INSIDE A WITTY FUSION
OF HISTORY AND ART

Historical awareness and more eclectic design moves are immediately apparent in the living room of this villa, where faux-antique leather banquettes and a bronze wall frame containing illuminated Murano glass ‘candles’ suggest the modern equivalent of an Edwardian club. But the loose, organic pattern of the carpet and the angular legs of the chic glass table are completely contemporary. The elephant legs of the Romeo Sozzi dining table in the space off the living room introduces yet another kind of bespoke, highly crafted object.

The wall treatments are equally diverse. Above the fireplace, the asymmetric ribbing of ceramic tiles on the panel concealing the TV screen contrasts gracefully with the sculpted vertical marble lighting sconces, and the ribbing is repeated on the grey-green marble tiles on the staircase balustrade. A very different design approach appears in the dressing room, with its agate-like wallpaper, animal-skin rug, and ribbed bronze door handle. And in the bedroom, striking use has been made of the Louis Vuitton-patterned leather weave behind the bed, in combination with angularly faced lamps by Pierre Chareau.

The subtly lit ribbed pattern on the wall panel in the family ‘den’ contrasts with Antony Chan’s witty reinterpretations of the legendary grids created by the artist, Piet Mondrian. In the bathroom, dark metal frames and the unusual metal ‘bower’ contrast with differently surfaced glass panels; and in the bedroom the wood panelled grid generates a sense of soft warmness that balances the much cooler light passing through the glass panes.