The insides section of an Oxford Street stalwart gets a glitzy makeover and puts the fun into shopping...
The John Lewis Oxford Street house section has served our interior decoration whims. But having merely gotten a GBP14 million transformation, it promises even more, with a complete revamp of its own two floors, which cover a staggering 94,000 square feet. There's everything from flooring and fitted kitchens to simply browsable carpets and furniture. John Lewis has also introduced new brands into the mixture, including West Elm, which now has a big shop-in-shop (its first ever), along with the Small Green Paint Business. Layout enthusiasts may also approve of the exclusive relaunch of the 1952 675 seat of Robin Day, a bargain at GBP49. With one interesting attribute being 70 modern light bulbs, which are shown in a central pub the lighting section, particularly, is a beacon of inspiration. Upstairs, in the Creative Spaces region there are a streak of designer installments, including a lively room as well as the lighting designer Tom Raffield's Cornish studio -set by Antoni and Alison, which reveals opposing fashions functioning in harmony.
The actual strength is the high tech, immersive expertise on offer, which sets out to revolutionise your retail experience. It is also lots of entertaining. The show-stealer is the 'Head of Design', a 2.5m high pod in the shape of a head on the second floor. You react to a number of psychometric image evaluations on a ipad enter, and leave with a carefully curated moodboard of designs, textures as well as colours, which you e-mail to yourself. It could not make furnishing your house simpler. Another interesting feature is the Cimagine place where a program that is ipad lets you really see what different pieces of furniture look like in a present John Lewis room set.
