How One Interior Designer Converted A Dilapidated 22-Bedroom Hotel Into A Sumptuous Notting Hill Home

When inside designer Peter Mikic first stepped inside his stuccoed Notting Hill city home a decade in the past, he was greeted by a band of pigeons. “They’d completely taken over the third flooring,” he says. Initially two properties, it had been transformed within the Nineteen Seventies right into a 22-bedroom resort by ripping out staircases, blocking up entrances and wreaking havoc with the historic options. “It was in such a foul state that you just couldn’t even open the again door,” says Mikic. Undeterred, the Australian, who’s a grasp of metamorphosis, swiftly set about remodeling the house into the opulent five-bedroomed dwelling he now shares together with his tv producer associate Sebastian Scott.

“I simply like it right here,” says Mikic of the world the place Stella McCartney and Jeremy Irons are neighbours. “It’s quiet, however step outdoors and also you’re proper within the bustle of Notting Hill Gate. It’s a lot extra vibrant and relaxed than loads of the smarter areas of London.”

After discovering the unique plans for the property, Mikic’s first transfer was to reinstate its stone staircase in an effort to reignite its former grandeur. Visitors at the moment are greeted by a foyer decked in de Gournay wallpaper, which opens by etched-glass double doorways on to a Portland stone stairwell with a Victorian-style iron balustrade. From there, Mikic’s decision-making was removed from decisive. Although his studio is thought for swiftly and punctiliously executed initiatives, when it got here to his place, “I’m my very own worst shopper,” he admits. “Each mission I work on is so completely different in model, however I couldn’t resolve what I needed to reside with.” So, reasonably than go for a single aesthetic, what developed over this intuitive two-year refurbishment is a richly layered multi-mood dwelling.

Whereas the ethereal open-plan kitchen and eating house on the bottom flooring and the bijou basement breakfast room are each cosy and relaxed, the primary flooring, which is devoted to entertaining, has a crisp formality. “The concept was to create a extremely versatile home that caters to completely different moods and emotions,” explains Mikic. What unifies this luxurious house is the dizzying show of recent artwork – from Paula Rego to Grayson Perry and David Hockney – and Mikic’s unerring eye for offbeat, mid-century antiques and bespoke design.

Certainly one of Mikic’s signatures is to start out a scheme with the flooring. Within the interconnected sitting room and library, his daring geometric rug lends a graphic glamour paying homage to his decorator hero, David Hicks. There are touches of kitsch within the Perspex tables and palm tree flea-market finds that convey, what Mikic calls, “a barely Joan Collins contact”.

Mikic made it his mission to immerse himself within the restoration course of, looking for out artisans to reinstate the whole lot from the wooden floors to the rose plasterwork that ornaments the ceilings. “We didn’t have an enormous price range, so I had to consider issues otherwise,” he explains. The elegant fireplaces had been designed by Mikic and delivered to life in India; the gilt mirrors above them had been solid by a craftsman in Northumberland. There have been some fortunate finds, too. The pineapple lights that adorn the library had been noticed on the road. “They had been coated in cobwebs, however they provide off essentially the most unbelievable mild,” he says. Working with out floorplans or moodboards, it’s this spontaneous sourcing that actually formed the house. “It was the important thing to guiding my artistic journey on this home,” he says of his versatile mentality.

The result’s a house that’s filled with surprises. The manicured backyard, conceived by panorama architect Tom Stuart-Smith, incorporates a bronze pavilion, created with Jamie Fobert Architects, that needed to be craned in. Indoors, the master suite opens right into a spacious lavatory and dressing room that exudes boudoir drama. “When we have now dinners, company usually find yourself on this room whereas I end preparing. There’s an actual heat to it,” says Mikic of the chocolate-velvet curtains, uncooked silk wallpaper, eBay sourced tub and Forties Roman display.

Mikic’s manner is so refreshingly laid-back that it’s straightforward to neglect the rarefied world he inhabits. His studio is presently making a bespoke personal prepare – made in Italy, replete with three bedrooms and a devoted workers carriage – for a pair who, come the summer season, will head off on an expensive Covid-proof journey. He lately accomplished his first architectural mission – a modernist Ibizan dwelling. However catch him off obligation, and he’s most probably to be holed up in his cosy watching Netflix and tucking right into a bowl of spaghetti. Even within the days of dinner events – a month-to-month affair pre-pandemic – issues had been fairly freewheeling. The couple would collect a crowd across the desk and serve slow-roast lamb and greens from their well-thumbed Ottolenghi cookbook. “It’s a lot extra enjoyable when issues are barely chaotic,” says Mikic. However at any time when these nights finish, he’s all the time awake by 7am to stroll his beloved black Labradors, Bullitt and Set off, across the block. Then it’s again to arrange breakfast, earlier than heading out on his Tokyobike to his Shoreditch workplace. “Sebastian thinks I’m mad,” he says. “However I like biking, even within the rain.”

It’s a throwback, maybe, to his youth spent driving round his native Canberra. Earlier than adorning properties, Mikic ran the menswear label Stonewood & Bryce together with his good friend Theo Vanderzalm. They bought to Selfridges and Harvey Nichols, and had been a fixture on the Milan schedule. “One yr, hilariously, our present was sandwiched between Prada and Dolce & Gabbana,” he says. “Not unhealthy for 2 Aussie lads.” Mikic, the son of a builder, spent his youth fashioning outfits for his style-conscious mom. “She’d do the grocery buying in all these YSL copies,” he remembers. “It was all reasonably Zsa Zsa Gabor.” Mikic’s first foray into ornament got here early. “At 10, I keep in mind asking my mum to alter the curtains. She known as my bluff by giving me cash to purchase the material,” he says. “I used to be consistently repainting and rearranging my room. It wasn’t a acutely aware factor, however I’ve all the time had that love of design.”

It wasn’t till a fateful assembly with supernova property builders the Sweet brothers in 2006 that his twin pursuits collided. They commissioned Stonewood & Bryce to make the uniforms for his or her mega-yacht workers. “We created cocktail jackets embroidered with cranes. They cherished them a lot that they requested us to do cushions and curtains, too. Then a good friend requested me to embellish her boat.” That good friend was Elisabeth Murdoch. Mikic gained awards for his progressive efforts. To his thoughts, the worlds of clothes and comfortable furnishings are simpatico. “Trend offers you the flexibility to grasp enhancing,” he says. “Once you’re making a clothes assortment, it’s vital to take away issues that aren’t working and so as to add parts which might be lacking. It’s one thing I’ve taken with me into interiors – it’s straightforward to fill a room with something and the whole lot, but it surely’s all about getting the stability proper.”

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