Integral to the structure of a home but not often spotlighted as a decorative material, brickwork can be a true focal point in a space when used with intention. These homes from the ELLE Decoration archives show how savvy designers let the rawness of this material shine in spaces that marry industrial finishes with softer textures.
The London home where old meets new
‘Raw, genuine, natural, simple,’ is how homeowner Lea Schwartz describes the work of architectural practise McClaren Excell. It also sums up her Georgian home, which the firm reimagined to incorporate a Corten steel-clad rear extension which marries seamlessly with the period architecture of the original home. Exposed brick and peeling wallpaper feel intentional, adding depth while nodding to the property’s history.
The colourful home with painted brickwork
Designer Lara Bohinc made exposed brick feel warm and inviting by cloaking it in a soft pink paint. She used colour blocking throughout her five-storey Victorian home, taking advantage of the high ceilings where the colour often bleeds across. In the bedroom, an ‘East of the Moon’ wallhanging from her collaboration with Kasthall complements the peachy wall colour, while more of her work is seen in the ‘Celeste’ console dressing table and a ‘Saturn’ pouf, both by Bohinc Studio.
An Amsterdam home brimming with texture
The compact home of Lotte and Dennis Bruns, the founders of Amsterdam-based DAB Studio, is full of layered textures. In the office, bare brick walls stand beside ones covered in glossy panels of burl wood finished with a transparent lacquer. The wooden desk, which sits on an aluminium plinth, is a find from a vintage dealer in Amsterdam, while the black metal chairs behind are the ‘Chippensteel’ by modern Polish designer Oskar Zięta. The chandelier above is by mid-century lighting designer Gaetano Sciolari – bought from a collector in Antwerp.
The lush brick bathroom in Berlin
The rawness of brick is the perfect foil to the lush verdant scheme of this Berlin bathroom. Designer Fabian Freytag took the colours of Portofino to create a light-filled oasis in Berlin. The same green seen in the bathroom is a thread that carries throughout the home, where it’s paired variously with sorbet shades of peach and mint. More than just a mood he used colour to zone the apartment, defining each room to give it a distinct identity.
The former warehouse with art at its core
Exposed brickwork is often found in homes within converted warehouses. When it came to reimagining this former shoe factory in Sydney, designer Genine Noakes of Studio Noakes was determined to let this feature shine. Her team painstakingly acid-washed a gloss coating off the walls to bring them back to their former glory. They proved to be the perfect canvas for homeowner Lucy’s expansive art collection.
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The cool concrete home in Sydney
With its exposed brick walls and concrete floors, this industrial-style cottage in Sydney needed a little softness. To add it, homeowners Natalie and Keiron Devlin decided to bring the outdoors inside, quite literally, planting a fig tree that reaches up through the central stairwell towards the retractable glass roof. Artwork and tactile textiles also bring warmth to the home – ‘We layered slubby, raw linens that offer softness while still being in keeping with the architecture,’ says interior designer Juliette Arent.
The award-winning compact home
This innovative home won the 2019 RIBA London Award for its incredibly smart use of space and clever approach to lateral living. The work and home of Ty and Nicola Tikari, founders of architecture practice Tikari Works, the compact home is partly subterranean. Despite this, it’s filled with light thanks to an extensive lightwell. They used a minimal materials palette of brick, concrete and timber which allows the raw beauty of each to shine.
A Brooklyn loft with soul
The New York home of furniture designer Ciarán McGuigan has all the elements of a typical loft home – think exposed wooden beams and bare brick walls – which are enhanced by his eclectic selection of furniture, some of which are prototypes from his family’s firm, Orior. The exposed brickwork in the living space is painted white, enhancing the natural light that pours in through the original arched windows, while the ‘Marmar’ marble table anchors the space.
A London home gets a new lease of life
McClaren Excell faced two main challenges with this London home. First, how to connect it with its mews at the end of the garden, and, once a gallery-like space was constructed to connect the two dwellings, how to marry the old with the new. ‘Our work is portrayed as very contemporary,’ says co-founder Rob Excell, ‘but over 50 per cent of the project was about restoration’. In the living room, layers of plasterboard were stripped away to reveal the original brickwork and allow it to breathe again.
The former warehouse in Shoreditch
The ragged surface of raw brickwork contrasts pleasingly with luxurious surfaces in this converted warehouse, which is a combination of industrial edge and sumptuous finishes. Working with a roster of craftspeople, interior designer Zoë Starreveld and architect Alex Forbes created unique pieces throughout the apartment, including the unlacquered, brass-fronted cabinets by Liquid Metals and raw-edged Rosso Luana marble splashback in the open-plan kitchen.
