Yahoo Lifestyle Interiors expert Martin Brudnizki on how to reimagine your home
The term Gesamtkunstwerk – German for a ‘total work of art’ – may not be common in the interiors world, but this is what Martin Brudnizki, the London-based Swedish designer, feels is the basis to his oeuvre. “It’s a fully baked idea; rooms you immerse yourself in.”
Brudnizki – whose output includes the Rococo funfair of Annabel’s, countless Soho House properties, Fouquet’s New York and London’s new Broadwick Soho hotel – is a master at reimagining spaces in their entirety. He opened his studio at the turn of the millennium and has pushed boundaries ever since; today, his 100-strong team work on up to 30 projects globally at any time.
“The most important thing when you approach design is to be brave,” Brudnizki says. He is keenly attuned to the impact our surroundings have on our mood, whether that’s decorating a bedroom so it’s “like being wrapped in a cashmere blanket”, or enlivening a lounge, where “you should feel you’re about to have the best time”.
“It’s thinking about the emotion you’re walking into,” he adds. “You can change a room very easily through painting the walls and ceiling the same colour, then take that to the next level with a high-gloss finish and a sense of drama with mirrors.”
He recently opened the Pimlico Road retail space And Objects (pictured, top), created with his co-founder Nicholas Jeanes, which is encased in floor-to-ceiling sunshine yellow. Here, customers can buy into his uplifting vision via customisable leather-wrapped Easton chairs, candy-striped Murano lighting or sumptuous cashmere throws.
Where is a good place to start? “Look at how you light your space,” he says. “Comfort is very important. It is the things you touch, sit on and lean against, but comfort is also for your eyes, what you see, and that happens through lighting. I buy a lot of affordable lamps through the online directory Antique Atlas, which features dealers from across Britain. I see lampshades as couture – they’re like hats: the inside is as important as the outside. For the bulb, each has to have the same warm light [2400 to 2600 Kelvin, for lighting enthusiasts], and with that, you can create an incredible atmosphere.”
Brudnizki considers every surface. Walls are covered in fabric (Pierre Frey, Phillip Jeffries and Stereo are favourites), wardrobes adorned with scenic wallpaper (Iksel for custom landscapes) and skirting boards are edged with fringing (Samuel & Sons). “Decwood sells the most beautiful, beaded borders that can be very modern when added to the top of skirting boards or next to architraves and painted in the same colour,” he says.
“A wall is like a story in a room, with a beginning and an end, and I like to frame and finish it with a trim,” he continues, noting that decorative moulding is an effective way to elevate a design scheme.
The palette needn’t be bright (he recently selected rich, textured neutrals for the Surrey hotel in New York), “although I couldn’t be without any colour,” he says. “It instantly adds joy. What’s essential is that it hangs together tonally and has warmth.”
Brudnizki recommends not trying to change a room all in one go. “Pick one thing that you love – cushions, a throw, lampshades – then decide if you want to repaint the walls. Build it up first.” Large samples borrowed from fabric suppliers are also a great way to try a hue in your home.
When calculating how far to take an aesthetic, he follows the words of Cecil Beaton: “Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”
“Can it ever go too far?” Brudnizki muses. “I look around my home in Sussex and think, I can do so much more!”
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