ELEGANT LIVING

When interior designer Louise Bramhill first saw this ground-floor apartment in a former nursing home, it was a shell.

- Gillian Welsh

But the carnage was in fact the best blank canvas for her vision, and that of her client, to unfold. It had been stripped back to the bare brick, “and resembled a cave”, she recalls. “But at least, since the walls and internal layout had not been started, it meant that the design finishes and positions could be tweaked to meet the contemporary tastes of my client, a business owner based in Glasgow and Dubai.”

The home’s core is the grand living room-kitchen, a long, open-plan space now zoned for eating, reading, cooking and entertaining. Despite its expanse and multiple uses, Bramhill has made it a seamless, welcoming area, thanks to intelligent design decisions and by introducing a sense of flow through the colours and textures. “Muted tones run throughout the entire apartment, but we also have intense bursts of colour popping up in cushions, statement armchairs and lampshades – these last have gold linings that glow when the lamp is lit.”