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Cover Feature
THE HOUSE THAT ROCKS
A previously neglected Arts and Crafts style home has received some full-on design treatment, giving it a totally new lease of life
THE
owner of this 1910 villa on the leafy fringes of London is a
businessman who has made it big in the entertainment business. He asked interior designer Orla Collins of Purple Design to give him ‘a house that rocks’. The Arts & Crafts exterior of this Wimbledon home looks classic enough, but inside it hums with opulence: shiny black surfaces; pink and purple fabrics; marble bathrooms; and chocolate brown parquet. She chose a snakeskin floor for one room, bronze eelskin for a banquette in the kitchen. Every piece in the house was designed and made to order.
At the start of the project, Collins was faced with a house in a poor condition, untouched for a hundred years. It was always going to be a serious refurbishment but when stripped to bare bones, the whole house had to be rebuilt except for the external walls and roof. Complex architectural reconstruction
followed a drastic demolition job. Architectural plans involved changing floor levels, raising and lowering doors and windows, designing new plasterwork for the ceilings to be embellished by a specialist painter with glitter brush strokes of old silver, gold and bronze. All this recalls the decoration of an imperial mansion, employing an army of builders, craftsmen and artisans. The creative concept that the client had in mind demanded a designer with a real eye for bold, ‘statement’ design. Orla Collins is an Irish interior designer who started her working life as a model in Dublin. She decided on a career in design, and left the frock trade to study at KLC in London. She has undertaken numerous luxury
commissions, including some Dubai developments, and she won the 2004 Design & Decoration award for Best New Designer in Practice for a listed apartment in West London. This particular assignment is typical of her work. Her talents would perhaps be wasted by a client wanting monochrome or minimalism. She likes vivid colours, exotic materials, and even semi-precious stones such as turquoise and pyrite. It’s an approach
“THE KITCHEN IS ANOTHER SOPHISTICATED TALE OF THE UNEXPECTED”
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