Houzz Tour: Black, White and Scandinavian-Industrial All Over
A penthouse apartment in a converted schoolhouse gets reconfigured and redecorated to became a restful city sanctuary
It’s not every day a designer gets the chance to work on a converted school building, so when the opportunity came up, interior designer Laura Lakin jumped at it. Welcoming the unusual features that came with the converted building — high ceilings, exposed ductwork and raw brickwork — Lakin set about changing the layout and updating the aesthetic to create a contemporary Scandinavian-with-an-industrial-edge penthouse apartment in which the owners could live, work and entertain friends.
The living space is open-plan and serves as kitchen, dining area, entertaining space and office. The clients wanted something clean on the walls to allow their constantly evolving art collection to stand out. An overhead projector works with the blank wall opposite — perfect for relaxing evenings spent watching a good film.
“The school had been converted into apartments in the 1990s, and hadn’t really been touched since,” Lakin says. “There were laminate floors throughout, glass bricks dividing rooms, and the use of space was far from ideal.” To make the layout work better, Lakin reconfigured it entirely. As the space is fairly compact, she added internal windows to allow light to flow between rooms, increasing the sense of space throughout.
Blind fabric: Romo; sofa: Graham & Green; desk legs and rug: Ikea; desk chairs: Adventures in Furniture
“The school had been converted into apartments in the 1990s, and hadn’t really been touched since,” Lakin says. “There were laminate floors throughout, glass bricks dividing rooms, and the use of space was far from ideal.” To make the layout work better, Lakin reconfigured it entirely. As the space is fairly compact, she added internal windows to allow light to flow between rooms, increasing the sense of space throughout.
Blind fabric: Romo; sofa: Graham & Green; desk legs and rug: Ikea; desk chairs: Adventures in Furniture
As the apartment was designed for young professionals, Lakin went for a high bar table rather than an ordinary dining table. “It’s a bit younger and goes with the loft feel,” she says. “The idea is that when guests come over, it can be pulled into the center of the room to accommodate eight people.”
Table: Maisons du Monde; Secto Octo pendant lights: John Lewis
Table: Maisons du Monde; Secto Octo pendant lights: John Lewis
The master bedroom is accessed from the front hallway; a narrow corridor with built-in closets leads to a calming sleep space. Lakin kept the lines clean and the look minimalist to allow the artwork to speak. The piece above the bed is by Dutch photographer Kylli Sparre.
“With the high ceiling, it made sense to have a four-poster bed,” Lakin says, “but I wanted it to be contemporary, and so went for a minimal white design.” The designer kept the lighting simple and clean, with low-hanging, exposed bulbs.
Bed: Get Laid Beds; artwork: Kylli Sparre
“With the high ceiling, it made sense to have a four-poster bed,” Lakin says, “but I wanted it to be contemporary, and so went for a minimal white design.” The designer kept the lighting simple and clean, with low-hanging, exposed bulbs.
Bed: Get Laid Beds; artwork: Kylli Sparre
A mesh pendant light hanging at the end of the bed adds drama without blocking the natural light or encroaching on the space. “I wanted this light to be see-through because of the art wall behind it, but still be a statement piece,” Lakin says. The blind fabric is a little bolder in this room and introduces some color.
Blind fabric: Romo
Blind fabric: Romo
Lakin used an internal steel window between the bedroom and the otherwise windowless en suite. The door is thick and sturdy, adding to the industrial edge. Inside the bathroom, black and white marble tiles echo the backsplash in the kitchen and add a note of luxury.
The en suite contains a shower and sink, plus a sliding pocket door that leads to a small powder room (which also can be accessed from the entrance hall) containing a toilet and another sink.
Tiles: Fired Earth
The en suite contains a shower and sink, plus a sliding pocket door that leads to a small powder room (which also can be accessed from the entrance hall) containing a toilet and another sink.
Tiles: Fired Earth
Lakin custom-made the sink in the en suite. “I wanted to create symmetry in terms of design,” she says. She repeated the shower tiles here and installed wall lights on either side of the mirror for efficient lighting.
Sink fixtures: Dornbracht; tiles: Fired Earth
Sink fixtures: Dornbracht; tiles: Fired Earth
A small sink in the powder room area means the pocket door can be completely shut between here and the shower room when guests are over. Square black tiles surround the sink.
Artwork: Cloud Over Rum, by Kieran Austin; sink and fixtures: Bathstore
Artwork: Cloud Over Rum, by Kieran Austin; sink and fixtures: Bathstore
A second bedroom sits on the other side of the living area, with a large internal window (out of shot at the foot of the bed, and seen earlier above the sofa) connecting the two rooms. The statement light is made of bamboo with fabric attached. “I couldn’t have a big pendant in the living room because of the projector, so I wanted something in this bedroom that you could see from the living room,” Lakin says.
The designer went for curtains in this room. “I would have put curtains everywhere,” she says, “but this is the only place where they worked. I think they give a more romantic, elegant feel to the room.” Rather than keep the original brickwork raw, she painted it white. “Some think it’s quite a controversial move,” she says, “but they were in very bad condition, and I wanted the artwork to be able to take center stage.” An exposed pipe teams with the original steel-framed windows to give the room its industrial edge.
Z1 pendant light: Bodie and Fou; bed: Ikea
The designer went for curtains in this room. “I would have put curtains everywhere,” she says, “but this is the only place where they worked. I think they give a more romantic, elegant feel to the room.” Rather than keep the original brickwork raw, she painted it white. “Some think it’s quite a controversial move,” she says, “but they were in very bad condition, and I wanted the artwork to be able to take center stage.” An exposed pipe teams with the original steel-framed windows to give the room its industrial edge.
Z1 pendant light: Bodie and Fou; bed: Ikea
In the floor plan above you can see how the spaces connect. The hallway used to be slightly bigger and led into a dining room, with a bedroom where the seating area now is. The living room was where the second bedroom now is, and the kitchen was in the top-right corner, where there now is a second bathroom (not pictured).
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Who lives here: Two creative young professionals
Location: Hackney, East London
Size: Two bedrooms, two bathrooms
Designer: Laura Lakin
The entrance to this apartment is through a little hallway to the left of the kitchen. Lakin painted the hall black so guests would walk through a dark space before coming into the much lighter living area. “I wanted to play with the duality of light and dark,” she says. “The living space is very light, but the kitchen carries on the black theme from the hall.”
The black kitchen adds drama, and the materials used — a black granite worktop and a veined black marble backsplash — give it a luxurious edge.
Oven: Siemens; sink: Franke; wall light: Holloways of Ludlow