NICOLA MASI. INTERIOR STYLIST: concrete. brutalist or loveliest?

In a recent project re-vamping the Topshop Oxford Circus Personal Shopping suite (images of this will be up soon!) I pitched the idea of taking the dated white space and creating a 'cool girls apartment', with a mix of upholsteries, art work and furniture so it looked like a collection of treasured belongings that reflected the Topshop girls style.
I was really keen to use tin-tile effect wallpaper by Abigail Ahern on some of the walls to add an industrial but feminine feel (see here http://abigailahern.com/collections/wallpaper) but alas, the creative director wasn't sold on it. So I came up with the idea of concrete... polished concrete! This is an effect created by plastering walls and polishing them up- in the middle stage before you take it to the white plaster we are all used too. The slight sheen on it looks polished and slightly luxurious with an industrial edge. This is what you will find if you ever go in to the suite, sneak peek picture below....

TOPSHOP Personal Shopping Oxford Circus

We had the work done by hand- BUT there are some fantastic wallpapers available that let you create this look by yourself! Paper's in concrete tiles, brick and wood are available and the effects are amazing. High resolution details make them realistic so these papers aren't cheap, but as a feature they are affordable and definitely worth the money- I love this sort of thing, I'm all about texture and love a little decayed character in a home. Below is a list of a few styles and suppliers, follow the links! These websites are amazing- some really talented folks who I will blog about in more detail soon. Also last months Elle Decor did a piece on this style of decorating if you can still get your hands on it!