Blue Velvet

Luxe finishes, dramatic decorating ideas and striking artwork contribute to Danielle’s surreal yet surprisingly grounded apartment

- Jocelyn Warrington

Behind the ever-so-polite façade of a typical Victorian terrace house lives a home that both delights and contradicts. At once bohemian and baroque, classic and contemporary, it defies definition – as does its owner. A Lebanese native raised in Nigeria, interior and furniture designer Danielle Moudaber is figuratively – and literally – impossible to pin down. ‘I can’t sit still for a second,’ she says. ‘I’m obsessed with the movement and energy of Africa. But, like any true Levantine woman, who has the entire household dressed and ready for the day by 8am, I crave order and equilibrium too.’ Never one to turn down a challenge, the self-proclaimed ‘room artist’ spent the better part of two years refining her vision for her south London flat, which she bought after a friend convinced her to relinquish the search for a modern loft apartment. ‘It was the best advice,’ she says. ‘My friend would tell me, “London is an old city. Why not make the most of its assets?” So I kept the good, strong bones and palatial volumes of the apartment, but gutted it inside, opening it up to let in the light and create flow.’