RAISING THE ROOF

With its far-reaching city views, flexible furniture and hotel-luxe bar, this reworked London penthouse is the perfect place to get the party started

It’s safe to say that a few cocktails are shaken and stirred at this glamorous west London apartment come New Year’s Eve. With its fumed-oak finish, brass detailing and velvet-lined deep drawers, the bar in the living room is a natural focal point, eclipsed only by a bird’s eye view of the city from two generous terraces. Landmarks including the BT Tower, the London Eye and The Shard are lit up by the city’s fireworks and, unsurprisingly, the apartment’s owner likes to plan a party with a swing as the clock chimes midnight.

‘Yes, this place definitely knows how to be a party pad but, actually, its South African owner is also a family man with three grown-up children,’ explains Michelle Sweeney, the design eye behind the flat’s recent renovation. ‘So the festive period is just as likely to also involve an informal mix of extended family gatherings and laid-back evenings.’

When its owner first came across the flat, located bang in the middle of London, it had been used to market the newly developed site as a whole. So central to the success of its renovation was one crucial question: how do you turn a show home into a real home?