Cobalt, Bromley

The brief:

With the core of their new premises an open plan floor with traditional meeting rooms, property development company Cobalt chose its reception and kitchen as a way of expressing its personality and reflecting its brand.

Our brief was to infuse these two areas with a healthy dose of luxury, with style notes being taken from 5* star boutique hotels and colour inspiration coming from the company name. We used many of our tried and tested retail design solutions to transform a traditional commercial space into a more luxe environment.

We were also asked to devise a new space plan, installing new partitions, supplying all new furniture, replacing the ceilings and floor coverings, and providing a new electric, data and lighting infrastructure.

Our approach

They say as one door closes, another one opens and that was especially the case at 1 Sherman Road in Bromley. The outgoing occupant was The Acorn Group and MPL Interiors was busy fitting out its new headquarters when Cobalt – the incoming occupant – contacted us having seen our past office refurbishments.

As it wanted to make its own mark within the building and accommodate its distinct working style, MPL was asked to take the ground floor back to the drawing board. A brand new allocation of space formed the backbone of this project, with the MPL team working closely with Cobalt’s team to devise a new layout.

Checking in to Cobalt

The reception allowed MPL to meet the boutique hotel brief and the space became a playground for bespoke elements. A custom-made Corian® reception desk is one of the stand-out features, with its slightly urban vibe offset by a brushed gold kickplate. This elegant metallic highlight is seen elsewhere in the Cobalt reception – on the frame of the occasional chairs, in the stunning light pendant and on the 3D letters that spell our ‘welcome’.

The soft tones of brushed gold are complemented by a honey-coloured herringbone plank flooring - specified as hardwearing luxury vinyl for warmth, durability and fantastic sound-absorbing qualities. Providing contrast is a sophisticated take on the cobalt blue colour, seen on the columns and the decorative wall panels.

Banquette seating is another defining reception aspect, with a tailor-made curved arrangement designed to screen off the stairs to the basement, with a smaller seating section bespoke made to wrap around a structural column. New black-framed access doors and coffee tables complete the reception.

Plush by design

The reception is where visitors and staff get their first taste of plush design, with the seating upholstery registering high on the tactile scale. This approach has been carried over into the main office. Meeting room chairs are elevated out of the mundane office category by being upholstered in velvet with stud details, with bands of gold on the chair legs to echo the theme from reception. There’s also a number of 3D feature walls, which have been lavished with tactile fabric and paired with brushed gold linear details.

Paper rounds

Wallpaper has its place in retail fit out and in commercial projects like Cobalt. As well as make a bold design statement above the banquette seating in the reception, structural columns have been clad in various designs – the antithesis of trying to make them blend in. There’s also a stunning optical illusion wallpaper in the break-out room – designed to look like intricate panelling – while subtly patterned wallpapers create feature walls in some of the meeting rooms.

Kitchen capers

The client wanted the kitchen to stand out from the rest of the office, and its size and location meant this space warranted leaving open plan. A sleek set of handleless cabinets, mirrored splashback, gold tiles, stone worktops and a rope light ceiling pendant give the kitchen real personality and a very boutique vibe, while the breakfast bar is a practical addition.

Additional elements

A series of half-height walls with back-framed glass partitions above and full glass, lockable doors have given the floorplan a new structure. The result is five private offices, a meeting room, a board room and a large open plan office, with many of these new spaces fitted with wall-mounted LCD screens. MPL also installed several banks of storage cupboards with lockable doors and created four new cloakrooms.

Contact MPL Interiors when planning your new office interior design in London or elsewhere in the UK.