Interior designer Alidad shows us around his opulent London flat | Design Notes

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I used to work at Sotheby's,

and I was in charge of the Islamic department,

and every time there was a sale,

most people would give their objects

to the porters to display.

Not me, I used to lock a room for three days

to actually do my own display.

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I really started with the antiques,

knowing antique textiles,

and then coming to interior design.

So it gave me a form of freedom

that I could do whatever I wanted.

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You know, this is the very first room I ever did,

and I found this marvelous painter called Alex Davidson

and this is really how it started.

So what he created is amazing.

It's this really textured wall

that he hand-stenciled and hand painted,

but there is this amazing texture about it,

and there's certain colors that change with light.

You know, at night they come out,

and you need a room that you can actually come

and let go at night after a hard day's work,

and this is exactly what I do, sitting in this green chair.

This statue is absolutely rubbish, it's just plaster.

And this is how you make homes rather than museums,

because you know, home is about things that you like

for different reasons,

and not everything has to be something fantastic,

and this is a very good example of that.

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This is my yellow room,

and I always tell to my clients, you know,

if you live in London, you must create your own sunny room,

'cause the sun doesn't shine very often,

so you might as well just pretend it's sunny.

The whole point of this room was that I had wanted

to somehow still reflect me and who I am

and the way I like mixing things together.

This gave me a good occasion to be able to mix,

let's say, this 17th century tapestry

with things which are much later in date,

like this mirror together with these wall brackets.

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I personally think that dining rooms nowadays

are sort of almost an obsolete room,

but if you are lucky enough

to be able to have a dining room,

it's actually rather nice

because it's so lovely entertaining people.

And I am very lucky here because when I entertain,

especially at night, it's more or less a candlelit room,

and most people love it.

So I decided it's gotta be very different

to the other two rooms.

So we came up with this hand painted and stamped leather

on the walls, which I do for a lot of clients.

And the marvelous thing about this leather is that

especially at night, it becomes alive.

It's almost slightly three dimensional,

so it catches the light in different ways,

and it's a really luxurious texture

that one can give to the walls.

Even this chandelier, I decided not to wire it up

and have leave it as candlelit,

because it makes such a difference.

And again, the reflection on the ceiling can be magical.

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This is my bedroom.

I decided to opt for a much lighter, softer,

and calmer look,

but even then I had to bring in a bit of texture.

So if you really look closely,

the walls have got two different fabrics.

When I come back from work,

I go, usually, to my red room,

and then I come here quite often.

I bought this big painting at a charity,

and I wasn't thinking about it, I just bought it,

and then there was panic as to where I was gonna fit it.

And in the end it fitted quite nicely here,

and it went with the color scheme,

which was sort of a miracle.

I usually do slightly believe in miracles

because they always happen at the end.

You know, things that you're not expecting to go together,

they quite often do.

And I am rather like that.

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