Daytrip is fast developing a reputation for its deeply desirable residential projects, but the London-based design studio’s body of work spans galleries, workspaces and boutiques. Clients have included Turner Contemporary and Liberty London, and ideas from these projects now inform the domestic interiors created by Emily Potter and co-founder Iwan Halstead (pictured above).
‘The first thing we look at is flow and circulation within a space,’ explains Emily. ‘We always seek to create something enticing; a unique journey with a sense of discovery.’
That desire was the duo’s jumping-off point for transforming this double-fronted Edwardian house, set on a wide, leafy street in west London, from a series of run-down and characterless bedsits into a comfortable, contemporary home for a TV producer and his family. Stepping into this house now feels like an event, moving from the elegant hallway into a practical coat-and-boot room that has been cleverly disguised as a striking yet peaceful ‘arrival space’ with ecru-toned panelling.
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From here, you take a few steps down into the cocoon-like snug, and from there descend once again, this time into the bright, energising space at the back of the house – a light, open-plan kitchen, dining and living room. Basalt-toned concrete floors, carefully polished to a soft sheen, flow seamlessly out into the court-yard beyond. ‘The garden merges with the house to create a wonderful area for entertaining,’ says Emily.
For the kitchen, Daytrip drafted in Edward Collinson, who comes from an art background and has an approach to design that Emily describes as ‘calm, gentle and soulful’. Edward’s eponymous studio crafts heirloom-quality wood furniture and joinery, and for this project he created delicately detailed cherry-wood cabinetry that has been teamed with a dramatic marble splashback and an island topped with a vast slab of terracotta-glazed lavastone. ‘It has a crackle effect that nods to the traditional look of old tiles,’ explains Emily. ‘In period properties like this, we like to balance the contemporary with references to the past.’
A second collaboration saw online-design destination Monument Store pick highlights from its collection, including organic, sculptural furniture and artistic objects with ancient and brutalist influences.
Fond of a very minimal palette, Daytrip is not known for its use of colour but, inspired by this house’s red-brick front and the greenery of the nearby park, Emily and Iwan devised a subtly earthy scheme of rusty-reddish tones, balanced by shades of bronze and bright mossy green. The main bedroom on the top floor, for instance, is enveloped by tactile woven-grasscloth wallpaper and diaphanous linen curtains, all in luminous amber tones. These shades work seamlessly alongside the warm cherry-wood joinery and darker fumed-oak floors that are a signature of the project.
‘We often use timber to create a background that complements the other colours,’ Emily tells us. ‘It brings more depth to an interior than paint alone. The atmosphere here now is restful and tranquil but, at the same time, warm and comfortable.’ daytrip.studio
