A client with a keen eye
Parkside apartment, Battersea: A richly-textured re-design for a parkside pied-a-terre.
Working with a client with an incredible eye for design and detail meant refurnishing this Battersea apartment was always going to be a high spec job - and a push for perfection.
This was a complete refit of a spacious apartment overlooking the park in Battersea. From kitchens to bathrooms, all decor, floors, doors and wardrobes.
“Although it was a complete do-over, I think most builders would have just used the existing infrastructure, ”says the client. “But Andrew and Ollie upgraded everything - they went very deep to ensure everything was better quality.”
This project - for an international couple looking to reimagine their London pied-à-terre - took a modern apartment with a fairly blank canvas and reinvented it as something richly textured, intricately tiled and beautifully finished. The couple were supervising the project from afar - they were abroad for much of the work, and work was carried about by the Andrew Penny team, project managed by Maddux Creative. The client wasn’t worried: “I visited occasionally, and while they were on site - the tilers, the painteers the various chaps on the job - they were all so pleasant and respectful. If I ever went in at the weekend, nothing was ever out of place. They left it so clean and neat.”
Concierge is key
Like many London apartments, Battersea Parkside came with access issues, parking issues and was in a prestigious building with other tenants. As often happens, there was a caretaker/concierge that needed to be handled very sensitively. This is where Andrew Penny excels, explains Andrew.
“Oliver and I always go in right at the beginning, give them our direct phone number and encourage them to contact us with any issues, at any time.
The first thing we ask for is the rules of the building. What are we allowed and not allowed to do? And we don’t ever break the rules. If they ask us to do something, we do a little bit more. If we need to protect a particular bit of floor, we protect all of it. This approach helps us to get them onside from the outset.”
“A little goes a long way,” continues Oliver. “Offer them a coffee. Be polite. Just being respectful and nice to people makes every difference.”
“With Andrew and Oliver you don’t get half a tile that’s slightly out on the end of a wall. Everything was considered. It was an absolute pleasure, and I just love the whole place.”
Battersea Parkside apartment owner
Making difficult work look easy…
With the staff onside, unloading and bringing in large pieces of marble and machinery didn’t present issues. The real complexity was still to come, though. The team built a glass brick wall that needed to be laid row by row over several days to ensure integrity. There was intricate tiling in the bathrooms and the living room, including complicated work around a pillar, that needed to be impeccable due to its prominent position in the living space.
There were a lot of different finishes and materials used: big expanses of wall mirrors, and custom-built glass doors, that had to be fire-proofed, and heavily researched by the team. “They were all about finding solutions to everything” explains the client.
Structural work done, walls were papered meticulously in Vietnamese grass cloth wallpaper - a highly-specialised job. Vanity units were hand built and bespoke. Wardrobes were papered to connect seamlessly with the walls. And the large scale artworks were mounted on bespoke display units, hand crafted by the team. What could have been a complicated one wasn’t - due to patience and politeness and painstaking attention to detail.