Design ideas for metallics
Banish any thoughts of Donald Trump's apartment from your mind: the judicious use of gold and silver can be the perfect way to bring warmth, shimmer and texture to your interiors. If you're bold enough, a full wall of gold leaf makes for a deeply opulent interior, especially when backed up by beautiful objects and other colours, as it is in the homes of Anthony Collett and Alidad. If this feels a little too much, picking out decorative details in gold paint or choosing furniture in bronze or brass can have a striking effect. As the days get grey and dark outside, it's a particularly appealing prospect to think of these elements sparkling in the candelight – worth its weight in gold, you might say.
Mark Anthony Fox1/13Christian Bense uses metallic elements throughout his bijou flat which otherwise follows a muted, monochromatic colour scheme. The shiny gold, brass and copper tones elevate the living room, adding a sense of deco glamour in a way that feels both romantic and masculine. The antique brass fire screen and hammered gold artwork above the fireplace are particularly effective, adding a warmth and glint akin to that of a fire.
© Chris Horwood2/13A mirrored dressing room is not only practical - for full-length outfit inspection and the added bonus of making a small room feel larger - but glamorous too. The mirrored dressing room on the second floor of Charlotte and Philip Colbert's Spitalfields house was created using hand-aged mirror glass made by Rupert Bevan, which covers all the doors and drawers. The brass crab on the vanity appears to have almost sprouted from the mirrored surfaces.
Simon Brown3/13Renowned interior designer Alidad's exquisite London flat is full of gilded surfaces. Inspired by baroque style, the walls in the dining room are covered in leather panels embossed, hand painted and gilded with colourful flowers and fruits by Sterling Studios, which was also responsible for the hand-painted trompe l’oeil ceiling with its faux-coffered effect. A gilded wood and wrought-iron chandelier by Richard Taylor Designs picks up on the gilded vertical wooden fillets.
Boz Gagovski4/13Designer Lucy Mayers used “a fabulous gold porcelain tile" as the backsplash in the kitchen in her small London flat. “Having a reflective surface in a dark space is a very effective way of adding glamour and also helping to make the space feel larger – I think gold can be particularly obliging in smaller spaces.”
Chris Horwood5/13‘Oh, it’s a bit Alice in Wonderland," says Nina Campbell of the gold fireplace in her Chelsea house, and the wall of mirrored glass that backs it. "Because of the bores in the planning office we couldn’t make a working fireplace, so I filled the grate with crystal logs. The whole thing is insane. You've got logs which won’t burn, and mirrors everywhere, and this gold chimney breast that I dragged back from Atlantic Avenue in the USA. I love the whole nonsense of it. ’
Romain Ricard6/13Maria Speake of Retrouvius is well known for her inventive way with materials, and we love the reflective surface she has created on these pocket doors, which are covered in Neisha Crosland’s metallic ‘Moorish Circles’ wallpaper. See the rest of this Victorian terrace here.
Paul Massey7/13For a subtly opulent look, gold detailing such as the Gothic-inspired tracery on this bathroom cabinet is a beautiful idea. Maddux Creative are the team behind this unusual north London house, and we love their combination of Farrow & Ball’s ‘Castle Gray’ and the graceful gold-leaf trim.
Paul Massey8/13This room in a Berkshire house by Nicola Harding is further proof of how well sky blue works as a backdrop for brass or gold. 'Stone Blue’ paint by Farrow & Ball on the ceiling and built-in bookshelves sets off the brass ‘Plain Table’ from Matthew Cox and wall lights and oversized pendants from Cox & Cox.
Christopher Horwood9/13Picking out parts of patterned decoration in gold leaf can be a subtle way to incorporate metallics into a scheme. The artist Natasha Mann, an expert in Moroccan decorative painting, has done just this in her London house, which is a vision of blue and gold. In the entrance a tricky L-shaped biomorphic frieze cascades overhead, each detail radiant with 24-carat gold leaf.
Mark Anthony Fox10/13This glamorous bar in a London pied-à-terre designed by Veere Grenney has a verre églomisé surface, etched with images of pagodas and pavilions inspired by an antique document. It was designed by VGA and made by Mathew Bray & Matthew Collins.
11/13Maddux Creative have proved how subtle and beautiful metallics can be again in this converted factory in Queens Park. “The rear wall in the sitting room is the first thing visitors see, so we commissioned a specialist painter to gild the chimneypiece, with a textural finish on the adjacent wall. It creates a reflective sheen, with lights angled on to it for drama at night.”
Alexander James12/13Metal is a familiar material for kitchens, but these cabinets designed by Janine Stone for a Belgravia townhouse are quite extraordinary. It took 20 layers of lacquer on a metal substrate to achieve the mottled, bronzed finish. It was the result of a series of experiments and it is the first time that Janine had done this in a kitchen.
Michael Sinclair13/13In designer Anthony Collett's London house, walls in Dutch gold leaf showcase a collection of late-19th-century studio pottery by Burmantofts of Leeds. The gold leaf brings an incredible shimmering warmth to the room, which sets off the vibrant greens, blues, yellows and pomegranate reds of the pots.
