Roushana Sjahsam looked to the past to create her present apartment. Having lived much of her life in old European cities, Brussels and London among them, she has developed a love of classic interiors with all the trimmings: wall panelling, chandeliers, lustrous fabrics and touches of gilt. The trouble was, she says, she had to find a designer on the same wavelength.
'I showed several designers pictures of old Parisian apartments but they were all into contemporary, cookie-cutter styles,' she says. That's when she remembered her friend Frederic Bourquin of Atelier B. The Swiss interior architect understood immediately what she was after but saw the advantage of tweaking her ideas. The result is a flat that oozes old-world charm - with concessions that bring the interior up to date.
One compromise involved the moulding on wainscoting and doors throughout the flat. Bourquin suggested modernising traditional designs to prevent the low wall panelling from appearing extravagant or heavy. He also dissuaded Sjahsam from buying what she now describes as an 'over-the-top' red velvet chair by saying 'J'insiste'. The palette they agreed on was pale blue, cream and white.
Before Bourquin started work on the 2,300 sq ft Mid-Levels flat, Sjahsam, who is half Belgian, half Indonesian, employed a fung shui master to identify trouble spots. Unfortunately, he deemed as 'a room of sickness' the space that she had hoped to make the master bedroom. So, instead of sleeping at the back of the flat, which enjoys a leafy aspect, she beds down in a room by a long, narrow corridor that connects the living area and the kitchen.
'I told Fred I needed to have as much light as possible because the corridor makes things very dark,' she says. That required demolishing a wall and replacing it with glass. Instead of curtains, ceiling-height louvre panels were installed along the entire expanse (see Tried + Tested), providing privacy and complementing the bank of bookshelves on the other side of the passage.
Between the luxurious bedroom and en-suite bathroom - complete with a mosaic hamam-style tub long enough to accommodate a semi-enclosed shower - Bourquin carved out a dressing area, which fulfilled his client's request for a walk-in wardrobe. A plus is a small work desk by the window.