How Just one Inside Designer Transformed A Dilapidated 22-Bed room Lodge Into A Sumptuous Notting Hill Residence

When interior designer Peter Mikic initially stepped inside of his stuccoed Notting Hill city home a ten years ago, he was greeted by a band of pigeons. “They’d totally taken above the third ground,” he states. Originally two houses, it had been transformed in the 1970s into a 22-bed room lodge by ripping out staircases, blocking up entrances and wreaking havoc with the historic options. “It was in these types of a undesirable condition that you couldn’t even open the back door,” states Mikic. Undeterred, the Australian, who is a master of metamorphosis, swiftly established about transforming the room into the opulent 5-bedroomed property he now shares with his tv producer lover Sebastian Scott.

Mikic with his Labradors.

© Kate Martin

“I just appreciate it listed here,” says Mikic of the region the place Stella McCartney and Jeremy Irons are neighbours. “It’s silent, but action exterior and you’re correct in the bustle of Notting Hill Gate. It is so substantially far more lively and comfortable than a whole lot of the smarter areas of London.”

‘Department of H2o and Electric power (Los Angeles)’, Sarah Morris’s four-panelled 2004 screenprint, and Paula Rego’s portray ‘Therapy’ (2011) are amid the artworks hanging in the 1st-ground sitting down place and adjoining library.

© Kate Martin

Right after obtaining the primary ideas for the residence, Mikic’s to start with shift was to reinstate its stone staircase in an effort to reignite its previous grandeur. Company are now greeted by a foyer decked in de Gournay wallpaper, which opens via etched-glass double doorways on to a Portland stone stairwell with a Victorian-type iron balustrade. From there, Mikic’s final decision-earning was significantly from decisive. Though his studio is known for swiftly and punctiliously executed projects, when it arrived to his place, “I’m my individual worst client,” he admits. “Every project I do the job on is so different in style, but I couldn’t decide what I wished to are living with.” So, somewhat than opt for a single aesthetic, what advanced about this intuitive two-calendar year refurbishment is a richly layered multi-temper house.

Grayson Perry’s 2008 ‘Map of Nowhere (blue)’ attributes big in the eating room.

© Kate Martin

Even though the ethereal open-strategy kitchen and eating space on the ground floor and the bijou basement breakfast place are both equally cosy and relaxed, the 1st ground, which is focused to entertaining, has a crisp formality. “The notion was to produce a really adaptable residence that caters to various moods and feelings,” points out Mikic. What unifies this sumptuous house is the dizzying display screen of present day art – from Paula Rego to Grayson Perry and David Hockney – and Mikic’s unerring eye for offbeat, mid-century antiques and bespoke style.

Exotically plumed Hermès parrots in the cloakroom.

© Kate Martin

Just one of Mikic’s signatures is to start off a plan with the flooring. In the interconnected sitting home and library, his bold geometric rug lends a graphic glamour reminiscent of his decorator hero, David Hicks. There are touches of kitsch in the Perspex tables and palm tree flea-sector finds that bring, what Mikic calls, “a a little Joan Collins touch”.

Lighting in the Boffi-executed kitchen area was built by Mikic.

© Kate Martin

Mikic built it his mission to immerse himself in the restoration course of action, trying to find out artisans to reinstate all the things from the picket flooring to the rose plasterwork that adorns the ceilings. “We didn’t have a big budget, so I experienced to imagine about issues in another way,” he describes. The elegant fireplaces were designed by Mikic and brought to lifetime in India the gilt mirrors previously mentioned them were forged by a craftsman in Northumberland. There were some blessed finds, also. The pineapple lights that adorn the library have been spotted on the street. “They had been protected in cobwebs, but they give off the most incredible light,” he claims. Doing work with no floorplans or moodboards, it is this spontaneous sourcing that truly formed the house. “It was the critical to guiding my imaginative journey in this household,” he says of his adaptable mentality.

The manicured backyard garden was conceived by landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith.

© Kate Martin

The end result is a property which is comprehensive of surprises. The manicured backyard, conceived by landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith, capabilities a bronze pavilion, created with Jamie Fobert Architects, that had to be craned in. Indoors, the master bedroom opens into a roomy rest room and dressing room that exudes boudoir drama. “When we have dinners, attendees usually close up in this home although I end receiving ready. There is a true warmth to it,” says Mikic of the chocolate-velvet curtains, uncooked silk wallpaper, eBay sourced tub and 1940s Roman screen.

The breakfast room is hung with Scrolling Fern Silhouette wallpaper by Soane and ‘Untitled (grid)’ (2016) by Daniel Blumberg.

© Kate Martin

Mikic’s manner is so refreshingly laid-again that it’s quick to ignore the rarefied world he inhabits. His studio is presently making a bespoke private educate – designed in Italy, replete with a few bedrooms and a focused staff carriage – for a couple who, come the summer, will head off on a deluxe Covid-evidence vacation. He not too long ago done his to start with architectural project – a modernist Ibizan household. But catch him off responsibility, and he’s most probable to be holed up in his comfortable seeing Netflix and tucking into a bowl of spaghetti. Even in the times of supper parties – a regular affair pre-pandemic – factors ended up pretty freewheeling. The pair would obtain a group about the table and provide slow-roast lamb and vegetables from their well-thumbed Ottolenghi cookbook. “It’s so much extra exciting when points are a little chaotic,” states Mikic. But whenever these evenings stop, he is constantly awake by 7am to stroll his beloved black Labradors, Bullitt and Cause, close to the block. Then it is back to get ready breakfast, prior to heading out on his Tokyobike to his Shoreditch office environment. “Sebastian thinks I’m mad,” he suggests. “But I really like cycling, even in the rain.”

Chocolate-velvet curtains, a pair of sheepskin armchairs and raw silk partitions give the master bathroom a luxurious really feel.

© Kate Martin

It is a throwback, possibly, to his formative decades spent riding all-around his indigenous Canberra. Right before decorating residences, Mikic ran the menswear label Stonewood & Bryce with his good friend Theo Vanderzalm. They offered to Selfridges and Harvey Nichols, and have been a fixture on the Milan schedule. “One calendar year, hilariously, our demonstrate was sandwiched amongst Prada and Dolce & Gabbana,” he claims. “Not terrible for two Aussie lads.” Mikic, the son of a builder, expended his youth fashioning outfits for his fashion-aware mother. “She’d do the grocery buying in all these YSL copies,” he remembers. “It was all instead Zsa Zsa Gabor.” Mikic’s very first foray into decoration came early. “At 10, I don’t forget inquiring my mum to modify the curtains. She termed my bluff by providing me cash to acquire the cloth,” he says. “I was regularly repainting and rearranging my room. It wasn’t a acutely aware point, but I have usually experienced that appreciate of structure.”

Peter Mikic in his town house’s lobby – he stands beneath ‘Hamlet’ by Maggi Hambling.

© Kate Martin

It wasn’t right until a fateful meeting with supernova house developers the Sweet brothers in 2006 that his dual interests collided. They commissioned Stonewood & Bryce to make the uniforms for their mega-yacht staff members. “We designed cocktail jackets embroidered with cranes. They cherished them so much that they questioned us to do cushions and curtains, way too. Then a friend requested me to beautify her boat.” That mate was Elisabeth Murdoch. Mikic gained awards for his ground breaking attempts. To his brain, the worlds of outfits and gentle furnishings are simpatico. “Fashion provides you the means to have an understanding of modifying,” he suggests. “When you are creating a apparel assortment, it’s critical to take out matters that are not performing and to increase elements that are missing. It’s anything I have taken with me into interiors – it’s easy to fill a home with everything and every thing, but it’s all about getting the equilibrium ideal.”

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