The bold and the beautiful: six striking interiors that don’t hold back
From loud maximalist patterns to playful colour palettes, we pick a selection of stand-out projects that swear by a ‘more-is-more’ approach.
Photography Benoit Linero
Parisian chic meets disco luxe: inside Brasserie des Prés by B3 Designers
Surprises await at the new restaurant from Nouvelle Garde, bringing eclectic, experience-led dining to Paris’ Latin Quarter. B3 Designers revealed the new Brasserie des Prés, the fourth and largest Parisian restaurant for the group. Home to the original French brasseries and a hub for artists, poets and literary greats, the new location in The Latin Quarter in Paris provides the inspiration for the concept, complete with classic Parisian terrace seating that lines the long building’s leafy façade.
Inside, the design is vibrant yet traditionally inspired, modern and sophisticated. Eclectic furniture and finishes fill the ground floor restaurant, with bold panelled walls with bespoke-designed illustrative tiles. All materials and colours work alongside the heritage stone tower in the middle of the space, which penetrates all three floors and which B3 had to be careful not to touch. Behind velvet drapes on the top floor lies a final surprise in Grouvie, a 70s-inspired ‘pink and shiny’ secret bar. Snug window seating, plush velvet upholstery, mirrored ceiling and a stand-out neon disco ball feature up the tempo, in both design and atmosphere.
Big Mamma defines maximalism with Jacuzzi, Kensington
The hospitality group’s fourth Italian restaurant, Jacuzzi welcomes diners to an interior heavily influenced by the renaissance and Venetian villas. Marking the restauranteurs’ first West London opening, the Kensington site is billed as a 170-seat ‘pleasure palace’ on the high street, designed by Big Mamma’s in-house team, Studio Kiki. The Italian restaurant features a palazzo and three floors crammed full of Italian relics, including Roman statues and Murano glass ornaments.
The experience begins in an alabaster-walled dining room fitted with backlit shelves carrying the weight of 1,000 bottles. In the centre of the room an impressive lemon tree and canopy spreads across a stucco double-height ceiling, embellished with a Murano glass chandelier hanging above a spiralling marble radial floor. Twisted ivy, red banquettes, exposed brick arches and marbled windows further add to the restaurant’s grandeur.
Photography Muk van Lil
Studio Noun plays with abstract modernism at this Amsterdam office
Designed for Amsterdam tech company CVMaker, this head-turning workplace features a combination of work zones and multi-use spaces including meeting rooms, open plan communal areas, a gym space, and event rooms for social occasions or conferences. An array of blues and clashing bright colours join a collection of unique objects throughout each space, helping the studio achieve an absurdist feel. Tapestries handmade with vegan eucalyptus yarns adorn the walls, contrasted with neon street art signage and vintage bespoke furniture for an aesthetic that truly keeps you guessing.
“Since I work across art, tapestry, furniture, interior, and spatial design, this space gave room to implement it all,” explains Studio Noun’s lead architect, Sandra Keja Planken. “While stripping the existing office building back to its core, the company’s corporate identity was translated into a design that oozes a maximalist, abstract and modernistic feel.”
JA!COCO! brings playfulness to Beer52’s headquarters
Dubbing themselves as the world’s biggest craft ale subscription service, Beer52 wanted a home that embodied their identity. It was for this reason they approached JA!COCO! Studio, who used their knowledge and experience in curating daring, original hospitality venues to transform what was a rundown Georgian building into a hive of creativity for the HQ on Melville Crescent, Edinburgh.
Creating a ‘Wonka-style’ townhouse office of fun, colour and business innovation, inside features little to no dreariness. Instead, the townhouse office has opted for bold and colourful design starting at reception, with arched-entrance swing doors that burst open onto a welcome desk fitted with beer taps and floor-to-ceiling custom window blinds with the brand’s characters and emblems. Adjacent, a staircase hugs the wall adorned with a ‘wine-stained’ carpet runner and ornate handrail – accentuating JA!COCO!’s careful balancing act with retaining the property’s classical features.
Photography Benoit Linero
Clashing colours and prints at Hotel Les Deux Gares, Paris
Nestled in the 10th arrondissement, Hotel Les Deux Gares celebrates a Paris of the past under the direction of British designer Luke Edward Hall. Hall’s studio have transformed a vacant five-storey building into a maximalist haven and a riot of colour, using an array of sumptuous textures to boot.
Named after its position between Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est, visitors to the striking hotel can expect plush sofas, silk armchairs, velvet fringe, bold artwork and chintzy patterned wallpaper, all in a variety of primary and pastel shades. Hall also isn’t afraid to clash patterns: in the hotel gym, vintage wooden exercise equipment is joined by a red checked floor and blue floral wallpaper, for a workout space that’s nothing if not unique; in the lobby, a velvet leopard print sofa sits atop chevron tiles and in front of pea-green walls.
Carlotta by Big Mamma Group celebrates ‘old school Italian glamour’
Designed by the restaurant group’s inhouse team, Big Mamma’s second London opening of 2023 offers up an indulgently Italian menu and interior. A different approach to maximalism than its sister restaurant Jacuzzi, Carlotta pays tribute to traditional Italian cuisine and interiors, from the restaurant founders’ (Victor Lugger and Tigrane Seydoux) family wedding photographs on the walls to a love-it-or-hate-it 80s mirrors striped ceiling.
Accompanied with rich leather seating, a glowing marble and golden standalone bar is a selling point for Carlotta’s aperitivo; the restauranteurs’ first ever across their 20-some venues. Beyond neon lighting and behind velvet curtains, visitors find themselves on a terracotta red terrace, another spot to enjoy their drink. Upstairs, swirling pink and turquoise carpet lines the floors while gold mirrors and opulent curtained walls sit are joined by a festoon of rose quartz wall chandeliers. Skylights beam down onto framed Gucci silks and boxing murals on the walls, while supple leather banquettes provide plush seating.
