Kanika Bakshi-Khurana explores London as a design destination, hunting vintage finds at Greenwich Market and touring the London Design Centre's Modern British Kitchens, which feature 24-karat-gold-painted spice drawers. She buys a blue-to-pink painting from local artist Andy Abbott and discovers hybrid vintage-contemporary spaces like Antique Modern in Chelsea.
Chapters
My goodness, please prepare your cabin for landing. Hi, I'm Kanika Bakshi -Khurana . For the next few months, we'll be traveling to different cities in Europe. At the moment we're in London and I'll be showing you some design inspiration from furniture stores to some hotels maybe. So see you soon! We're at Greenwich Market right now, established in 1737. We came here for the food, but I found some really cool local vendors. Let's go check it out! One of my favorite parts of London was the Greenwich Market. It had a lot of vintage shops, a vintage market, and a food market. Vendors were selling everything from leather goods and unique artwork. I had simply gone here for the food and to roam around, and this part of town was the most beautiful of all of London. These cutting board designs are fabulous. Look at these patterns, I love it. They can be used as a platter, coasters. Check this out. It's kind of like marble and wood together. One of my favorite moments in the market was meeting a local artist from London named Andy Abbott, and I was looking at one of his paintings from a distance, and as I got closer, it was beautiful. It was unique. It was different. And once we started having a conversation, I was sold, and today it's sitting in my living room.
I'm surrounded by women. My two granddaughters, my two daughters, my mom, and my two female cats.
Yeah.
And they are all female and quite angry about the Barbie thing. And so I went into my studio to get away from it.
Yeah.
And I walked into my studio and I had this picture. I didn't know what I was going to do with it.
Yeah.
But she was all in blue. Yeah. I looked at it and I thought, I bet she wants to be in pink too. So I thought, I'll give her the equipment to actually change the narrative. And so therefore she's pink.
It's a masterpiece.
It's coming into my home. Yeah, well, that's good. I'm very pleased and thank you very much.
Well, thank you very much for making this.
It's alright, it's kind of my job.
Look at these cool boxes again. Ooh, Ganesha! I love elephants. I love old coins. I like collecting coins every country I go to, and this is perfect, like, to just display when you go back home in a box just like this on a coffee table or anywhere you like, console table. Very same things. This little bowl is perfect for your bedside table, put in your jewelry at night. Loving this, it's a keeper. These are perfect candle holders. I love the color, it's like an antique black. And love this, it's a very cute decor. I love collecting boxes as I travel too. This is a cute little— so cute. So Kanika, which will be the question to many of you, why are you creating these series? Well, you see a lot of travel plus food videos and all type of different things, but there's not a video or a travel channel that shows you interior design and the world together, and that's what I want to bring to you. So why am I visiting the London Design Center? Well, London is top 5 cities for interior design, and I really wanted to explore what their Design Centre has to offer. As an interior designer, visiting Design Centre is like stepping into the world of creativity. The Design Centre in particular is filled with unique vendors offering unique pieces. I couldn't leave the chance to explore what it has to offer. I was really excited to see if there are vendors who collaborate with designers in the US and how I can work with them in the future. We're at the Design Centre in London, and we, at the moment, we're at Modern British, and they have probably the best kitchens I have ever seen in my entire life, and I really want to show you some really cool features that they have. Let's go in. Watch this. Ta-da! For all your beautiful glassware. You know how we have, when we design kitchens, and we have these spaces and we don't know what to do with them, we end up just having spice rack or a tall pull-out cabinet? No! This is creativity at best. And then this right here is actually 24-karat gold that they have painted on here. Oh, look at this! This is for your spice, so you're not like digging in and turning your spice bottles. Like, visually everything is right there for you. Is this corner right here. So you tap this, it's like eye candy. So you have this guy, and then, and then you just shut it open. And then the London Design Center was pretty unique with beautiful furniture stores and a very unique custom kitchen vendor called Modern British Kitchens. I got to meet the owner of the company, which I believe was meant to be. George really took the time and showed us around the key elements and detailing it takes to design very clever and beautiful custom kitchens. So we arrived in London early morning, probably around 6 AM we landed. What do we do? We don't want to sleep in, so we decide to drop off our luggage and hit the streets. We're really hungry, found a place to eat, but there was a waiting list. And then we're like, okay, now let's go roam around a little bit more. And 5 minutes in, I see Timothy Olton. Now I'm really tired and I'm debating, do I want to go in Do I want to take the time and come back? Because I want to be alive, like awake basically, to, you know, experience this. Because Timothy Olton is one of my favorite furniture designers and he comes from the UK, so I wanted to experience this. So as I walk in, I'm a little bit tired, and as I keep going and exploring, oh my God, I was awake with really high energy. Moon Landing, as they call this. Really cool 3D mirrors. Let's talk about Chelsea. It's a beautiful district. It's a design district of London. That's where the Design Center is. Also, outside the building, there are beautiful antique shops vintage shops, cafes, you name it. Let's go and check out Chelsea. Let's go inside this beautiful modern antique store. It's actually called the Antique Modern. So I saw these beautiful cats from across the street, and the salesman said they were made in the 1960s. They're from East Africa somewhere. Look at that. They almost looked Egyptian to me, so that was like, where are they from? Okay, okay, they are, they are. I mean, that's the first thing I saw from like across the street, and I'm like, I want to go in there. Yeah, okay, thank you. I love the built-in. I like how it's kind of like a console slash desk, I would say. It seems a little bit high, but I'm sure you can lower this guy down. They just have it like that for a display. This wing chair right here is really comfortable. I sat on it and it leans back, so you're in this really comfortable position when you're laying in this chair. Very nice. Almost like a mahogany grape leather on these beautiful chairs. So here we are in a very unique store which offers antique, vintage, and modern at the same time. Next time you're in Chelsea, please check them out. So these really cool instruments hanging off the ceilings are actually light fixtures, and this really fun decor on the wall are actually some old speakers. And then we have some old vintage doors behind that sofa. I love the pop of color everywhere. Oh my God, a car in the middle of the room! How awesome is that? And then we step into time and looking at some old record players. And really fun old movie theater seats, a purple piano. Overall, a really hip and fun place. So this beautiful design structure referred to as Angel Wings is not something just standing here for no reason. These are actually vent system that goes down to the parking lot underneath. Isn't that cool? As I say goodbye to this beautiful city, London, you are truly beautiful. London is a city to explore different neighborhoods, explore their many markets, and walk around to come across random surprises and design inspirations. To get away from the busy city life, London has great parks within the city. Food is also great. I stopped at Gail's Bakery almost daily, especially for their baked goods. The city is a blend of chaos and nature, filled with lots of design inspiration and amazing food. London, till next time. Ciao for now!
