Living in luxury
Words | Emma Mahony The demand for high-end and bespoke interior design has never been higher. Voyager looks at two trends in bmi destinations that are wholly different in style and market, yet share a level of success NINA CAMPBELL IN MOSCOW British interior designer Nina Campbell is well-known in the UK for her sumptuous [...]
Words | Emma Mahony
The demand for high-end and bespoke interior design has never been higher. Voyager looks at two trends in bmi destinations that are wholly different
in style and market, yet share a level of success
NINA CAMPBELL IN MOSCOW
British interior designer Nina Campbell is well-known in the UK for her sumptuous ‘English country house’ look. After starting out at the age of 19 working for John Fowler (of Colefax & Fowler fame), she went on to design interiors for the Duke and Duchess of York, the Queen of Denmark and rock star Rod Stewart. In 1998 she won the title of Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year.
alt="Nina Campbell">
WHEN NINA CAMPBELL was asked to create a look for a new exclusive dacha (second home) outside Moscow, she had no idea that her mixture of English country house and rural Russian cottage interior would produce such an overwhelming response. The invitation came as part of the Russian Design Show earlier this year. Says Campbell: “I was amazed. Hundreds of people – designers, buyers, writers and families – came through for the opening, and I was asked to give a masterclass in my approach to interior design.”
Campbell has always had a fondness for Russia, having visited Moscow and St Petersburg twice previously in the 1990s. More recently, she had been invited to an
Interior Design conference with another British designer, Cath Kidston, in Ekaterinburg. “I find Russia a wonderfully romantic country,” she says. “I met around 20 interior designers out there, many of whom were very stylish, particularly in the way that they do up antique sofas and old furniture.” Campbell is also keen on tsarist architecture: “On my visit to St Petersburg I was struck by the way the Russians had painstakingly repaired and restored the gilt and plaster work so well on many of the older houses.”
alt="a clean-cut design for a Russian dacha">
This respect for the Russian tradition fed in to her approach to Sirius House, part of eight dachas on the “ecoestate” in an area outside Moscow that is fashionable for
buying second holiday homes. In keeping with the dacha style, the newly built house was made of wood, which presented the first challenge. “I put myself in the shoes of a client and thought: ‘How would I like to live in the woods?’” she says. “It had to be cool for the summer, and cosy for the winter.” She decided to arrange the house so that the upstairs was designed for living, and the downstairs for entertaining.
Upstairs in the master bedroom, a four-poster bed (by Beaudesert) was placed as the centrepiece with a pale blue Amazonis sofa at the end of the bed, which she had bought in an antique shop and covered. She used the local Volga Linen sheets, and a white cashmere waffle throw at the end of bed “to make it super comfy”.
“I wanted it to be a place to come back to after walking, and lie down on the sofa and watch a movie. Comfort was the most important consideration.” She also used a lot of striking blues and reds as “typical Russian colours”.
alt="This inviting corner is part of Nina Campbell’s Russian country house interior design">
Downstairs, Campbell incorporated much of her own furniture and some imported design details, such as the Tyson coloured bottles from London, used to refract the light from the large windows. Other touches were the trunk instead of a coffee table, made from Matedero leather and lined with fabric, which offers useful storage and an unusual focus to the room. To give it a contemporary feel, she added modern coloured rugs on the floor.
Campbell admits to going through a small crisis before the launch, wondering whether her particular style would appeal to the Russian buyers, particularly with the uber-rich demographic’s stereotypical love of bling.
“I thought they’ll probably hate my house,” she confesses. As it was, the reaction was positive. “The client was so thrilled with it that she asked me to design the wedding for her daughter in just three weeks’ time.” At a cost of £300,000 for the two bedrooms and three sitting rooms, including the billiard table, furniture, curtains and fabrics, Campbell reckons the Russians “got a deal”. Nina Campbell Interiors, +44 (0)20 7225 1011;
www.ninacampbell.com
How to get the look
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Baker furniture
Full sized billiard table from Baker Furniture in Russia.
Baker, +1 (800) 662 4847 or visit www.bakerfurniture.ru -
Tyson coloured glass bottles
Decorative lighting and furniture from Tyson Ltd in London.
Tyson, +44 (0)20 7720 9331, www.tysonltd.com -
Volga Linen sheets
Beautiful pure linen sheets from £90.
Volga, +44 (0)1728 635020, www.volgalinen.co.uk -
Beaudesert four-poster bed
Finest bespoke hand-made beds.
Beaudesert, +44 (0)20 7720 4977, www.beaudesert.co.uk
JORDAN + STEENBERG IN COPENHAGEN
Charlie Steenberg and Tanja Jordan are two architects and designers who work together, having trained in London at the Architectural Association and East London Polytechnic in the 1990s. Recently they were awarded a fund from the Royal Arts Foundation in Copenhagen, to underpin their work until 2010. Members of the board for the Copenhagen Department of the Architectual Association, Steenberg and Jordan initiated the 100 years’ anniversary of female students at the Royal Academy in Denmark.
alt="Charlie Steenberg and Tanja Jordan’s partnership has plenty of pluses">
Denmark has been famous for its modernist design since the 1930s, but Jordan and Steenberg have also taken British ideas on board. “We were very
influenced by our time in London, and took back to Copenhagen the tradition of transgressing tradition,” says Charlie Steenberg. Their approach has ensured them a reputation for producing innovative architectural programmes, with particular recognition for sustainable energy and building development.
Today, many of the projects they complete include “some new thinking. It may only be one room, a specific feature or a surface material, but we are always looking at new ways of living”.
When developing a family flat in the heart of old Copenhagen, near Central Station, in an area that the Danish government were putting redevelopment money
into, Steenberg had a sense that the run-down area was going to become a trendy place to live. By the end of the redevelopment in 2000, when their project was still under way, the place was buzzing with new bars, exhibitions andeven its own music event. Their task was to open out a flat divided by a long ugly corridor, but keep to the tradition of the original period features which the building housed.
alt="Jordan + Steenberg’s cutting-edge bathroom">
“We knocked down walls – but no support walls – and decided to introduce a new, large bathroom.” The new thinking for the bathroom, nicknamed Waterworld, was to turn a traditional bathroom on its head. Says Steenberg: “Instead of the furniture all around the space with a continuous row of objects in different sizes, we created a new structure and combined them all into a central piece which you could walk around.”
Cupboards were built into the walls within the structure, to keep the sculptural look clean, and a big stone table made of the marble: Azul Cascais was given a
‘hanging corner’. The bath, designed by Adolf Babel and manufactured by Hoesch Design, was a double tub with whirlpool massage and neck rests for two, as well as an integrated sound system with remote control.
alt="Jordan + Steenberg’s kitchen design">
The Waterworld bathroom was definitely new thinking, and the designers also worked hard to open up the rooms elsewhere in the apartment, so the doors provided
views. They added a new balcony onto the courtyard, and connected the kitchen to the dining area by creating a double glass door, which allowed more light to flow
through the space. At the time of their involvement, the apartment with three bedrooms, two living rooms and two bathrooms was being rented out monthly for 8,000
Danish kroner (about £854). The same apartment today is now valued monthly at 25,000 kroner (about £2,668), a feat achieved with a total budget of only 1.5million kroner (about £160,000).
Jordan+Steenberg architects, +45 3511 1139, www.jordansteenberg.dk
How to get the look
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Natural stone
Stenex Stone is a natural stone supplier, which imports products globally.
Stenex A/S, +45 3542 6331, Copenhagen; www.natursten.com -
Bathroom tiles
Mosaikhjoernet the tile supplier imports top-quality tiles you never knew existed.
Mosaikhjoernet, +45 3828 8928; Copenhagen, www.mosaikhjornet.dk -
Bathroom interiors
Bad & Stil’s bathroom interior shop has a range of products large enough for hours of inspiration.
Bad & Stil +45 3321 1184, Copenhagen; www.badstil.dk
