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Cultured Colour Scheme: Wedgwood Blue | Spencer Thorpe Blog

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Throughout the history of interior design certain colours have captured mainstream imaginations by evoking neo-classical glamour, luxury or the deceptive simplicity of true refinement. Such a colour is the pale grey blue named for Josiah Wedgwood whose Jasperware china was all the rage in the 1770s. Wedgwood blue is clear yet soft; cool yet also quite strongly feminine.

On walls it’s a brilliantly blank canvas that can support a range of secondary colours without being insipid. Josiah Wedgwood himself paired this blue most often with white in the form of relief decorations. There’s nothing more gently clean than Wedgwood blue with white or cream in painted stripes or blocks, or on wallpaper or textiles. But it also blends well with other blues – navy, China blue or the stronger blue of Delftware, or with pale greens and other pastels.

Furnishing the Bedroom

This soft blue is perfect for a child’s room, an elegant grownup bedroom or in a sophisticated kitchen/dining area. Here’s a bedroom scenario that has us gushing:

For a bedroom that is feminine without being girl-y, (perfect for a young teen or new adult, but really it could work for anyone) start with a really great statement bed. This upholstered linen number by Loaf suggests other era comfort and luxe.

And while the blue is not precisely Wedgwood, it is well within range. £1395 Dress it with blue and white striped sheets and a downy duvet. £32

Drop in a Chair

Add casual seating to the room (at a desk, or simply for throwing clothes onto) with this vintage style Mauricette chair. It’s Scandinavian pale wood vibe is also a great fit with Wedgwood blue. £83.99

Spread a Rug

Style the space with billowing white or cream draperies, rugs and cushions. Then add some deeper blue or pale green accessories as colourful accents. We especially love this ornate rug made by none other than Wedgwood, still on the cutting edge of design after more than three centuries. £850

Glamourise it with Art

For another type of homage to the Wedgwood aesthetic, check out this twisted limited edition giclée print by Magnus Gjoen; it’s called Pompei Grenade – Blue. £235

Shed Some Light

Finally, although they are anything but Georgian, these lighting treatments reference the relief decorations of Jasperware with their cut work shades.

This striking drum shade would work best over a desk or dressing table. This ambiant table lamp works best perched to cast reflections in dark corners away from the main action. And this laser cut Wedgwood blue linen and ash table lamp could work just about anywhere. All from John Lewis £45/40/45.

In addition to this sample approach to using what is a heavenly colour palette, there are any number of other ways to go with Wedgwood blue. It only looks delicate – this hue can stand up to just about any contemporary or traditional decor scheme with style. The historic colour devised by porcelain master Josiah Wedgwood all those years ago has come to not only suggest arts and crafts values, but all that is most elegant and refined about the Georgian era.

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How to Achieve the Scandi Style in Small Spaces | Spencer Thorpe Blog

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Scandinavian style is all about simplicity mixed with functionality – the perfect look in a home where space is a precious commodity. It’s about paring back on unnecessary pieces and investing in well-designed furniture and accessories that will enhance your home. In terms of colour palette, keep things light and bright to create a look that’s airy and open for a Scandinavian home that you’ll love.

Take a look at our top tips on how to achieve modern Scandinavian style in the smallest spots.

Clever Storage

It may seem obvious, but clever storage de-clutters a space and keeps things clean and minimal. When thinking about a small space, it’s a good idea to go vertical – utilise your walls to free up important floor space. Ladder shelves are a great space-saving example that also work to display your prized possessions. These simple ladder shelves found on FindDesign are a great example of Scandi simplicity – £369.90.

Keep Things Bright

Light is the most important part of an interior scheme, completely dictating the look and feel of the rooms in your home. In a small space tricks with light quickly become completely invaluable in giving the illusion of openness. When choosing lighting in a small space it’s great to invest in pendant lights – these offer a softer glow than traditional ceiling lights are great for task lighting too (when you need to illuminate a specific area like a desk or kitchen counter).

Floor lamps will take up some space, but lighting is so important that it’s worth it. Try something with a slim profile like the Ira floor lamp, with a concrete base you’ll nail two trends in one piece – £89.

The Bricolla lamp features a little shelf that’s the perfect size for your coffee mug and with simple scandi looks combined with a little practicality, it’s ideal for creating a stylish scandi room without being too imposing – £315.

Try adding a mirror to your room, light reflects off the surface giving the illusion of more space. The chic mirror is a great choice – it features a shelf too so you can handily store items for easy access in the morning.

Furniture That Moonlights

Think furniture on wheels, ottomans, benches and table nests – multi purpose pieces that will work hard when you have minimal space. The block table is perfect for small spaces, used as a bedside table or as a drinks trolley, with so many functions this is a great investment piece.

A beautiful ottoman is chic, stylish and functional. Used as an extra seat for when unexpected visitors pop by or as a makeshift coffee table, an ottoman has a trove of uses. This one includes extra storage space too. The simple tapered oak legs and tranquil teal upholstery are perfect for Scandi spaces.

A nest of tables tucks neatly away and provides the perfect surface for when guests come over. This stylish set is ideal for your Scandi-style living room and adds a pop of accent colour to your space. Mustard yellow is a popular colour going into 2018 so you’ll be on trend too with this set too.

Be Selective

When trying to maximise the space you have, it’s a great idea to curate your collections, choosing pieces that you really love. Art works and accessories are great for adding character and style into your space. This black geometric print has a minimalist vibe and would work beautifully in a Scandinavian styled home.

It may be worth buying a roomy two seater sofa and having an extra armchair so you can be flexible in your space. This sofa is perfect in style and won’t dominate your living room.

A small space always seems daunting, but embodying a simple Scandi-chic look and vibe will help to declutter and maximise on what you’ve got. Remember to focus on light, hardworking furniture and choosing the pieces you love the most.

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The Art of Personality: A Townhouse Bathroom Tour | Spencer Thorpe Blog

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Common thought often leads us to believe that small spaces often necessitate a compromise – and whilst, I suppose, there is a certain truth to that in a logistical sense, the idea of compromise in an artistic vein simply could not be further from it. Certainly, if ever this argument needs to be evidenced, one North London bathroom stands head and shoulders above others.

Remodelled by Kia Designs, the bathroom in question is an ensuite, part master bedroom of a stunning and bespoke, modernist Tufnell Park home. Through a mastery of tone, form and texture, Kia Designs remodelled the first floor of the home so as to marry the owner’s love for seventies art and design with a clinically sharp metropolitan attitude. We take a home of this truly unique style, diligently dissecting its various design elements that together give the space its luxurious yet unapologetically youthful and spirited look.

Setting the Tone in the Bathroom

The modernist bathroom is a prime example of how a sense of size and an expansiveness can be developed through intelligent tonal choices.

Kia Designs use white as the foundational tone, opening the bathroom up and giving the space an airy, breathable quality. Paired with the stunning skylight designed by the Charles Khoo of Progetti, the interplay of natural light and the bathroom’s snowy whites creates an almost ethereal ambience for the room, perfect for the serene, meditative vibe commissioned for the home.

Certainly, this sense of tonal economy makes the bathroom’s colour accent that bit punchier – and boy do they pop.

Inspired by the gorgeously eccentricity of seventies art culture, the bathroom’s brilliant sunshine yellows and cobalt blue notes inject a youthful vibrancy and vitality to the space. The tones’ almost brittle and bright tonal characteristics serve as a tremendous tonal counterpoint to the softer, cloudy whites present in the room, in this sense, affording a sense of balance and tonal completion for the space.

Kia Designs achieve a similar effect through their use of black and dark grey hues. The black bath fittings by Dormbracht introduces a metropolitan edge to the mix, giving the fittings an almost silhouette-like effect.

The contrast created against the bathroom’s white hues to develops a wonderful depth and complexity to the space, adding yet another dimension to the bathroom’s complex and poetic personality.

Talking Shapes, Vocal Textures

Certainly, with so much of the bathroom’s foundational aspects finished in white, Kia Designs relied on shape and texture to inspire a vocality to the space- something they executed with brilliant precision. The bathroom’s honeycomb tile, which runs across the lower sections of its walls, is a fantastic tip of the hat to space age intricacies of seventies geometric prints, making yet another reference to the decade whilst also giving the bathroom a youthful edge. Its gloss shine contrasts gorgeously against the matt, shell white paint which clads the walls’ upper sections and the ceiling.

In much the same vein, Kia Designs also make references through the era through the fittings and accessories which ornament the space. The poppy yellow of the Vola VH1 by Arne Jacobsen taps and the submarine shaped Seletti Submarino bathroom accessory set introduces a nautical dimension to the room’s narrative, in tongue-in-cheek fashion, referencing the mop-haired, Liverpudlian four piece whose experimentation with all things psychedelic set the tone much of the art and cultural production that emerged from the decade following their infamous 1969 disbanding (we mean The Beatles, obviously!). Not only do these elements add to the visual splendour of the space, but undoubtedly develops on its historical complexity through the intertextual weight entailed with them.

In much the same vein, Kia Designs’ use of marble tiles on flooring and wall sections goes without saying. The veiny, grey grain that runs through each section develops an earthy, elemental character to the room, whilst also forming a visually striking counterpoint to the its white background. It greatly develops to the room’s luxurious sensibilities, defining the space not only as a superlatively serene environment, but an astoundingly opulent one too.

Poetic Space

When searching for analogies with which to compare this bathroom, poetry immediately springs to mind. Much like poetry, Kia Designs’ remodelling is deeply expressionistic. It does not waste words, with each of its various elements introducing a new dimension to the astoundingly complex, almost lyrical personality they develop for this space.

Through harbouring all a retrospective brand of youthfulness, cutthroat metropolitan air, a rootsy, elemental quality and a fiercely elegant, opulent edge, this one of a kind ensuite bathroom is a superlative example when it comes to show, certainly in the way of packing personality, space is most certainly a non-issue.

Here are design elements inspired by Kia Designs’ work to capture this look for your own home:

Colour to Warm a Minimalist Interior | Spencer Thorpe Blog

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The minimalist trend shows no signs of fading and although pared-back palettes can be super chic, a pop of colour is guaranteed to add warmth and character to your space – especially with Autumn just around the corner. With so many colours and shades to choose from, it can be difficult to know how bold to go or what will work, but here are some great tips to help you navigate this somewhat tricky path.

Colour Pairings

It’s best to start off with the basics as the foundations of a room and what colours you choose to start with will entirely dictate your look. It’s a great idea to team a monochrome, minimalist interior with bold brights, try acid yellow for a look that’s punchy and on trend.

If you prefer something a little less daring, try pairing pink with neutrals and greys. An accent chair like this one from MADE is a great investment and perfect for adding a hint of colour to a bedroom or as an occasional chair in a living room.

Furniture

In a minimalist interior where the walls are white, you can afford to go bright with your sofa. Try this one found on FindDesign – the deep filled seats and elderberry wool make it a comfy option for a minimalist interior.

Velvet sofas can seem daunting, but they are surprisingly practical and offer a luxurious look that’s unrivalled. The Tivoli sofa has a slim silhouette and boxy frame and comes in various velvets. Check out the fern, bordeaux and indigo for autumnal colours.

An accent chair is the ideal way to add colour to your space without overpowering a look. Perfect for a minimalist interior where simplicity is key. Try this piece found on FindDesign, the signature shape and green upholstery is bound to make a statement in your home.

Storage is a necessity in any home and it could be a wonderful way of adding colour to a minimalist interior – a great way to do this is by having open shelves. This way you can store your prized possessions as a curated display, not only adding colour, but character and personality too. Try these solid sheesham ones from Maisons du monde, the interesting layout has ample space for storage.

Accessories

Accessories are the number one way of bringing colour and warmth to a minimalist interior on a budget. Try the Mura cushions from habitat – the playful geometric pattern will add interest and is so on trend too.

In the bedroom try mixing up your throws and blankets, to bring texture and personality into a stark space.

Use Paint

There are so many ways you can use paint to jazz up a minimalist room. For a pop of colour, stick to focussed areas like this gorgeous window frame painted in bright blue.

Alternatively, you can go all in and paint a wall. If you’re daunted by this idea then opt for paler colours as darker schemes tend to overpower a space and are harder to match to.

Invest in Artwork

A curated art collection is a wonderful way of bringing colour into a minimalist interior. You could try adding a gallery wall to your living room, hallway or dining room to create a chic focal point in your room.

Go Green

Houseplants are an incredibly easy way of bringing colour and life into a minimalist interior. If you’re looking for something that’s easy to maintain try succulents, cacti or even a banana plant to bring a burst of green to your home. Air plants are one of the easiest plants to care for and look great in a ceramic pot.

A minimalist interior scheme doesn’t necessarily mean you have to compromise on personality and character. There are loads of tricks you can do that marry colour and minimalism – the key is to choose pieces and motifs that you love!

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Calming City Penthouse Retreat | Spencer Thorpe Blog

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The words ‘weekend retreat’ conjure up a sanctuary space to escape to, a haven from busy modern life. This is exactly what the owners of a penthouse apartment got thanks to the the work of Jane Richards Interiors, whose interior design studio and design store can be found in the heart of the independent interiors quarter in Norwich. It was through a mutual love of the brands, designers and products showcased in the store that the couple enlisted Jane Richards Interiors for their property.

Let the light in

Set within a historic landmark in the city, this penthouse is flooded with natural light primarily from the two large roof terraces lining the sides of the building.

These outside spaces are backdropped by sculptural red brickwork from the original building creating beautiful and seemingly effortless outdoor areas. The terraces and the light they let in were to be the main focal point of the project whilst maintaining a “light filled calmness” throughout.

Calm and quiet with bold features

The sense of the outdoors was cleverly continued inside through the use of a light, bright and neutral colour palette interspersed with bold ‘greenery’ greens and contrasting reds.

The walls, window fabrics, lightning and bedding are all white and with a luxurious light grey silk carpet it creates a bright backdrop it allows the carefully curated furniture and accessories to stand out.

Jane Richards Interiors only use products they source and stock for their interior design projects as they know each item so well and have built up relationships with many designers and brands.

This personal touch meant the property owners trusted the team with selecting items for their home with a fairly open brief.

Designer details

Sharing a love for Dutch and some Italian design, key pieces were selected from the collections of Moooi, Piet Boon, Artifort and Studio Job throughout the apartment.

A quiet sense of playfulness comes from many of these designs. Take the green outdoor table and chairs from Seletti that look fairly traditional at first glance but on closer inspection you’ll find peace symbols, cogs and pretzels to name a few.

The bold patterns of the rugs, upholstery and soft furnishings set against the calming background create great visual impact.

Additionally, there was a conscious decision to have very low furniture to ensure nothing would obscure the view to the terraces and the uninterrupted skies beyond. This aspect really enables the flow between the living spaces and the terraces

Sitting in style

One of the hardest choices within this apartment must be deciding where to relax, surely a sign of a perfect weekend retreat.

There’s the inviting solitary Nut Lounge chair and footstool by Moooi located in the vast master bedroom, the Cloud sofa also by Moooi that had to be craned in, or the elegant outdoor furniture by Piet Boon on the terrace.

I’d happily take a seat anywhere as the neutral harmony between the outside and inside spaces has truly been achieved here.

For more information on Jane Richards Interiors design studio and design store visit their website.

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Venoor Living | Spencer Thorpe Blog

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Today’s Modern Heroes are Venoor Living who bring distinctive and stylish furniture to market with a conscience. We caught up with the founders to find out more.

IDEALIST: Can you tell us the story behind the brand?

Venoor: The inspiration behind Vênoor Living is this idea of creating a community that was entirely sustainable, socially responsible and environmentally accountable. Vênoor is a lifestyle that we would like to spread such that by one “Living Vênoor” they are living beautifully and living responsibly. The name Vênoor comes from my ancestral hometown of Venur, which is in Mangalore, located on the southwest coast of India. My ancestors were timber merchants and hence the connection.

In the wake of corporate greed and mass consumerism we have taken it upon ourselves to challenge the nature of consumerism, slow things down and give customers the option to make a real lifestyle choice when purchasing our products. We aim to unite the spheres of sustainability and aesthetics to create exquisite designed furniture with sustainable origins, and accessible to all.

We are a team of enthusiasts, with backgrounds in design, commerce and logistics.

IDEALIST: Who are your key people and what are their roles?

Venoor: We at Vênoor are a community. Our roles are defined by the values we share. As such the people of Vênoor are a pooled network of like minded individuals with varying talents and capabilities. We are a team of enthusiasts, with backgrounds in design, commerce and logistics.

More importantly, our people are those who inspire us. These are the families of the master craftsmen, who have dedicated generations to achieving perfection in their work. They are the rural communities bound with inhospitable environments and devastated lands. These people are at the forefront of our process and a part of everything we do. These people push us to reciprocate.

Inspirations

IDEALIST: Where do your designers/buyers get their inspiration from?

Venoor: Throughout our travels we were fortunate to have met some of the most amazing, talented individuals with these families of master craftsmen, spanning generations as well as some incredible designers of both furniture and interiors alike. It is a pleasure and an honour to communicate ideas and get the chance to work with some of these legendary families. We are fortunate to have been connected to this network of craftsmen, designers who quite literally have dedicated their lives to creating beautiful furniture.

Good things take time, and we appreciate the attention to detail. We have these ideas that we communicate to designers, who have too travelled the world for influence, they map out renderings, based on their experience with particular styles with a focus on making something unique yet on trend. We will then pass on these designs to our team of master craftsmen, respective of their trade, who oblige to make our crazy dreams a reality! We have been connected to unbelievable teams of tradesmen and women: with masons who ‘feel’ the stones to make sure they cut the perfect slabs. Our carpenters come from a bloodline rich of masters, who impart over 300 years of experience into every product and pride themselves on making something that will last that long; to create products that are passed down generation to generation, much like the trade that built it.

Popular Ranges

IDEALIST: What’s your most popular range?

Venoor: Marble Tops have been absolutely flying! Anything marble, the Polly Collection is our most recent one to come on the market and it has been great. All of our wood products are of course quite popular as well.

A Surprise Hit

IDEALIST: Is there anything you’ve designed/launched that surprised you?

Venoor: Though we love all of our Collections equally the Rossa continually surprises us. It is a series of just the most beautifully crafted wood delicately cut and connected so carefully with rich textures in a variety of different products from our dining, coffee, side tables, and bedside tables, console, chests of drawers, tallboys, and even a kitchen island (a personal favourite piece)! We’ve got a Rossa piece for every room!

The heroes are of course the craftsmen and women that put everything into making the product.

IDEALIST: Who are your design heroes?

Venoor: The heroes are of course the craftsmen and women that put everything into making the product. We have these ideas that we communicate to designers, they map out crude renderings, and we will pass it on to our team of master craftsmen, respective of their trade, who oblige to make our crazy dreams a reality! We have been connected unbelievable teams of tradesmen and women. With masons who ‘feel’ the stones to make sure they cut the perfect slabs. Our carpenters come from a bloodline rich of masters, who impart over 300 years of experience into every product and pride themselves on making something that will last that long; to create products that are passed down generation to generation, much like the trade that built it. They are the heroes in the design process.

Future Plans

IDEALIST: What are your plans for the next season?

Venoor: We are taking over every room! We are working on Lighting, Mattresses, Bedding, More accessories. Expanding our selection of products. As well we are introducing our own in-house styling consultancy, wherein we will have more intuitive collections, and hands-on expertise from leading industry experts.

IDEALIST: Where can readers find out more?

Venoor: venoor.com or any of our respective social media outlets! Or if you fancy a chat, our customer service team will always get back to you!

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Autumn Colour Scheme: The Warmth of Orange | Spencer Thorpe Blog

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As summer winds down and the cooler autumn months near, it’s a perfect time to usher in a new look in your home. Autumn is a time of change, and that change is reflected by the blazing reds, oranges and yellows that dominate the season.

The main colours in this look are oranges, although it involves other complementing colours, too. Start with a nice, deep shade of orange— like Orange Blossom from Benjamin Moore —for large portions of your room. You can accent these larger orange portions with gentle whites and off-whites as well as earthy brown shades. This is a great way to get an autumn look without overpowering a room with oranges and yellows.

Brown leather sofas and armchairs are the perfect furniture pieces to pair with this look. Darker woods and fabrics create a sense of warmth and cosiness while lighter accents make the room feel more modern and minimalistic. Similarly, modern furniture pairs well with lighter versions of this scheme while darker versions may be better accented with vintage furniture.

Foundations First

Create the foundation for this look with a nice leather sofa. This Radford 3-seater leather sofa in antique whiskey is a great choice. Not only does it fit the colour scheme, it’s got a nice, clean look that doesn’t come off as overly modern or vintage. It’s even casters built into the bottom for convenient moving. (£1,395)

To add an additional seating option to your living room, grab a nice armchair. You’ll want something that doesn’t clash with your sofa stylistcally but complements its colours. We absolutely love this Arundel chair from Feather & Black. With tons of fabric choices and four different choices of wood, this is a great piece for your autumn living room. (£899)

Neutrals Later

For Oranges and Lemonade

Now that you’ve got all this seating, you’ll need somewhere to keep drinks, magazines and books. Look for a rectangular coffee table that compliments the darker, earthy tones of the room. If you can find something with drawers or cupboards for storage, that’s even better. This John Lewis Hemingway coffee table made from mindy wood and pippy oak is a good example. (£850)

Splash Some Orange

Since autumn and winter seem to be the seasons for relaxing, you should set your living room up for relaxation. One easy way to do this is by adding an ottoman to your armchair. Try this Billie footstool from Swoon in zinnia. Its bright orange colour will accent wood furniture nicely while matching with other oranges in the room. (£149)

Light it Up

As you begin looking for smaller pieces of the room such as lighting and accessories, look for pieces that can add a splash of color to the room. You don’t want something completely overpowering, but a subtle option like this Miller floor lamp from Made is an excellent way to add some colour to a room. (£149)

A Little Orange Goes a Long Way

Small accessories such as vases, candles, clocks, and wall art can subtly spruce up a room and strengthen the colour scheme. Luckily, Habitat has the perfect piece available in this Tangelo orange bubble glass vase. Put it on a side table or coffee table for an extra splash of orange. (£25)

Finishing Touch

Rugs are always a nice way to add a splash of colour and complete a look. Try finding a nice area rug that fits well with the shade of orange you’re looking for. This Chelmsford rug from Habitat is a nice choice, even though the orange may be a bit light. (£350)

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A Cloakroom Makeover – from bland to bold in a... | Spencer Thorpe Blog

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Many of us have a room or space that doesn’t quite match up to the rest of our home, a neglected space that hasn’t had the attention other areas might have received. For Ju De Paula this space was a small cloakroom that was, in her own words, “beige and boring”. Being an interior designer, Ju has transformed the rooms of numerous clients over the last 17 years including her own home and here’s how she transformed this small space into a stylish statement over a weekend.

Brief and Budget

As the rest of her home is based on a predominantly white backdrop with vibrant accent colours (cobalt blue, hot pink and bright yellow to name a few, drawing on her Brazilian heritage), Ju wanted to continue a similar look in the cloakroom. With a budget of just £100 and and the design brief chosen, De Paula prioritised which items to invest in and which to compromise on. She decided to spend on quality wallpaper to create a statement on the walls and chose a Designers Guild wallpaper with a white background with a large bold floral pattern in the same blue found in other rooms of her home. With limited time and resources replacing the tiles wasn’t an option so painting the tiles was a good cost-effective compromise.

Home Safari

Ju then went on a ‘home safari’, searching for items that she already owned and could use in a new place. In addition to decorative items, it also involved collecting preparation and decoration materials left over from other projects, another great way to keep the costs down if working to a tight budget.

Day One

With just two days to complete this makeover the project was split into two parts; preparation and decoration. The first day started with sugar soaping the tiles and cupboard to ensure a good clean base for the new paint work and unwanted holes were filled and sanded to ensure a smooth finish. Eggshell paint was used for the wood work with light sanding between coats and chalk paint was used on the tiles and the cabinet. As primer isn’t needed for chalk paint, it was directly painted first with a brush and then a foam roller. To ensure a hard wearing finish two coats of chalk paint lacquer were later applied also with a foam roller.

Day two

The part where the room starts comes together; hanging the wallpaper, changing the cupboard knobs and towel hook, putting up the mirror and styling with lots of greenery for a luscious feel.

The finished look achieved within a limited time and budget is quite staggering. Ju De Paula shows that through investing in items that create visual interest, interesting details and good styling you can create a luxurious and opulent feel in even the smallest of spaces.

Get the look

Autumn Colour Scheme: Deep rich yellows | Spencer Thorpe Blog

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Each season brings with it a unique set of benefits. As autumn rolls in, it provides us with much-needed relief from the scorching heat. The days also get shorter as winter nears, which means it will be dark much earlier.

For these reasons, there’s no better time than autumn to make your home cosy and warm. Using the bright colours found in autumn leaves is a great starting point for a nice fall look. You’ll also want to make sure you create a nice, comfortable environment in which to spend your autumn evenings.

The main colour in this scheme is yellow. You can find a large variety of beautiful, deep yellows in the autumn leaves—that’s where you’ll be drawing inspiration from. Be careful, though, because a little bit of yellow can go a long way. You can accent these yellows with earthy brown fall shades and neutral colours. Consider the colours outside during fall and how the yellows, reds, oranges and browns mesh together.

This look is perfectly complemented by modern furniture and accessories. Sleek, white metals and woods really make the yellow pop without contrasting too much. Go for some natural, off-white fabrics to break up areas where there’s too much white. Use yellow furniture or yellow fabrics, such as curtains and rugs, to add a splash of yellow to mostly white room.

First Add Neutrals

Painting an entire room or even an accent wall yellow is a big ask. Instead, you can turn a neutral room into a room with bold yellow accents. Start with a nice neutral sofa so there are no overpowering yellow pieces in the room. This Oscar 2-seater by SCP at Heal’s is a good choice. (£3,148)

Style shouldn’t be your only concern when redecorating—functionality is important, too. Give your living room a touch of neutral colour while adding some storage space with this white Radley bookcase from Feather & Black. (£275)

Any proper living room needs a good coffee table. Sticking with the themes of functionality and neutrality, we absolutely love this Hooper storage coffee table from Made. It’s got a sleek, modern look that goes well with the furniture and colours in the room, and it gives you added storage underneath the table. (£149)

Splash Some Yellow

Here’s where your first splash of yellow comes in. Look for a nice, big yellow armchair to really stand out in a room full of neutral colours. This yellow armchair, snuggler and sofa range from Furniture Village’s Avenue Collection.



caught our eye and it starts at £649.

If you’re looking for something a bit roomier, this chair also comes in a snuggler. (£649)

Lay it All Out There

Fabrics are an essential part of bringing together a room with a colour scheme. They allow you to add small bits of colour without affecting the room too much, but the results can still be stunning. This Orissa wool rug from Habitat features a yellow and white geometric pattern with a small emerald green border for some extra colour. (£170)

Hang it in There…

While we’re on the subject of fabrics, you can’t forget a good set of curtains. Since most of the furniture in the room is white, a nice set of yellow curtains—like these patterned curtains by Trene—won’t be overbearing. This will give you the perfect amount of yellow against all-white walls, especially when paired with complementary wall art. (£60)

‘Ello There

Since you went with a white coffee table, that’s the perfect spot to add a splash of yellow in a small decorative piece. This cylinder glass vase from Habitat gives you a blast of yellow which your coffee table will neutralise, and you can even add flowers to accent the room. (£20)

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Redchurch Loft House Tour | Spencer Thorpe Blog

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There’s often very little argument when somebody says something along the lines of no place being quite like Shoreditch. Its period buildings and characteristic ‘grit’ echo to the area’s industrial, blue-collar past, where interspersed against these ageing architectural forms, murals and wall art refashion the streets of the London district as a cathedral to the young and creative. It might not be entirely out of the question to posit Shoreditch as a state of mind either. It unapologetically carries an art-centred energy that is loud, spirited, and most crucially, wholly self-confident. In the most beautiful sense of the sentiment, love it or hate it, Shoreditch simply does not care.

That said, for an attitude as big and powerful as Shoreditch’s, it is nevertheless an incredibly elusive one to pin down- and the very idea of capturing it is an unenviably tall order. Certainly, just when you’d think it a task that’s simply impossible, one Redchurch Street apartment will soon have you thinking otherwise.

Located at the heart of the London district, the Redchurch Loft is a mix of nine loft/warehouse style apartments. The award-winning, London-based architecture practise, Studio Verve, was commissioned to design the interiors for the largest of these. Having started tabula rasa, Studio Verve’s marriage of raw, viscerally earthy textures and a modernistic inquiry into form arguably captures the rough-around-the-edges spirit and artsy glow of Shoreditch, whilst also evoking a sense of luxury and opulence with the home.

Lightness, Air, Redefined

In Studio Verve’s own words, the Redchurch Loft was ‘conceived as a swirling fluid progression of spaces’. To bring this vision to fruition, Studio Verve composed the home with architectural and stylistic motifs that both bound together and smoothly transitioned its various zones and domains.

In pulling this off, keeping spaces open-planned was imperative. Consequently, the home’s zones are wide and expansive; the arced walls that delineate the home’s various spaces also permit somewhat smoother, natural modes of navigating the home, breaking from the tired, right-angled mundanity of conventional floor plans. Paired with a series of cloud ceilings dotted along the off-white, ceiling-sky, the apartment effectively breathes; it is an open, unenclosed, and most vitally, a light, natural-feeling space.

The apartment’s textural and tonal palettes endure as constants also, visually uniting the apartment and adding to the narrative of the fluidity of its spaces. The walls are clad in bespoke, pre-cast concrete panels that inject a notably ‘Shoreditch’ neo-industrial rusticity and ‘grit’ into the home. These are gorgeously complemented by the white oak touches to both the walls and flooring.

The pale golden hues make for a striking, though unobtrusive, counterpoint to the steely greys of the concrete, injecting a wholesome warmth to the apartment’s spaces. This interplay is carried on a textural level also, the natural grain of the wood offsetting the tactile ruggedness of the concrete. This marries together the home’s open planned living and kitchen areas, extending to the bathroom, bedrooms and balcony areas also.

The genius in the pairing is observed in the way it affords the home with both a rich, textural complexity and an astounding sense of lightness- which is all the more accentuated through Studio Verve’s masterful orchestration of lighting.

An assortment of linear skirting lights softly delineate the various lines and cartographies etched into the home. Visually, this also administers an airy, weightless quality to the room, fashioning the walls so that they give the illusion of levitating above their foundations.

The cumulative effect of the above elements fashions the apartment as a truly poetic space; in much the same way a pen elegantly glides across a page, one traverses through the Redchurch Loft in much the same manner. Unencumbered by rigid or closed-off spaces, movement amidst the home’s various zones is a wholly natural, fluid experience.

Radiant Modernity

Studio Verve fashion the Redchurch Loft as a defiantly modernistic domain. The space does away with the archaic frills and excesses of traditional design, on the contrary opting for a philosophy of clean lines and bold shapes. Certainly, in the way of interiors and modernistic thought, the open-plan living room and kitchen areas are a masterclass.

Linear oak instalments on the feature wall exude both the symmetry and simplicity contained within this modern style manifesto, whilst also offering continuity with the wooden tones found on the floor. Much of the furniture is also fashioned in the mid-century vein, inspiring a historical depth into the home whilst visually making for enchantingly striking accent points against the neutral greys, wheats and stony browns that comprise the home’s base tones. The focus on simple forms is similarly carried into the kitchen.

The rudimentary silhouette of the island exudes the idea of no frills, on the contrary, boasting an understated elegance with its purple-grey hued, stone finish. Cupboards and kitchen appliances are installed so that they sit flush against the wall, lending to the clean, undisrupted lines and contours that run throughout the home.

The study similarly follows in this vein. It maintains the sober, earthy greys and pale wheat tones and the formal minimalism observed in the home’s other spaces. However, Studio Verve’ shift in gears with this space cannot go unnoticed. Lighting on the trim on the ceiling’s cloud panel somewhat vitalises and invigorates the study, the fresh-faced, tonal confidence marking it as a notably creative environment.

Clad floor to ceiling in stone, the bathroom retains an earthy, elemental ambience compared with the rest of the home. The raw, tactile edge to the space provided by Studio Verve’s liberal use of stone in the bathroom’s interior defines the bathroom as a truly tranquil zone, which, paired with the minimalist form of the white stone bath, denotes the space as one of holistic relaxation both in body and mind. Brushed metal accents injects a steely, metropolitan coolness to the space also, exuding an air of elegance and finesse to the bathroom’s distinct brand of modernity.

Boasting an assortment of mid-century appointments that match gorgeously with the bronze and grey tones at play, Studio Verve were able to inject a notably retrospective, art-deco air of opulence and flavour to the apartment’s bedrooms.

Paired with furniture and feature walls that exhibit strongly figured wood grains, Studio Verve similarly accentuate on the narrative of luxury associated with these spaces. Like much of the home, the bedrooms exhibit the crisp lines and geometries that gives the home its modernistic edge, re-establishing the apartment’s arc as a twenty-first century, metropolitan home.

Studio Verve’s interior design of the Redchurch Loft can be said to tick many boxes in the way of capturing an authentically Shoreditch attitude. It is undeniably youthful. Studio Verve’s inventive methods by for delineating space, using arced forms and boundaries, arguably hails the two finger salute to the tired rule-books of convention spatial practise. This is similarly observed in their bold exploration of shape, form and colour, observed all over the home.

Similarly, the heavy, decorative use of concrete gives the home a no-frills, rough-around-the-edges pluck. Certainly, the confidence with which these dressed-down structural elements are exhibited endows the home with bucket loads of personality. These youthful and raw elements insert a carnivalesque energy into the Redchurch Loft, making for a somewhat theatrical spatial experience when traversing through its adventurous cartographies and terrains.

That said, the particular genius in Studio Verve’s design is the way the Redchurch Loft negotiates the above-mentioned whilst also being a definitively luxurious space- the home channels a distinctly upmarket mode of modernity in the cool, un-congested and suave composition of the home’s spaces. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the home has won over architectural publications and admirers alike–and certainly, having taken a brief tour, it’s not particularly difficult to see just why.

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