Bella Freud’s knitwear is instantly recognisable and effortlessly chic, transforming a chilly day into a bright one with a swift injection of her signature playful-meets-intellectual style. So when we heard she’d designed an apartment in the newly renovated Television Centre – also home to the utterly fabulous White City Soho House – we had to take a snoop around…
Ms Freud didn’t let us down. Playing on the (in)famous Brutalist building it inhabits, the apartment features bold and boxy shapes, vintage finds and even a cross-generational Freudian psychologist’s couch. The colour palette is a little more toned down than The Pink House’s usual style, but as we’re such huge Bella Freud/BBC building fans we’re willing to allow a neutral wall (or four).
We’re still waiting on our bank manager’s go ahead to buy this £3.8 million apartment (this is one fashion purchase that truly is an ‘investment piece’), but in the meantime we can still be inspired by Bella’s ineffable style. Here are six design ideas to steal from the Bella Freud BBC apartment...
Feeling groovy in the Bella Freud apartment kitchen
1. Fluted marble and wood
The parallel lines of this are so perfect they’re making us break out in goosebumps (just us?). Go all out by finding a fluted panelling specialist near you, or achieve sublime symmetry with your furniture.
We’d go for the John Lewis & Partners Grayson Storage Sideboard in Walnut.
Verdant tones make any hallway more agree(n)able
2. A green hallway
If one *has* to deviate from pink, green is probably the next best thing. Calming, fresh and the perfect companion colour for pink, a light green feature wall will make any hallway look bigger and brighter. Extra points for colour-matching with your plants.
We like Mylands’ French Green or Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint in Lem Lem.
Maybe take them down before the in-laws come over
3. One-of-a-kind art
Bella Freud commissioned local London artist Eliza Hopewell, and the good news is that so can you!
Existing pieces start from £45 and personal commissions cost £500.
With Bella Freud candles, natch
4. Black bathroom fittings
Beautiful to look at and they hide limescale – who knew practical fixtures could be so chic? These black taps, pipes, mirror and shower head look particularly striking against the cool white marble. We’re also rather taken with the cheeky signature across the loo. Now where did we put the sharpie?
There’s a good selection of black fittings at C.P. Hart.
Girl put your records on…
5. Retro record player
The seventies feel of the apartment carries across every detail, with a Crosley record player propped open and ready to play the latest Creedence Clearwater Revival E.P.
There are hundred of Crosley colours, but we like this peach velvet number.
“And when did you obsession with pink begin?”
6. Wallpapered wardrobe
Is the patterned wallpaper some sort of hidden Rorschach test, to aid (Freudian?) psychological diagnosis from the couch? If so, we love it even more.
Cover a plain wardrobe in a bright pattern like House of Hackney’s Artemis.
Request a viewing of The Bella Freud Apartment at the Television Centre with The Modern House.
And please invite us over for balcony drinks if you do end up buying it…
