Art & Design Total
Art & Design Total Immersion From left: old and new meet at Studio Ashby, where bespoke Sister by Studio Ashby pieces such as the Sculpted sofa, Cookie table and patchwork kilim rug team with a vintage Børge Mogensen for Fredericia Stolefabrik leather chair and Erin Chaplin’s Sunflowers; recycled plastic table by Dirk van der Kooij and Tropical ottoman by Sister; mood boards for many of Studio Ashby’s projects bring a lower-ground office space to life, complemented by pieces such as Menu Space’s JWDA floor lamp and Classic Vessel vase by Dea Domus W hen British interior designer Sophie Ashby’s rapidly expanding team outgrew its “rather average, not very cool” West London office space, says the designer, the idea of creating a “shoppable” interior, set up like an apartment, where the Studio Ashby design process could meld with an inspiring, welcoming showroom and event space was born. Unveiled officially this spring, Studio Ashby’s new home, in the 18th-century, Grade I-listed former Blewcoat School building near Buckingham Palace (owned by the National Trust, rumoured to have been designed by Christopher Wren), is just one of a raft of new immersive design spaces popping up all around London. Here, with its double-height ceilings, white-washed Corinthian columns and grand Georgian windows, Ashby has filled it with the furniture and accessories from her offshoot Sister lifestyle brand (inspired by the “vivacious, energetic, carefree and happy-go-lucky” spirit of her younger sister Rose, executive chef at Skye Gyngell’s esteemed Spring restaurant in Somerset House) to antique and midcentury flea-market finds and the paintings of young South African artists the designer avidly collects. It not only satisfies Ashby’s longheld “obsession with the idea of playing shopkeeper”, she laughs, but promises to be “a real game-changer for both the studio and Sister”, allowing clients, present and future, to really engage with and understand Ashby’s eclectic, art-driven approach to interior design. Across town, near Old Street in East London, the married founders of interiors and lifestyle brand House of Hackney, Frieda Gormley and Javvy M Royle, have drenched every inch of St Michael’s, a handsome former clergy house built in 1856, in the brand’s signature pattern-dense, colour-rich aesthetic influenced by nature, Victoriana and punky good humour. “It’s not a cookie-cutter retail experience,” says Gormley of the “physical, visceral, sensory experience you get visiting a bricksand-mortar store that transcends anything that you get through a laptop”. One step over the threshold, with a cup of tea in hand, and all visitors are offered a personal tour of the space “to really soak up the story of it, the smell of it, the soundtrack that’s in every room, the art on the walls,” she enthuses. “All of that touches the soul.” PHOTOS KENSINGTON LEVERNE 42 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
Clockwise from right: House of Hackney founders Frieda Gormley and Javvy M Royle in the gardens of their Castle of Trematon home in Cornwall – a source of great inspiration for many of their designs; the walls of the St Michael’s bathroom are lined with signature designs such as Babylon, Plantasia, Avalon, Artemis and Camelot Stripe, teamed alongside Cheetah and Ananas table lamps with Tilia fringed shades, handcrafted Elwin chaise longue and antique finds; the pantry, where visitors are offered a welcoming cup of tea, is filled with House of Hackney pieces such as Toad and Bottoman stools, Gascoigne chairs upholstered with Anaconda Noir cut velvet and Golden Lily rug, houseofhackney.com PHOTOS CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: JOSIE GEALER NG, EMMA HARRIES (2) Woven across four floors, there are all the same spaces you would find at home, from living room and bedroom to kitchen and bathroom, not only layered in House of Hackney fabrics, wallpapers and paints, but also beautifully decorated with antique pieces, paintings by emerging local artists, and furniture, rugs, tiles, lighting and bedding which the brand designs and makes in collaboration with a handful of British craftsmen working to keep age-old techniques alive. Not only does St Michael’s provide the perfect canvas for showcasing how to live with so much glorious pattern (the “playroom” includes a large digital screen where visitors can mood-board potential interior schemes before placing an order), it also helps to close what the couple calls a customer’s “imagination gap”, explains Gormley. “Creating rooms which inspire, excite and push boundaries helps people to see the different treatments that they can explore in their own home,” she says. “We want people to come into our space to play and to dream. The world is obviously so serious right now but here, there are no barriers, there are no rules. It’s an open environment for visitors to seek out their own tastes and find what they love.” For others, like artists-cum-designers Chris and Nicola Cox, their new Cox London space on Pimlico Road shines a light on the exquisite workmanship that goes into each of their pieces, from large-scale metal-worked chandeliers to › CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 43
