And there was light

Six floors (plus roof garden), recycled materials, art and a yellow sofa: the Retrouvius philosophy

It is always a sort of psychological link. Like the one Maria Speake, founder together with Adam Hill of Retrouvius, the famous design and salvage firm, triggered by entering the closet of the person who would become the lady of the house, adapting it to the needs of a family of five, imagining how to fill up six floors (plus a spectacular rooftop with a view of London) after having lived in a small apartment. «It was full of garments with great personality, colorful, a bit wild», the designer says. This, together with a yellow Baxter sofa purchased without knowing where it would end up, gave Maria a rather clear idea of the job that faced her.

«A precise but gentle renewal, a sort of surgery on a layout that was already perfect. Here the salvage work of Retrouvius is limited to the objects and reuse of what was already there: while the present parquet comes from an Austrian building from the 1800s, the original flooring “lines” the walls of the children’s area. I have updated the spaces for the family’s use, making air and light circulate, in connection with greenery». Like the garden and the terrace, a small urban jungle.

Inside, the starting point was the Boffi kitchen, after which the focus shifted to the master bedroom and the children’s rooms, connected by an “open” bathroom on the mezzanine, a luminous, unexpected space with a freestanding tub, just below the terrace. The entrance is also the dining room, the only space where the mostly pale palette gives way to more sumptuous colors, an enormous Belgian tapestry from the 1700s, and many works of art. Light is the true leitmotif of the whole project. «I have conserved it, and added some complexity», Maria Speake explains. With the intuition gleaned from that closet.