Tasteful Friends: What say you about designer Brian Woulfe's London apartment?

He sure is good at spending money?

Don’t have the patience to watch whole thing, but looks great.

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.

I like it but it feels like a hotel suite. All perfectly coordinated and homogeneous. It’s a little too controlled for me.

Where's the accent wall?

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!

[quote]The nude, butt guy portrait works for me!

Is it of him?

What's with that painting? Is this guy a friggin fag or somethin?

No, it's not, R7.

Pity.

He’s got some subtle lighting , I wish he’d talked more about that.

Looks like he bought two feet of the books-by-the-foot.

The browns and tans are tedious and dull. Where's the color??? It's lifeless.

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.

I would hire him to do the kitchen.

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.

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

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.

What is it a 1984 Orwellian telescreen? Mandatory?

A Samsung Frame could work well.

I like him, the space is okay for a hotel suite, but the color palette is maddening.

Life in Sepia with Brian Woulfe

A tad soulless. Must be a VRBO, which is why he repeatedly mentions “guests”.

VRBO, R22?

Lifeless, cold and uninviting. I wish this design phase would fade out. It's been around too long.

I LOVE the brown wood built-ins on a white wall, and the long shelves without any vertical dividers.

The bedroom is beautiful--not lifeless, cold, nor uninviting.

And the table by the large window is great - a cozy place to hang out.

I guess style and intelligent design are lost on some of you.

I really like it. I get that it's not for everyone, but I could totally be happy there.

Same here, R29.

[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.

Pray, R31, where would you put your tv in a 2-room apartment?

Nothing pedestrian about it.

In the bedroom?

So if guests want to watch something on tv, they pile on the bed in the bedroom, R33?

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

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?

[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.

No whites!

Groundbreaking.

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

The place is beautiful.

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.