuary by curating spaces that flowed beautifully and were full of light and character

- JULIET BENNING

Wasting no time getting started, Gayle and George assembled a crack team for the project consisting of Jena Quinn and Lucy Derbyshire, the founders of interior design firm Studio QD, and Gayle's son-in-law, Toby Osborne, who became the project manager and builder. 'We all spent a long time together thinking about how best to marry the old and the new. It was a great team effort,' Gayle says.

Jena and Lucy had both trained under Nicky Haslam with Jena having met Gayle in 2001 when she had come to the firm to introduce her own company, Gayle Warwick Fine Linen. 'Over the years, we have developed a wonderful friendship and collaboration with Gayle incorporating her luxurious linens in our interiors, so when Gayle and her husband George decided to develop the apartment, we were honoured to work with her,' Jena says.

'The first thing that struck us were the huge windows flooding filtered verdant light in from outside and all these dazzling, dancing leaves. It was simply stunning and we knew immediately there was a magic to the space. But it was decorated in heavy, dark 1980s colours. Wonderfully though, the bones were there,' Jena says.

'Architecturally, our priority was opening up the spaces while creating distinctive zones. We removed the wall from the kitchen to the dining room and then added bookshelves between the sitting room and dining area. We wanted to harness the incredible light, and with the lateral living, create a sense of flow through the space. While we relished the brightness and airiness the new floor plan gave us, we wanted to bring in tone and depth. The contrasts of dark and

light and masculine and feminine are what provide the interest, along with sculptural forms and plenty of artwork,' Jena elaborates.