De Vere Latimer Estate in Chesham, one of PDI's new refurbishment projects involves the re-development of the restaurant and other spaces such as their function and meeting rooms.
De Vere Latimer Estate has quite a history with WW2 and was featured on Britain’s secret homes, a five-part documentary series revealing the 50 remarkable stories behind the UK's most secret homes in the UK.
Take a first look inside The Club House at Liverpool One via Echo Liverpool
It has been a long journey for us here at PDI, having gone through long drawn out planning hurdles to eventually win over the planners enabling the delivery of the building which stands today. To get to this stage, we created three other options for consideration before The Club House scheme was accepted by all parties. However, still with some scepticism in the air at the outset, parties were unsure of the outcome, could a design company pull this off? We knew we could!!
Paul explains, “I wanted to develop a building firstly that would be a strong stand alone design statement and secondly a destination landmark for the city of Liverpool. Not just another chain rollout! I thought about a building which had a connection to the close proximity of the site to the sea, something romantic and themed with a great history and strong story line.’’
After some in depth research and a look back into his library of archived holiday photographs, Paul conceptualised a beach house conversion of a house in the Hampton's in New England USA. This was to be a great starting point! Paul quotes “A destination I have visited and admired greatly as a very cool and beautiful place with extremely inspirational properties. This knew was the beginning of The Club House.’’
Turning dreams into reality through architecture and interior design.
The exterior of the building takes its influences of a property which you would find on the front line to a beautiful white sandy beach. A house perhaps that was once a water sports club in its early days, owned by a wealthy American family who converted it into their family summer retreat on a beach in New England. The story unfolds that the New World Trading Company saw it up for sale and decided to acquire it and convert it into a stylish bar and restaurant, known as The Club House.
Paul goes on to say how he wanted to maintain the feel as you enter the property that this was once a residential house, maintaining the grand staircase, which would have once taken you up to the bedrooms or lounge areas. The interior is designed to please the eye from any area within the building, Paul was very keen to preserve a femininity and elegance to the design, underpinned with strength in form through the introduction of heavy detailing doors. Surrounding panelling at dado height, well proportioned rooms and spaces create the opportunity to pass through from the bar to the restaurant seating area with ease, maintaining at all times the connection of the complete interior, no area had to feel cut off from the rest!
All the light fittings in the unit have been custom designed by us here at PDI, beautifully crafted by a company close to our team. All the timbers for the project were sourced in Ireland, especially the exterior cladding. Paul states “I always insist on using reclaimed timbers on a project like this, with coats and coats of paint on. You just can’t ever get that authentic look that the building has been standing for years with new timber! A decorator trying to make it look old is never the same, a mistake made by many.’’
The Interior is dressed with props and dressings sourced for all over the UK and Ireland, a unique quality of us here at PDI, as we have a vast black book of suppliers and agents who source various pieces for our team! House clearance specialists from London are regularly in contact with us sending images of classical dressing pieces knowing Paul will often find a place in a project for such items. Many miles travelled and hours worked go into the sourcing of all the props for a project of this nature.
Paul says ‘’I wanted all the pictures on the walls to be as if the family had simply left them hanging and the dressings had been bought off the family who previously owned the house. We believe we have achieved this and are very excited to see what reaction the project receives.’’
Images Via Echo Liverpool
Another one of PDI's propping phenomena's, inspired by a gentleman who travels the world and collects artefacts and who deals with antiquities and the unusual, is The Trading House, London.
One of PDI's latest creative designs for Living Ventures, the team have created a modern gentleman's bar and restaurant with a sophisticated intelligence right in the centre on London's City.
The statement lighting features, initially sketched by hand, then transformed and re created in metal structures.
Photography by James Brown
As always, these projects include PDI's propping team to travel the country to find the perfect interior props.
