Bickenhall Mansions
A kitchen, three bathroom and three bedroom development project in Marylebone, London. Book an appointment to see how we can help you on your next renovation journey and transform your space.
Embarking on a renovation project for the first time may be a daunting prospect, but with over 50 years of combined experience, the team at Day True will always be on hand to help & advice. We are experts in Kitchen, Bathroom & Home design with the aim to make your experience as fun and as smooth-sailing as possible.
The Bickenhall Mansion project was one we completed in 2022. It includes a kitchen, three bathrooms and three-bedrooms for a development project in Marylebone, London. The property was dated but had lots of design potential. Our role was to reconsider the space and add value to ensure a high return on investment.
The Brief
Positioned in a mansion block, the original floor plan for this apartment was configured as: reception, dining-room, kitchen, three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The brief required us to achieve an extra bathroom – one for each bedroom – and to integrate the kitchen with the main space. The space was large but felt very closed in – our challenge was to open it up and allow in as much natural light as possible.
The original architecture of this building was intended to feel ‘grand’, and due attention had been paid at time of construction to internal decorative details. Working with the original features contained in each room – including decorative panelling and cornicing – was a gift for this project. By bringing together original elements with more contemporary design features the finished project embodies a sense of a place at home with its history and at ease in its present.
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Photos of Bickenhall Mansion before renovation
We are experts in spatial planning
To achieve a third bathroom the floor plan was adjusted to remove unnecessary additions and to borrow incremental space (a mere 600mm) from the kitchen. Doorways were opened up, repositioned, reshaped or otherwise subtly shifted, and glass was included where appropriate to create a sense of movement, light and space.
Photos of Bickenhall Mansion during renovation
The Kitchen
With a limited amount of natural light in the property, the aim was to brighten the kitchen, keeping its colour palette a neutral, matt lacquered ‘Daylight Grey’ and by clever use of concealed and decorative lighting. Corner units were removed to allow Crittall style doors to extend the kitchen’s entryway, allow light to move from the kitchen into a corridor with an increased sense of width, and integrating the kitchen into the main space without losing the idea of it as a separate location. A collaboration with lighting design specialist, Atlhea helped create a scheme that mimicked daylight and soften the space with some halo-effects.
The addition of a natural material in the form of Calacatta Viola Marble on the worktop, splash-back and island complements the main colour palette with its creamy white background, and adds bold visual impact with its strongly marked veining. The dropped marble fascia to the sink – a contemporary nod to old-school Butler-sink style – winks to the features of yesteryear without sacrificing either contemporary style or function to the lesser charms of pastiche or nostalgia.
As the strongest feature in an otherwise restrained kitchen design, the fabricator took especial pains to map out the positioning of the original stone slabs before cutting it for installation, to ensure that the direction of the veining would read perfectly and seamlessly as it crosses the room – travelling from wall to counter-space, to island, and onwards and upwards into a pantry.
Cladding the island with this beautiful stone anchors it in the space as a solid piece of furniture, while the addition of a ‘floating’ table that extends from it creates an opportunity for a more social space.
To ensure sufficient storage and to make the most of the height of the ceilings, the kitchen units were double-stacked – retaining a visual sense that the room is tall, bright, and generous in its ability look after all that might be required in a kitchen for those who also value entertaining.
An opportunistic additional nook – once used as a fireplace – was put to good use housing a made-to-measure pantry recessed into its cavity, and providing a breakfast bar/drinks area to conceal or reveal as needed. To enhance a sense of continuity in the space, the same Calacatta Viola marble was extended here as worktop and backdrop.
Antique brass finishing details, including to the cabinetry pull bar handles, tap, and light fixtures were a deliberate choice to help merge the contemporary with the traditional, and to add another subtly luxurious touch to this grand lady of a building.
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The Bathrooms
Designing the bathrooms was a challenge. The footprint of the communal pipework and the defined wet areas was fixed. By borrowing space from the original kitchen, the footprint was reconfigured to achieve three bathrooms in the space of the existing two. This is a common issue in old historic buildings. In some cases, there is a clause within the lease, which can restrict what can and can’t be done regarding plumbing. This is something that needs to be considered when renovating a bathroom. At Day True, we always love a challenge and will always find a solution to overcome it.
The Guest Cloakroom/Showroom
As the third bathroom was a new addition to the space in the centre of the apartment, it had no natural light. A bespoke large-scale mirror was designed to sit behind the vanity so that it could find, diffuse and bounce the light in and around the space and create the illusion of a bigger space. An oversized Hamman basin placed on a vanity dropped low allowed us to upscale proportions in ways that make the space feel both more generous and more luxurious.
The Second Bathroom
The second bathroom is a long, narrow space with a large window that allows lots of natural light to enter and move around the space. We normally avoid placing a WC opposite a door – it is not normally intended as a focal point, but sometimes it is an impossibility to do otherwise. A recessed and elevated wooden fronted storage cabinet distracts the eye by drawing it upwards, which minimises the effect of the position of the WC and a long, narrow vanity was added to maximise the width of the space and to provide a solid support for an impressively proportioned basin.
The Principal Ensuite
The master ensuite is a generous space – zones were created by raising the floor in the wet area to allow for waste and drainage for the shower and a freestanding bath.
Fluted tiling is added as a backdrop and as a backlit panel in the wet area of the bathroom, and its texture is echoed in the reeded glass used as an obscuring window finish. The backlight adds a highlight to the texture and more depth to the room and dark framing for the shower glass mirrors the frame of the windows.
By positioning the bath under the window, the recess is put to use to create an ideal position for mounting the bath taps and showcasing their satin brass finish. The drop of the window and its ledge also act as directional line of sight leading from one zone and one level of the bathroom to another.
In the lower zone, twin oversized bowls are mounted on floating wall mounted vanity units – with proportions and curves to mirror the bath. This space was intended to feel less like a separate bathroom, and more like an extension of the bedroom. A bathroom will always be an intimate space, but the intimacy feels an especially natural progression for an ensuite leading directly from a bedroom.
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The Bedrooms
A light oak herringbone wood floor was laid throughout the apartment to add to the sense of flow, volume and to keep the rooms feeling both grounded and light.
The wardrobes in all three bedrooms were made-to-measure and tailored to suit the style and dimensions of each room, and to house air conditioning units. The finishes were kept simple and elegant with fine brass details.
The third bedroom was designed as a flexible space, enabling it to be used as a guest room, home office, or gym.
Challenges to tackle
An issue faced in all three bedrooms was how to fit air-conditioning units so that they weren’t on obvious display. Our solution for concealing them without restricting the ceiling heights was to house them in wardrobes that were custom fitted for that purpose.
The Hallway
A hallway always needs to make an entrance, and maybe especially so for a development project where a good first impression is particularly seductive for a potential buyer.
We wanted to maintain a sense of grandeur to fit the style of the building and styled it like a gallery. The panelled walls were a perfect frame for works of art, themselves framed carefully to stand out against light-coloured walls.
This airy space linked all the rooms along its central corridor, bringing the spaces together into a beautiful whole.
The Living Space
The property was blessed with a large open plan living and dining space, with two large bay windows bringing on the light. Traditional cast iron radiators and original wall panelling helped the place to feel at home with its history and more than comfortable in its present.
A bar area adjacent to the dining space, and a floating low marble shelf added to the living space wall create two additional focal points at each end of the room.
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