Apartment Arabescato, a penthouse apartment in Fitzrovia, has been enlarged and renovated by craft-led architecture practice, grafted, to better accommodate family life.

Working with a carefully curated and deliberately restricted palette of high-quality materials, the practice brought warmth and clarity to the existing apartment, which had been largely unchanged since its purchase.

Clients, Benoit and Bruno, share their Central London apartment with their three children. With their boy/girl twins approaching adolescence, the couple needed additional space for their family to grow into.

Keen to avoid moving and losing valued links to their community and the children’s schools, they took an innovative approach to upsizing by instructing grafted to prepare a design incorporating the apartment below.

The two apartments in DSDHA’s Corner House, a notable building completed in 2016, have been joined by a newly-formed opening and an industrial style staircase with metal balustrades. The extension has resulted in an additional two bedrooms and 113m2 living space, enabling the twins to have a room each.

The kitchen/diner in the newly-purchased apartment on the third floor has been transformed into a family room that caters to its youngest occupants without compromising the apartment’s aesthetics. The family’s television is cleverly concealed in a wall-to-wall media unit behind maple sliding doors featuring chevron marquetry book-matched in a radial sunburst pattern. 

As the clients are keen lovers of art, with an extensive collection influenced by their French heritage, specific attention was given to the apartment’s lighting and colour palette. Light fittings were selected for their ability to render the artwork faithfully, whilst remaining discreet. Bespoke maple joinery and warmer paint hues are used to soften the interiors, creating a calm and cohesive backdrop for the couple’s mid-century modern furniture and art collections to take centre stage.

The living room on the fourth floor, adorned with the art and design pieces of celebrated modern masters, provides space for formal entertaining and relaxation. Metal full-height bifold doors gracefully divides the adjoining dining room.

The twins’ prior bedroom has been converted to a consultation space with a dedicated bathroom, providing a calm and welcoming space for Benoit, a psychotherapist, to receive his clients.

In an approach that is unusual for a budget of its size, Bruno, a partner at an international law firm, briefed the architects to protect and reuse as much of the internal finishes as possible, concentrating their expertise on increasing the impact and cohesion of existing materials.

The Arabescato marble that gives the project its name is celebrated thematically throughout. Slabs were meticulously carved up in digital software before they reached site to maximise their use. In the kitchen, the striking faceted splashback and worktops are book matched and set against crisp, cool chrome transforming a geometrically complex space into one with calming, glacial qualities. 

Proving high budget projects don’t have to be wasteful, the clients were conscious to adopt a more sustainable approach to their kitchen renovation. The existing Bulthaup system that came with the apartment is reused whilst cabinetry is reclad in maple, reinforcing the visual language used throughout the apartment. 

At the end of the fourth-floor hallway, Dinesen Oak flooring folds up the wall to form a display shelf. Here, a large individual piece of Arabescato marble acts as the backdrop for a figurative bronze sculpture, transforming a previously bare space at the top of the new staircase into a key focal point.

A pragmatic and forward-thinking approach spearheaded by the clients is apparent in the joinery choices in the children’s bedrooms, opting for bespoke cabinetry and adjustable desks that will last into teenaged years. Each bedroom showcases a different interpretation of the apartment’s characteristic maple joinery, from a String-style metal shelving system to inbuilt shelves cleverly angled to offer uninterrupted views of the trees outside.

Set within a second existing jewel-like form, the 5th floor of the apartment is dedicated to the master suite which has undergone selected upgrades to create a space of considered luxury. Rich-toned timbers are used throughout in a distinction from the lighter maple used on the lower floors.

Here, the architects’ hands-on joinery background is evident in the design of another surprise feature: a bespoke, free-standing sapele desk confidently nestled into a triangular space upon ascent of the stair. The previously underutilised volume is transformed into a lofty study, overlooked by an arresting canvas from Pierre Soulages’s Outrenoir collection.

Continuing to work within the geometry that makes the existing building so unique, an automated TV lift is concealed in a monolithic cabinet at the foot of the master bed, its sharp vertical angles acting as a counterpoint to the sloped ceiling above.

The clients’ existing freestanding bath has been relocated to its new location by the glazed doors, creating a new connection to the outdoors. 

In a move that required the council’s permission to close the Central London road, a Drop Spa hot tub was craned into position on the 5th floor terrace where additional planting in bespoke, wheeled planters provides privacy and convenient access for maintenance without impeding the view of the BT tower and London skyline.

The decking over the cascade of three terraces has been replaced with non-combustible ‘Zero-Deck’, with the colour selected to blend well with the existing buildings’ celebrated exteriors.