Thoughts from the Studios of a London Interior Designer

Home Extensions
One question that I am frequently asked by trainee interior designers pertains to structural remodelling: "how much is too much?" Any interior designer can easily add an inch here, take off an inch there, but all of these changes add cost to the overall budget - and some older London residences may be impacted by heritage laws and local authority mandates on maintaining tradition. My golden rule is to only make structural modifications when every other approach will fail to give the desired result. Even just a few centimetres removed from a key wall can open up amazing new opportunities for the professional London interior designer, and if the client craves unique results this may well be the only viable solution.

Styling Magnificent Hotels
Interior designers who work exclusively on hotels often have a very different headset from those who focus on residential work. The main reason for this is a difference in the key underlying criteria. Even in the most luxurious London resort hotels, it is essential that a given interior design scheme be easily replicable from floor to floor and across different rooms on each floor. Most London hotels will ask the lead interior designer to create something that is repeatable, not unique. By contrast, the unique and fabulous interior designer flair is more suitable for residential scenarios.

Wireless All Around
One of Global Interior Design's flagship projects right now involves a London client who craves the best of modern technology. As his lead interior designer, I have been asked to include all sorts of wireless touch-sensitive controls, switches and systems. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem, but I learnt recently that with so many different wireless standards in a relatively compact area, one can easily run the risk of interference! This particular London project demanded several different technologies. One of my junior interior designers counted no fewer than five different wireless standards - WiFi for internet, a proprietary wireless standard for in-ceiling illumination, Bluetooth for hooking up some high-end iPod speakers, and yet another radio control pod for a luxury audio-visual system! The lesson: interior designers should always double-check for compatibility and require that installers test all systems thoroughly before handover.

Anticipating the New American Embassy in London
As every interior designer must know by now, the new American Embassy in London will be situated in classy and fashionable Wandsworth. And I was delighted to hear that the great designers at KieranTimberlake in Pennsylvania USA have won the competition to create the new embassy building! KieranTimberlake is more of an architecture firm, although they do employ a number of interior designers. Like Global Interior Design, KieranTimberlake focuses on the needs of the inhabitants of new buildings. Their team prizes the process as the first art, incorporating many layers of information and participation to create masterful expressions of light and texture. I can't wait to see what they will come up with here in London - and as an interior designer, I will be excited to see the 3D renderings of the planned internal spaces and structures!