Desig House: At Home: Martin Brudnizki's Mansion Flat

Designer Martin Brudnizki's compact west London flat perfectly demonstrates the cleverly layered look of which he is a master

When describing his approach to designing hotels such as Soho Beach House in Miami and The Beekman in New York, Martin Brudnizki talks about creating 'homes from home'. It is easy to see what he means: they may be grand and glamorous, but there is also a sense of intimacy and comfort to them. So you would think it should be a breeze for him to apply the same magic to his own home. 'Actually, I find it really difficult,' he says with a groan. 'My mind goes blank when I try to __design for myself.' He prefers the parameters that come with working on a project for a client. 'Otherwise it is as though the scope is too broad.'

Looking around the recently finished flat that he shares with his partner Jonathan Brook, who heads up the communications department of Martin Brudnizki __design Studio (MBDS), it is clear that Martin managed to overcome any sense of designer's block. The two- bedroom flat is on the top floor of a Victorian mansion block in west London. 'It's like a sanctuary,' he says. 'You feel very removed from everything when you are this high up, and it's so nice to have windows at the front and back.'

At about 80 square metres, it is hardly huge - particularly when compared with the vast spaces that Martin designs in his professional life. That said, the rooms work hard. 'I think that every space has to really earn its place in the home,' he explains. In practice, this means little things like the bedroom having an armchair that actually gets used. 'I sit there and read all the time,' he says. The second bedroom is used as a dressing room, with one wall taken over by deep, built-in wardrobes. 'But there is still room for two to get dressed.' There is also a little desk in the window, which is where Jonathan studied until recently for a Masters in art history.

When Martin bought the flat, it was a little warren of rooms off a hallway. Two bedrooms and a bathroom were at the front of the building to the left of the entrance, and a sitting room and kitchen to the right. Removing the hallway wall to the right and the wall between the sitting room and kitchen created a single, loosely open space and transformed the feel and flow of the flat. 'I think it seems more continental in its layout now,' he says.

Martin grew up outside Stockholm, where his mother, who worked in fashion merchandising, always created a stylish home. 'She loved furniture and would save up for pieces she wanted. In our first apartment, she covered all the walls in golden seagrass and it left a very big impression on me; I still love seagrass,' he says, gesturing to the walls in the sitting and dining room.

The seating arrangement incorporates a small sofa, two vintage campaign chairs, two leather footstools and a nest of tables. The dining table seats six comfortably and extends to seat even more. Custom-made oak shelving units are filled with books and collected objects, while the walls are covered in pictures. There are architectural drawings, botanical prints and pictures of fruit, as well as pieces by young British artists such as Annie Rouse. Some are drawings made by Martin when he was at school; others came with his father when he fled Poland for Sweden. Martin has also collected Andrew Norrey's abstract paintings for years and there are several throughout the flat.

It is by curating this eclectic art collection that Jonathan has made his greatest contribution to the look of the flat. In fact, he and Martin are about to launch an art consultancy service as an adjunct to MBDS. 'Art is a big part of the projects we do,' Martin says. 'We work with many clients who are interested in and who understand art. But if there are clients who are not that way inclined, now we'll be able to help them and that way our projects have a consistency.' Poor art has no place in fine rooms. With all these pictures, it is easy to miss what Martin has done with the walls themselves. The kitchen is painted a fresh green, while the walls of the adjacent sitting and dining areas are covered in a green birch-coloured seagrass. The entrance hall is painted a light blue-grey and the bedroom papered in grey grass-cloth. Their dressing room is ivory, while the walls of the bathroom are clad in marble metro tiles. These are the bases for the cleverly layered interiors that Martin has created in the flat and if there is a signature of MBDS, it is the ability to do just that.

Martin Brudnizki Design Studio: mbds.com