sunshine state of mind

Full of light and open space, the home of interior designers Marie Soliman and Albin Berglund is fabulously feel-good

- Jo Leevers

When the weather is good, Marie Soliman heads up to her rooftop space for a morning workout, where she can stretch and twist while taking in 360-degree views across London. But, she says, making the trip up there isn’t always necessary. ‘To be honest, this home is so flooded with light that it feels as if you’re open to the sky all year round,’ she explains.

Marie, her partner Albin Berglund, and Marie’s daughter Emma, aged nine, live in a penthouse apartment in a converted brewery in west London. For the couple, who run interior design studio Bergman Interiors together, the location was a bonus. ‘Lofts come up more often in east London, which historically had more factories, so this place felt like a rare opportunity,’ says Marie. She immediately loved its open-plan levels, crisscrossed by metal beams and bolt-studded joists. ‘It has the dynamic of a loft space with very few internal walls and we wanted to embrace its industrial past. There was never any question of disguising those elements,’ says Marie. The clanky metal staircase is all part of the aesthetic – even with Brockman the Dobermann in the house. ‘When he runs down it, he sounds like a horse in full gallop!’ Marie jokes.

Family life is lived in the open and without dividing walls. ‘We have our home gym in one corner of our large living space, and our en suite is only screened off from the dressing area and bedroom by a fabric curtain,’ says Marie. That sense of openness is aided by expanses of metal-framed glazing, meaning that sunrise, sunset and every nuanced version of natural light in between are part and parcel of life here.