This London Flat Will Make You Want to Cover Your Walls With Concrete Tile

When the London concept shop Darkroom shuttered in 2016, we wondered what would become of the brand, which launched in the same year as our own site and had become an aesthetic touchstone for us throughout its tenure. The store’s founders, Lulu Roper-Caldbeck and Rhonda Drakeford, amicably parted ways, and Drakeford continued to design for the label on her own. But being freed of a physical space, and all of the expectations that come with it, seems to have emboldened Drakeford to expand the brand’s visual language as well as the scope of her own work in intriguing ways. She recently launched a studio under own name, Studio Rhonda, for which she creates objects, interiors, installations, and even something like public art. Our favorite project from the new studio is an interior renovation Drakeford undertook for two chefs living in a penthouse in King’s Cross. The 4×4 tile — once relegated to builder-grade status — has gotten a makeover lately, and nowhere is that more evident than here, where Drakeford tweaked its traditional aesthetic by using pigmented concrete tile, color-blocked and coordinated with the furniture, to create an interior that might be the most fun we’ve seen this year.