“I would say that the interior itself beckons me,” says Rima Tatjana Ghubril, one of London’s more innovative talents in the cut-throat world of interior architecture. “The space itself will tell me what it is I should place there. I rarely bring items to a home just to try it out. It just goes.” You mean like an artist approaching a blank canvas, perhaps? “Yes. You see there are no rules, you have to go with what you feel at that particular time.” We’re talking about a 550 square metre, five-bedroom and three living area project Ghubril recently completed in the up-market district of Chelsea. But, of course, the vivacious Lebanese designer doesn’t see it as simply a project; it’s something more than that, something that hinges on the ethereal.
For the six months she worked on giving “the apartment soul”, as she would have it, Ghubril truly lived the experience. A fact made obvious by the details like the semi-precious praying beads languishing on a side-table beside two delicate Galle Amber pots and a sensual nineteenth century statuette of Venus, set against a canvas painted by her client. Or your attention may even be drawn, for a few minutes at least, to the antique bronze sculpture of a girl seeming to pop out from an ornate round mirror on top of a living area fireplace. There is a movement to the apartment that makes you feel as though it has been captured in a series of stills or theatrical scenes. You are an observer to a life that goes on unimpeded long after you’ve turned your back. And that is probably one the more magical aspects of the home.
Another is the ease with which different periods in time mesh together. “I always felt that this specific interior should be a combination of old and new,” explains Ghubril, “but my philosophy has always been about that anyway. If a home is too modern, it lacks an identity which is detrimental. This is why it is important to inject a bit of the past into a modern home, because at the end of the day, it is the backdrop of your life.” Don’t be mistaken though, Ghubril is not one to knock the modernist approach to architecture – the projects she has worked on are far too holistic in outlook for that. (An idiosyncrasy she attributes to influences from her engineer father and artistic mother). Ghubril avidly understands the necessity for clean lines and functional living.
But her passion also does lie in the past because each individual piece has a story to tell, whether inherited or purchased at one of the many Sotheby’s and Christies auctions she attends on behalf of her clients. Living proof of this is her unfaltering choice of her most beloved piece, a stunning chest of drawers carved from mother-of-pearl crowned by a genuine French Baroque mirror with the gilding covered in a muted metallic gold or “Rima Tatjana Bronze” as she likes to call it. “What I love is the symbolism of the chest of drawers,” she says, “it has very clean lines yet the mother-of- pearl is a rich media. This, to me, is modern classic in all its glory.” Ghubril also brings out the past using a gradation of colours on fabrics and walls.
But when bringing two opposites together, isn’t there the danger of a kitschy clash? “Of course,” states Ghubril with a hint of playful defiance. “But there are ways of preventing that. Each room has to have one focal point. Also, you need to approach the project as though it were a story, so that each individual room fits with the whole,” she explains. In this particular case, it was the fiery yet romantic dynamics between the feminine and the masculine, between luxury and serenity. In others, it could be to recreate the feel of Impressionist Paris with vivid colours or follow a Danish art theme which would be sterner with darker and more brooding tones. Both subjects, the designer knows well from her studies in art history as well as architecture.
As owner of Rima Tatjana Interiors, Ghubril has worked on mostly residential projects that have spanned some of the most cosmopolitan and culturally confluent countries in Europe and the Middle East – London, Athens, Dubai, Lebanon and soon Qatar. Though based in the British capital, her inspirations are rooted in her country of birth where she believes she came to understand the timelessness of combining old with new. As she puts it, “Because I live in London, I have Europe at my doorstep. But Lebanon has seasoned me to the intertwining of different cultures since it is already a harmonious combination of contrast.” Where else, she points out, would you see modern and traditional architecture so well married?
Contact
Rima Tatjana Interiors
London, UK
Tel +4420 7937 1326
HYPERLINK "http://www.rimatatjana.com" www.rimatatjana.com
