Chapter House Apartment by Trilbey Gordon Design + Interiors

Chapter House apartment

"I have discovered that just because a space isn't drenched in colour, that doesn't mean it needs to look boring."

Chapter House flaunts an intimate boutique hotel vibe on par with, say, Soho House or Ian Schrager's Gramercy Park Hotel in New York. In short, it aims to be something "warm and sexy with a hidden-away, private members' club feel". The mix of dramatic Victorian architecture and contemporary interiors has brought one Baroque building in London's Covent Garden to life after a careful restoration. Conceived by UK-based architecture studio Apt, alongside interior designer Trilbey Gordon.

The showcase apartment that Gordon designed has a chic but relaxed Marais district vibe, with a tinge of Studio 54. It's the opposite of a "safe white box," as Gordon puts it. She aimed to establish distinct pockets of space to break up the open-plan layout, while embracing elements like smoked hardwood flooring, porcelain tiles, recessed linear lighting, and Phillip Jeffries wallpaper throughout.

"It's the sitting room that perhaps best captures the desire for hushed yet enveloping elegance. "I wanted it to feel quite sculptural," says Gordon – which is not to say that the space lacks warmth. Speaking of a particular curved sofa, she adds, "I covered it in this beautiful fabric that feels like a teddy bear."

"I concentrated on using lots of texture," she explains. "We used tactile fabrics like boucle wool on the sofa, alpaca on the knoll chair, mohairs, wool crochets on blinds and heavy satin silks on the bed frame and headboard and on cushions and curtains - as well as interesting textured wall coverings."

"The furniture was dictated by non-traditional shapes and icons of mid-century modernism featuring lots of sculptural curves," Gordon explains. "I used a wonderful fabric for the drawing room curtains by Creations Metaphors which include neutral colours, but with a bold graphic print to create a statement."

In the study office area, the interior designer introduced colour by adding bronze and blue mirror backed to the smoked oak book shelves, a crochet blind for texture, and a zebra print rug for that wow factor.

"In the hallway, I designed wood veneer paneling in different colors with asymmetrical shapes and brass lines," Gordon says of one textural moment. Accompanied by round-back chairs, Gordon's centerpiece dining table, subtly separated from the rest of the living area by slim, lozenge-shaped mirrored panels, echoes the paneling pattern.

The bedroom is an eau de nil colour, with heavy silk curtains that sweep the floor near a curved bed upholstered in heavy green silk. To add contrast, the designer also panelled the walls in a dark masculine ribbed wood. "For me, an out-dated trend is gendered design," she says. "This insecurity about feminine and masculine colour palettes, I think, dampens creativity."

"Nowadays life is lived integrally, and not in separate rooms." Gordon adds. "So it's been very important for us to focus on the details at Chapter House that make homeowners feel at home and comfortable."

– Architectural Digest