Brandon Schubert designs a confident, colourful flat in Belsize Park
Not everyone would give up a promising career in a well-paid profession to take a chance on becoming an interior designer. But then not everyone is as focused and clear-headed as Brandon Schubert, the young American who owns this flat. Brought up in Dallas, Brandon began climbing the legal ladder in the London office of US law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell – until 2015, when he resigned to study at Inchbald School of Design.
‘I loved working for Davis Polk and they were very good to me,’ says Brandon. ‘But, after a while, I started wondering whether I wanted to be a lawyer for the rest of my life. The longer you stay, the harder it is to leave, since your lifestyle inevitably expands to meet your income, so I decided to quit while I still could.’ After the three-month course at Inchbald, he was lucky enough to land a trial period in the decorating office of interior designer Ben Pentreath. ‘It was the first place I’d ever worked where it didn’t feel like work,’ Brandon says. The trial period turned into three happy years of learning on the job.
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By March 2019, though, he felt ready to set up on his own. ‘I thought, I’m 34 now, and if I’m ever going to do it, this is the time.’ Just a few months later, Brandon already has several projects in progress, including a Grade II* listed rectory in East Sussex, a Georgian townhouse in the Peak District and an 18th-century villa in Hampstead, along with several smaller house and garden schemes.
The flat Brandon shares with his English husband, Will Carter, is an art-filled space in Belsize Park, north London. The decoration slightly predates Brandon’s change of career, but it already demonstrates a keen eye and a perfectionist approach. When the couple bought the one-bedroom late-Victorian ground-floor property, it had been untouched since the Seventies. ‘The garden was completely overgrown and there was a poky bedroom extension at the back,’ Brandon recalls. This they demolished and replaced with a modern, full-width extension, from which glass doors open onto the garden terrace.
The layout is straightforward. Steps lead up from the small front garden to an entrance hall and Brandon’s combined sitting room and office, its walls hung with an eclectic array of paintings and prints in artfully mismatched frames. Most of them have been picked up for a song at his favourite salerooms and antique markets (especially the regular fairs at Newark and Ardingly). A few others have come from his Dallas grandmother, such as the Mughal painting on silk of a falconer on horseback. ‘I wouldn’t have chosen it, but I think it works well here.’
From the hall, a corridor leads past a cloakroom and a compact utility room to the combined kitchen and dining room. Off this area, down a couple of shallow steps, is the sitting-room extension – a large, bright space with a roof light and a wall of windows that open onto the garden. It is dominated by a colourful Sandra Blow print that hangs above a Crate & Barrel sofa. The corridor continues past the kitchen, its narrow space enlivened by a grid of 25 linocuts by Adrian Wiszniewski, liberated by Brandon from a book, then past a marble-tiled bathroom to the bedroom, which also looks over the garden. The tree-filtered light here is suitably dreamy, with windows framed by curtains in canary-yellow linen. Above the bed hangs a print by Sir Terry Frost, and opposite are three striking Cuban posters, which Brandon bought on a trip there with Will.
It may be too early to speak of a signature Schubert style, though the Ben Pentreath influence can be seen in Brandon’s relaxed use of traditional English country-house furniture combined with mid-century modern pieces and the occasional burst of bright colour, such as the yellow Ercol chairs in the kitchen. Asked whether he brings an American sensibility to his work, Brandon replies, ‘They definitely do interiors a bit differently in the States, especially when it comes to convenience and comfort.’ He cites the impressive walk-in wardrobe in the bedroom as an example. ‘But it can sometimes be too perfect. I love the artisanal furniture you find in Mexico – I think introducing a rustic element really brings a room to life.’
All in all, Brandon’s American perfectionism and relaxed English approach to style seems a winning combination, and the law’s loss may prove to be decorating’s gain. Five years on, he is thinking about looking at his flat again: ‘Would I do it differently now? You bet’
Brandon Schubert: brandonschubert.com
Paul Massey1/11The kitchen units were custom built to Brandon’s design and finished in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Blue Gray’ paint to match the walls. A splashback and worktops in Carrara marble are a pale foil for yellow-painted Ercol ‘All Purpose Chairs’.
Paul Massey2/11Swedish drawings in the dining area contrast with the For Max series of 25 linocuts by Adrian Wiszniewski in the hall.
Paul Massey3/11The aesthetic-movement gas chandelier from c.1880 was sourced from the Exeter Antique Lighting Company. On the wall above the chimneypiece, Ian Grant’s painting Two Girls in Deckchairs is paired with Pitlochry, a romantic landscape in oil by Francis E Jamieson.
Paul Massey4/11A Mughal silk painting of a falconer on horseback, inherited by Brandon from his grandmother, creates an eye-catching focal point beside a Seventies chair in its original fabric – one of a pair by Danish design house Fredericia. The large Turkish goat-hair kilim is from the Sixties.
Paul Massey5/11Farrow & Ball’s ‘Castle Gray’ paint creates a backdrop for artworks picked up by Brandon and his husband on their travels and a collection of ceramics, including some pieces he made himself.
Paul Massey6/11Garstin Cox’s painting Cornfields by the Sea hangs above a Børge Mogensen ‘2209’ leather sofa. A custom footstool in orange wool with a Greek key border picks up on the warm tones of a bent-plywood chair by La Manufacture Baumann, in front of the Georgian mahogany glazed bureau bookcase.
Paul Massey7/11Mid-century walnut-framed Danish armchairs tone with an antique Turkish kilim from Mexico.
Paul Massey8/11Tribal masks from the Congo and Papua New Guinea and paintings by amateur artists add decorative detail to the hall.
Paul Massey9/11Walls in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Elephant’s Breath’ bring together a George Nelson ‘Saucer Bubble Pendant’ light, a Terry Frost print, a headboard in Guy Goodfellow Collection’s ‘Olive Sacking’ and an antique kilim in the bedroom.
Paul Massey10/11In the bedroom, an antique Le Klint lamp with an original plastic shade stands on one of two Fifties Børge Mogensen teak and beech chests of drawers in front of Eighties posters bought in Cuba.
Paul Massey11/11Brandon Schubert.
