The Cromwell Apartment
A tenth floor flat
on Cromwell Road
Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, tenth floor of a modern London development. The owner is a student living here with a friend and a small dog, and she bought the flat as a place to live now and as an investment to sell on later. Both of those were live from the first conversation rather than one being an afterthought.
A modern apartment gives you a decent shell and very little character. Nothing is wrong with it, which is its own problem: there is no original fabric to work with and no constraint to push against, so whatever the flat ends up feeling like has to be put there deliberately.
The colour she loves,
and the colour that sells
The client is drawn to earthy tones and soft, calming greens. She also wanted the flat to hold its value and appeal broadly when the time comes to sell. Those two things do not want the same walls. Colour that a person genuinely loves is specific, and specific is exactly what narrows a buyer pool.
We could have painted it green and let her enjoy it, or gone neutral and left her with a flat that felt like a rental she happened to own. Neither is a good answer. We told her plainly that the warm neutral foundation was the smarter long term move, and then made sure that was not the end of the conversation but the start of it.
Personality in the layer
that can be taken away
The resolution was to split the flat in two. Everything fixed stays warm and neutral. Everything that can be lifted out in an afternoon carries her taste. She gets the greens, a buyer gets a blank flat, and nothing has to be undone to get from one to the other.
- The open plan living space was reoriented. Dining now sits in front of the best window in the flat and the television moved to a more practical position. In a modern apartment the layout is the one thing you can genuinely improve, because the finishes are usually fine and the arrangement is usually whatever was cheapest to build.
- Bespoke pieces made the new arrangement work. A dining bench with hidden storage, so the seat by the window is also where things go, and a wall hung media unit, so the floor stays clear and the room reads larger. Both were designed for their new positions rather than bought to fit them.
- Pale timber carries the warmth. Light oak on the media unit, warm teak on the bathroom vanities. Timber is how you keep a neutral scheme from going cold without committing to a colour, and it is also what stops the flat looking like every other apartment in the building.
- Texture does the work colour would have done. Tactile finishes and layered materials give the rooms depth, with her earthy greens arriving through art, accessories and textiles. It is a softer effect than paint and a far easier one to change when she wants something different in three years.
Most people are told to choose between a home that feels like theirs and a property that sells. That is a false choice, and it usually comes from treating a flat as one thing rather than two. Decide which layer a decision belongs to before you make it, and the same apartment can do both jobs without compromising on either.
What stays and what moves
Set out plainly, because this is the part worth copying if you are in the same position.
How this project ran
The client was based in the Far East and could not be on site during the work, so she took our Premium Makeover package, which gave her detailed coloured floor plans and 2D elevations to sign the scheme off from properly rather than approving a mood board and hoping.
Once the design was agreed she added our Takeover post design service and we ran the rest end to end: coordinating deliveries, liaising with the suppliers and contractors, sending clear digital updates, and checking that what was installed matched what was approved. For someone in a different time zone, that last part is the entire value of the service.
If you are buying a flat you cannot be present for, or you want a home that is yours to live in and still straightforward to sell, the place to start is a call. Fifteen minutes, free, and if the honest answer is that you need a builder before you need us, we will say so.
More completed homes on the projects page, and how design work is scoped on the design overview.
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