A Cutting Edge Modern Apartment

Apartment lounge. Credit: Verity Welstead/Redcover.com A Modern Apartment In Chiswick

Chloe Lee's unapologetically modernist apartment strikes a blow for urban chic in leafy suburban Chiswick.

Urban Chic In A Middle Class Street?
Mention Chiswick and you immediately picture a pleasant, middle class, family enclave in west London. The streets are clean, the schools are good, there are decent shops, including some interiors shops, and the high street has the usual chain restaurants.

Which is why Chloe Lee's penthouse apartment comes as a pleasant surprise. You would expect to find the modernist loft building in urban Clerkenwell but not at the end of a Victorian terraced street in W4.

The Pop fireside chair by Christian Werner for Ligne Roset gives this open-plan living area a colourful 1960s vibe. The large painting was an inspired find at a local art fair.

Before The Transformation

Once a factory, the apartments are made up of three buildings: two 1930s blocks and a newer building constructed on the site of the original 1960s block. Chloe lives in the penthouse with her husband John, a one-time architect and current property developer, and their two children, Mia and Jackson.

They bought the flat from the developer owner when it came on the market a few years ago. 'The flat was rented out and obviously designed for a bachelor boy who hired caterers when he had a dinner party,' recalls Chloe. 'In terms of design, the place was a total joke. The kitchen was on the gallery and the flat looked just like a gym.'