Dozens of artists and crafters helped add magic to this unique Hackney renovation

An entire 'orchestra' turned this semi-derelict house into an Alice in Wonderland dreamscape

- BY KATE JACOBS

Designer Irenie Cossey is adding the finishing touches to her transformed Grade II-listed neo-Jacobean house on the exclusive De Beauvoir Square in Hackney. Unbelievably unflappable, she's nearing the end of 18 months of work - not only bringing a semi-derelict house back to life but also collaborating with around 25 craftspeople and creatives to showcase their own designs within the space.

There will be events held here in April and May, and then Cossey plans to list it for sale. This is property development with a Hackney twist that leaves no corner of this previously neglected house untouched by Cossey and co's design magic. As I step off the street, I navigate a gaggle of landscapers in the front garden, before encountering a separate gang of contractors, equally busy, inside the house. Throughout my time at the project dubbed On the Square, upbeat craftspeople continue to pop through the door, now delivering a set of reworked mid-century chairs, now unrolling a couple of painstakingly embellished tweed blankets.

Cossey, of Irenie Studio, is at the eye of this creative storm - think of her as both the composer and the conductor of the orchestra - and she's looking crisp, polished (right down to the different rose shades in her manicure). This plethora of projects-within-a-project spans furniture and textiles, paint and objects, right down to a glassware collection inspired by the ink, medicine and milk bottles found on site during the excavations for the lantern-roofed kitchen. When Cossey mentions the glass-blowing training she did just so that she could have informed conversations with the company that are making the glassware, you know she's serious about this. "I've always worked in this way and I love what I do," she says simply.