“Art is a crucial layer in telling the story of a room,” says designer Martin Brudnizki. “It adds a whole other dimension to a space.” He should know. The mastermind behind some of London’s most sumptuous dining rooms, from the Ivy to J Sheekey, he recently unveiled a £55m makeover of Annabel’s. It’s art that helped to dictate the extreme maximalism of the Mayfair nightclub’s decor (including the Picasso formerly known as Girl with a Red Beret and Pompom, but renamed Annabel by owner Richard Caring). “We built a narrative around the art,” explains Brudnizki, who used paintings by the British artist Ian Sidaway as the starting point for the series of botanical murals that decorate the club’s Garden Room. “Sometimes, though, the art comes last and is simply used to amplify the design story.”
It’s an approach he takes home with him, too. Visual art adds a layer of interest to the flat he shares with partner Jonathan Brook, who runs the Martin Brudnizki Design studio’s art advisory service in a Victorian mansion block in Parson’s Green, southwest London. It’s not just the rich assortment of works on display that amps up what is otherwise a serene, understated space, it’s the fact that they’re often hung cheek-by-jowl, wall-to-wall.
“I like to make sure every square inch of a space works and has purpose,” says Swedish-born Brudnizki. Here, British art sits alongside architectural drawings and abstracts alongside botanical prints – an eclecticism that’s the result of combining their two strikingly different collections.
For Brudnizki, picture hanging is its own art form. “It’s a creative practice that’s all about personal taste,” he says. When artist Luke Edward Hall gave him a blue line drawing for his birthday, he used its cool tones to guide the framing: “I got a blue frame and a blue mount – that made the whole thing pop,” he explains. “It works really well to pick a colour from a painting and build the mounting and framing around that. You can customise it in matching – or clashing – tones. The possibilities are endless.”
Brudnizki and Brook have taken years to perfect their ever-evolving display. “It’s a slow process,” he says. “You can’t rush it – you look at these pieces every day so they should make you smile.”
Top tips: try a grid
‘Art doesn’t have to be a Canaletto, it can be anything you have a connection to. For our flat, I framed the drawings from an old illustrated book of flora of the British Isles, and hung them on the kitchen cupboards. I tend to keep all the frames uniform, too.’
Frame it well
‘Framing is a very creative process. A frame can make or break an artwork. You can customise the mounts, the slips and the frames – so experiment. An easy trick to lift a cheaper artwork is to add a more expensive frame. Above our dining table we’ve hung a painting where the frame cost much more than the artwork.’
Consider the space
‘Consider the use of the room. In a study where you need to focus, you might just have one piece of art on either side of the space. In a tiny TV room I’d fill it with art to make it feel cosy. Smaller rooms often look bigger if you fill them up: it creates talking points in a space.’
Mix and match
‘How art interacts with an interior is key. Think about the other furniture in
the room, and how the art responds to one another. Do you want it to be looking
at another painting? Do you want to be able to see it as you enter the room?’
Have some fun
‘There are no rules to picture hanging. Don’t be afraid to hang a bold artwork on busily patterned wallpaper. I also love the juxtaposition of a classical interior with contemporary art, or vice versa. Hanging a single painting can add a bit of fun to a wall without the commitment of painting it.’
