Eve Cunningham
“I call it ‘maximalist expressions in minimalist details’,” says Enis assuredly, when asked to describe his interiors style. “It’s a narrative based on experiments with contrasts,” he explains, “creating a harmonious balance between fantasy and reality, reconnecting the past and present, using Eastern and Western elements to design spaces with a heritage feel… I think I am a curator as well as an architect, and my strength is to bring things together.” The Notting Hill apartment is a spacious two-bed, two-storey affair that sits on a narrow footprint but benefits from oodles of natural light, thanks to its grand floor-to-ceiling arched windows both front and back.
Built in the early 1900s, the flat boasts double height ceilings, a beautiful terrace, and plenty of original Victorian features, which Enis loves. When I bought this property, I tried to understand the culture of the house first and built everything around it, making sure that with everything I added, the house remained true to its character.” While the bones of the property remained largely untouched, Enis opened up the kitchen space into the living room, installed an all stainless-steel custom-built kitchen and, ingeniously, designed a mobile ladder to provide access to the extra storage space above the ceiling. “The black and white scheme is kind of a signature for me,” he explains, “and I wanted it to come to life by mixing in natural materials with character so that they contrast with each other.
A huge and inviting Arflex leather couch by Umberto Asnago and an antique pony skin club chair from Nicole Farhi Home await him on his returns from Istanbul, as does his favourite painting above the fireplace. The taxidermy crow goes under the moniker of Hitchcock, naturally, and the statue in the living room, which Enis tops with an original, signed Ottoman fez, is called Esteban.
In fact, it’s given pride of place in the living room and takes up an entire built-in bookcase that reaches all the way up to the ornate cornicing.
Enis deftly mixes chic contemporary pieces, such as his collection of Fornasetti wall plates in the kitchen (again displayed in a creative and considered fashion), with wonderfully raw and rustic finds – perhaps the most impressive being the apartment’s reclaimed wood flooring, which he obtained from an old tobacco factory. “It’s a balance of old and new, rustic and modern – timeless really, just like the house’s own features.” In keeping much of the furniture simple and casual, and instead toying with the details, Enis is able to easily update the property whenever he chooses. While he has his favourite go-to brands, some of the furnishings, such as the dining table with the glass top, and the box stools around it, are his own designs.
