Rita Konig has brought a north-facing living room to life with a lively mix of pattern and colour. Arabella Youens takes a closer look.
Rita Konig has an enviable knack of creating rooms that look as if they have evolved effortlessly over time. Having bought a ground-floor flat in west London after returning from New York, she set out to make better sense of the rooms, creating a small kitchen leading through to an open-plan dining and sitting room.
‘It’s an end-of-terrace building and I realised I could re-route the entrance to the flat through a gate in the garden wall,’ she says.
‘That way, you can walk straight into the kitchen — as you often do in New York. It makes so much sense, as you can immediately drop the shopping off.’
The dining area sits a few steps up from the kitchen. Rita lightened the north-facing space by painting the floorboards white.
The peach walls are in Greville Pink by Adam Bray, available from Papers & Paints (www.papersandpaints.co.uk). It forms an unusual, but happy marriage with the punchy, sunshine-yellow leather vinyl chairs from Philippe Hurel (www.philippe-hurel.com).
‘The colour is very chic; it’s like sunflowers on steroids,’ says Rita. At the windows hang soft Roman blinds in Nigel from Raoul Tex-tiles (Turnell & Gigon, www.turnellandgigon.com).
On the right-hand wall is a work by David Ratcliff, a present from Rita’s friend, the LA-based gallerist Honor Fraser (www.honorfraser.com). Next to the antique chest of drawers are lamps by Anna Lari in polished brass, and, on the top, is a trumpet lamp by Marianna Kennedy; both are available through Rita’s online store.
Rita Konig — www.ritakonig.com
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