Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.With their elaborate gables and jewel-like latticed windows, the Neo-Jacobean homes surrounding the garden of De Beauvoir Square in Hackney, east London, have a romantic air. But when Irenie Cossey first stepped through the door of number nine in 2022, the roof leaked, the walls were covered in mould and there was an acrid whiff. The former resident’s belongings were still strewn about.“It left me cold at first,” says the Dublin-born interior designer, curator and founder of Irenie Studio, of the Grade II-listed house, built in the 1840s. “It wasn’t what I was looking for at all.” Cossey had been searching for a property to renovate and sell, but also saw this as an opportunity to provide a temporary exhibition space — a “residential design house”, as she calls it — where she could collaborate with brands and designers. “I’d been hunting for a house with large volumes that I could open up.” The rooms at number nine are modest and a narrow, curving staircase requires tall people to duck. But a year (and some 30 house viewings) after she first saw it, Cossey was still struggling to find the right property when an agent encouraged her to take a second look. In 2023, she bought it from the Benyon Estate. This April, the now renovated house will open for six weeks under the name OntheSq, furnished with newly commissioned pieces by designers including Rio Kobayashi, Flavia Brändle and Tomoyo Tsurumi. Specially created glassware is by J Hill Standard. “It was the windows and the way they made patterns of light dance through the house that struck me,” says Cossey, who lives in nearby Canonbury with her husband and three children. “I must have visited on a dull day before. The house had a magic to it — it just needed to be brought to life again.” Cossey quickly realised that many smaller rooms meant more walls — and more space for hanging art. “I could play with scale in the renovations, which made me think of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”But before she could add her narrative to the house, the roof needed replacing; walls and floors needed restoring; and it lacked a generous family kitchen. “It was a risk but my dad always says: ‘Buy something with a problem, as no one else will want it.’”The previous owner had put love into the house over the decades before he became a recluse and it fell into disrepair. I wanted to respect that and make it part of the storyShe added a kitchen extension with a panelled skylight, and moved the family bathroom from the top of the four-storey house to the first floor. With herself as the client, Cossey felt she could be brave with colour and pattern. The three-bedroom house also gave OntheSq’s design partners — Domus, Kvadrat and Fenwick & Tilbrook — a place to show their tiles, fabrics and paints and host events. Five chairs designed by Robin Day in the 1950s have been reupholstered in deadstock Kvadrat fabrics by Stow Studio. Diamond-patterned tiled floors in the basement take their cue from the diamond window panes, their shapes scaled up to make you feel as if you have shrunk, like Alice. The Rosa Red paint in the hall, made by Norfolk-based Fenwick & Tilbrook, is inspired by a rose bush in De Beauvoir Square. There are pops of colour throughout, such as a brilliant red door in the basement.Every vista is meticulously composed. “I always design with apertures,” says Cossey, holding up a piece of card with a hole, used to envision a view through a door.Cossey challenged her collaborators to reuse elements of the house, such as the old silk curtains and woodwork. “The previous owner had put love into the house over the decades before he became a recluse and it fell into disrepair,” she says. “I wanted to respect that and make it part of the story.”Textile artist Tomoyo Tsurumi tore a floral curtain into ribbons, then wove them through Kvadrat fabrics to create new artworks. “I was surprised by how bright the red, yellow and indigo tones were, despite having faded over time,” says Tsurumi. Some of her works are hung on rails above windows, but they are not — she says — intended as functional curtains. “My work has always been about creating conversations between materials, spaces, and people.”Kobayashi salvaged wood from old doors, shelves and fireplace surrounds, cutting it up and assembling it “without much planning”, he says. “I used new cherry wood to connect everything and create this crazy, futuristic table.” The result resembles the skeleton of a rowing boat with a glass top. “Using salvaged materials alongside new elements felt like a way to honour [the house’s] transition — connecting what was with what will be,” he says. Along with the site-specific furniture and artworks, the exhibition will feature pieces by designers and artists including Attua Aparacio and Bethan Laura Wood — much available to buy. “It’s about giving a really exciting cohort of London-based and Irish designers and artists an unusual backdrop for their work, and stirring visitors’ imagination about how they could live with these pieces,” says Cossey. OntheSq will hold a selection of open days, which can be booked via the website (onthesq.co), and can be visited by appointment. Cossey will also host a “Sane Luncheon” for design collaborators, a riff on the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. Kobayashi’s “Through The Looking Glass” table stands in the kitchen, awaiting clear-minded guests.Asked who she can imagine might live in the house in the future, Cossey says with a smile: “I need to find my Alice.”onthesq.coFind out about our latest stories first — follow @ft_houseandhome on Instagram
