Gotta say, this Irish gayboy is one smart designer. Though I don't care for so much beige, everything is impeccable and clever. The kitchen is ingenious, the art is handsome, the bedroom is beautiful--and those ceilings! I had no idea a London apartment in a large townhouse could be that spacious. A little clinical, but really beautifully done.
Tasteful Friends: What say you about designer Brian Woulfe's London apartment?
by Anonymous | reply 41 | July 25, 2024 4:42 PM |
He sure is good at spending money?
by Anonymous | reply 1 | July 18, 2024 10:54 PM |
Don’t have the patience to watch whole thing, but looks great.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | July 18, 2024 11:10 PM |
A likable tour and designer because he keeps it all about the design and the decisions that went into it. He's able to talk about design intelligently and in a straightforward way, and keep the subject to design.
By contrast too many designers talk about their work as if it's equal parts 1.) magic (that you wouldn't understand), and 2.) shopping (and dropping names). Really, it's about developing a solid plan and building from that, and I'd clear he has the intelligence and experience to do it.
It's a small apartment that feel luxurious because of sound planning and choices in materials and finishes that complete it. I'm not crazy about every choice; for example, I don't care for the curvy forms and colors of the seating furniture, but it's his house and not mine, and it's quite well done. There's a spareness and an appreciation of the spaces between things that's something I always like, and here it hits the right mark. There's very little that's so of the moment that it won't look good 5 or 25 years on.
Refreshing to hear a designer who for once keeps the talk to his work, and when he does impart something personal it's appropriate - not like the overly animated tours of most designers chockablock with amusing anecdotes and long tales of sourcing something in a souk with Pamela Harriman in tow 40 years ago.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | July 24, 2024 11:07 AM |
I like it but it feels like a hotel suite. All perfectly coordinated and homogeneous. It’s a little too controlled for me.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | July 24, 2024 11:11 AM |
Where's the accent wall?
by Anonymous | reply 5 | July 24, 2024 11:14 AM |
I like him, even if he's a bit pretentious "Woulfe?" Bet you any amount of money the name was originally "Wolfe." To display your "objets?" Let's just call it crap you pick up on your vacation (holiday), rather than drop a French word here or there.
It's great that he embraces the television, but I truly hate televisions mounted over fireplaces. What can you do, however, when you do not have another room?
And when you do not have a large space, an open concept is a must, yet some people do not want a large gathering in your kitchen while you prepare meals or food for parties. Plus, who wants to have the kitchen sink on view?
The nude, butt guy portrait works for me!
by Anonymous | reply 6 | July 24, 2024 11:34 AM |
[quote]The nude, butt guy portrait works for me!
Is it of him?
by Anonymous | reply 7 | July 24, 2024 12:10 PM |
What's with that painting? Is this guy a friggin fag or somethin?
by Anonymous | reply 8 | July 24, 2024 12:17 PM |
No, it's not, R7.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | July 24, 2024 12:37 PM |
Pity.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | July 24, 2024 12:46 PM |
He’s got some subtle lighting , I wish he’d talked more about that.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | July 24, 2024 5:57 PM |
Looks like he bought two feet of the books-by-the-foot.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | July 24, 2024 7:22 PM |
The browns and tans are tedious and dull. Where's the color??? It's lifeless.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | July 24, 2024 9:33 PM |
R6, I agree! A TV screen, above the fireplace, should be concealed. An exemplary designer would find a good solution. A blank TV screen, above a fireplace, ruins the ambience and decor. Brian Woulfe is an average designer.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | July 24, 2024 9:49 PM |
I would hire him to do the kitchen.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | July 24, 2024 9:55 PM |
You're both wrong, R6/R14. A tv in a smaller space can only be hidden or displayed elegantly (which it is there), or it means not owning a tv at all. And he's right when he says that's silly to deny people watch tv. Now, if you have more than a couple rooms, you have more options. But the precious pretense of not having a tv over a fireplace is eye-rolling.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | July 24, 2024 10:16 PM |
I like all the separate ideas he has, but they only total up to a "nice" place. They don't really work all together. However I do like Man ass painting that is center stage
by Anonymous | reply 17 | July 24, 2024 11:17 PM |
I'm with R16 and the Irish designer.
Over the fireplace isn't optimum. It's stacking one black hole above another (the firebox), but it's a small apartment and short on wall space in the one space with comfortable seating.
As for James Bond-ing TVs in retractable cabinetry and false walls, that's sn enormous amount of money for something that will be obsolete in a few years at most. The simpler treatment of concealing it as a mirror is not bad in theory, but you end up with instead of a gauche "sofa size oil painting" a sofa size mirror clearly meant to conceal a TV. A nice frame only goes so far, and many end up and as horizontally stretched baroque frames which is a much worse abomination than having a bare-assed TV in plain sight.
Better to have a TV out there where it can be seen than to go to great ends to hide it in shame and end up looking silly.
Have a smaller screen TV if you like; too many people have preposterously large screens. Consider it's impact on the space and try to balance the room in other ways. But don't cover it up like cat shit -- we can still smell that it's there.
The guys got a kitchen/sitting/dining room, a narrow entry hall, and one bedroom. He doesn't have much choice not to have it in sight.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | July 24, 2024 11:48 PM |
What is it a 1984 Orwellian telescreen? Mandatory?
by Anonymous | reply 19 | July 25, 2024 12:02 AM |
I like him, the space is okay for a hotel suite, but the color palette is maddening.
Life in Sepia with Brian Woulfe
by Anonymous | reply 21 | July 25, 2024 12:35 AM |
A tad soulless. Must be a VRBO, which is why he repeatedly mentions “guests”.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | July 25, 2024 12:56 AM |
VRBO, R22?
by Anonymous | reply 23 | July 25, 2024 12:57 AM |
Lifeless, cold and uninviting. I wish this design phase would fade out. It's been around too long.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | July 25, 2024 1:05 AM |
I LOVE the brown wood built-ins on a white wall, and the long shelves without any vertical dividers.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | July 25, 2024 1:22 AM |
The bedroom is beautiful--not lifeless, cold, nor uninviting.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | July 25, 2024 1:24 AM |
And the table by the large window is great - a cozy place to hang out.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | July 25, 2024 1:27 AM |
I guess style and intelligent design are lost on some of you.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | July 25, 2024 1:29 AM |
I really like it. I get that it's not for everyone, but I could totally be happy there.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | July 25, 2024 1:39 AM |
Same here, R29.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | July 25, 2024 1:42 AM |
[quote]But the precious pretense of not having a tv over a fireplace is eye-rolling.
No, R16, having it over the mantelpiece and the center focus of the room is pedestrian.
R14 is correct.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | July 25, 2024 2:16 AM |
Pray, R31, where would you put your tv in a 2-room apartment?
Nothing pedestrian about it.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | July 25, 2024 2:18 AM |
In the bedroom?
by Anonymous | reply 33 | July 25, 2024 2:19 AM |
So if guests want to watch something on tv, they pile on the bed in the bedroom, R33?
by Anonymous | reply 34 | July 25, 2024 2:22 AM |
The TV is fine. Not ideal, but fine. Doesn't ruin the apartment by any means. My sister has one of those Samsung Frame TVs. Expensive but it looks really nice if you conceal the wires as they intend. Though they're fairly fragile
by Anonymous | reply 35 | July 25, 2024 2:50 AM |
As usual, critics with no design advice to offer as an alternative to the "unforgivable" tv above the fireplace!
How do you Marys drain your pasta?
by Anonymous | reply 36 | July 25, 2024 3:15 AM |
[quote]t the precious pretense of not having a tv over a fireplace is eye-rolling.
I agree, we live in a modern world and to pretend that large flat screen TV's what most of us have on all day long is just pretentious. Most of them have beautiful screen saver images of landscapes these days, with something new to looks at so I see it as a benefit to the modern room, always something new to look at. It's not the turn of the last century, lets stop pretending these things are not a part of our lives.
by Anonymous | reply 37 | July 25, 2024 4:57 AM |
No whites!
Groundbreaking.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | July 25, 2024 9:37 AM |
Going by the cornicing around the ceilings the bay windows and the exterior this was once a beautiful old Victorian or Edwardian home.
Not any more!
[quote]Lifeless, cold and uninviting. I wish this design phase would fade out. It's been around too long.
This so much! R24 gets it.
I'd love to see inside some of the other apartments in the complex, especially ones that have retained their original look, being either untouched or sympathetically updated, to give me an idea what this once was. Hopefully it had already been horribly updated previously in the 50's 60's or 70's before he got to it. It still has the nice high ceilings and that period detail around them, but that's pretty much it
I wouldnt want this place, too much to do to make it what I'd want, it'd almost be a gut reno, except in reverse. Hopefully there's still lots of untouched originals around
by Anonymous | reply 39 | July 25, 2024 10:30 AM |
The place is beautiful.
by Anonymous | reply 40 | July 25, 2024 12:29 PM |
I like the custom seating for the bay window. But, would you do it? I think I'd probably just have chairs. But it does look really nice.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | July 25, 2024 4:42 PM |