Concept For Living magazine

White Magic

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Having rented an apartment in Manchester’s city centre after he first left home, Dean Barlow never dreamt he’d move back 20 years later having bought the apartment, ready to turn it into a sleek, chic, unique city pad.

The hustle and bustle of life in Manchester’s city centre is infectious and all around you: trams, shoppers, workers and hundreds of people hurriedly going about their business every day. It’s hard to imagine living in this great northern city centre.

Harder still to envisage finding a home that serves as an oasis of calm amid the hectic urban life, but that’s exactly what Dean Barlow managed to seek out and create when he discovered the city centre apartment he now calls home. “That’s what’s nice about it: it’s right in the city centre, yet it’s so quiet,” says Dean who founded The Gorgeous Generation – an events management company whose offices are a handy five minute walk from the apartment. Dean jokes he can roll out of bed at 8.45am and be at his desk for 9am, ready to face another busy day.

The apartment is a stunning one-bedroom retreat set in a refurbished former cotton mill. When Dean bought the apartment there was a kitchen, lounge and hallway, the walls of which he knocked down to create the large, welcoming and bright open-plan living area that now greets you upon entering the apartment. There was also a dated green bathroom suite that was the first thing to go. “It was horrible,” says Dean who, since completing the interior redesign a year ago, has enjoyed some great parties in the apartment. “The windowsills get used as podiums,” he jokes.

The rest of this article can be found in Concept For Living issue 136.