A home in an old office block clocks on a new look

How do Europeans live in such grey, beige places? I’m happy waking up in a pink room. Vibrant colours make you joyful; you will never be sad with pink and red,” laughs artist and gallery owner Carlos Rittner from his apartment in Mexico City.

From the exterior, the 1940s converted office block, which is a stone’s throw from the Zócalo plaza, the world’s largest city square, is modest, but step through the banana-yellow front door and you are instantly transported into an art installation.

Continue reading...

Prospect Cottage on the beach at Dungeness, Kent was a home and sanctuary for the artist and film-maker Derek Jarman. The gardens are world famous, but the interior, shielded from public view by net curtains hung by his partner, Keith Collins, after his death, has been largely unseen. This haven has been photographed by Gilbert McCarragher, and Prospect Cottage: Derek Jarman’s House is published by Thames & Hudson

Continue reading...

Restraint and calm are the guiding lights in this stunningly sparse apartment

For couturier Anna Valentine , there is an overwhelming similarity between the principles behind her studio and the way she has designed her London apartment. Yet it is the sense of atmosphere at the core of this home’s refined DNA that leaves the strongest imprint. It is a graceful space, without pretence, where less is definitely more.

The first-floor Georgian apartment, which Anna shares with husband Jonathan Berger, who works in film and TV, had been untouched for 30 years when they moved in: “Despite the yellow Formica kitchen, boxy dark rooms and low false ceilings,” says Anna, “we were immediately drawn to the potential, proportions and location.”

Continue reading...

For Beth Knights , being a literal mess is a hindrance and brings on feelings of shame. But will decluttering improve her life – or can she accept the person she is?

• Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email

One star-crossed night some years back, a dashing young man found an excuse to visit my home. As I am the messiest person I know, impromptu visitors are almost always unwelcome. Generally, I manage my dirty little secret by attempting to confine my chaos to one area: my bedroom. Being single for much of my life helped. (Or did the state of my bedroom help keep me single?)

Just back from a festival, said interloper popped past to borrow some such thing. By the time I realised my good fortune, it was too late to “pretend tidy” by stuffing the wardrobes with the contents of my floor. I refused us entry to my room so many times, he became suspicious I was hiding a body in there.

Continue reading...

How a fashion designer shed new light on the country home of a renowned architect

Fashion designer Eva Maria Bogaert never thought she’d swap the city for a village. But, after living in Brussels, Berlin, Antwerp and then Ghent, she left for the countryside with her husband, Pieter Van Hoestenberghe, and their two young children, when the couple’s dream home came up.

The house in question was designed and built in the 1970s by the renowned Belgian architect Hendrik Scherpereel. Eva Maria and Pieter bought the house from Scherpereel, a friend of Pieter’s parents, and it was still in its original state.

Continue reading...

An warehouse space in the Italian city has been cleverly transformed with original features and a mix of styles

Milan isn’t a city short of personality, but it is short on homes with personality that haven’t already been developed into brand-new boltholes or snapped up by the cool crowd. Luckily for Elisa Vassalli, the area of Isola, northwest of the centre, still has a few secret spaces up its sleeve, which is how she ended up finding her former textiles factory home.

“We saw a lot of apartments, but this one was really different to everything else,” says the interior designer, who shares the space with her carpenter and set designer husband, Davide. The factory was built in the 1930s and they are the first couple to make it their home. “We loved that it hadn’t been touched, because we wanted to have a space with a story. It was very important for us because we love the memories of a space and respecting it.”

Continue reading...

A preview of the Milan Furniture Fair, the latest exhibition at Vitra Design Museum and the relaunch of London’s best 60s boutique

This month’s design news is pretty nostalgic. Jonny Trunk’s wonderful history of hi-fi catalogues reminds us of the world before downloads and the relaunch of boutique Granny Takes a Trip brings back 60s psychedelia. And, as the new exhibition at Vitra Museum shows, looking to the past for answers to modern problems may well be the best solution.

Continue reading...

Vintage, sculptural or colourful, lights to brighten your interiors

Continue reading...

Changes and clever touches mean there are surprises a plenty behind the front door of this Edwardian home

From the outside, Marisa Hordern’s Edwardian terrace in London’s north Kensington looks just like any other on the street. A tiled path leads up to a grey front door with two clipped olive trees standing outside the red brick facade. “I like seeing people’s reactions when they come in,” says Hordern, the founder and creative director of Missoma , a jewellery label that started life around her kitchen table 16 years ago. “Inside, it really is quite different from what you might expect…”

Hordern moved from a nearby maisonette five years ago. At the time, she was single and approaching her 40th birthday. “I decided it was time to lay down some proper roots and buy a house,” says Hordern. “The street is full of young families, and I remember my neighbours asking: ‘Where’s your husband? Where’s your partner? Where are your kids?’ I did feel a little bit like the odd one out, but this was just something I wanted to do for myself. Sometimes you just need to stop waiting for things to happen and do it yourself. I’m a big believer in that.”

Continue reading...