The owners of this family home in a converted church in Redland got in touch to recruit my help in sourcing new sofas and ensuring they would fit in their space. Their previous sofa was a unique circular design in 3 sections, and whilst impressive, was not comfortable and took up most of the lounge without being practical for family film watching or game playing. Whilst the house is a wonderful building and apart from the lounge, was nicely furnished, it rather lacked the personality and warmth and sense of fun that its occupiers possess. There was little colour or art or personalisation. As well as helping my clients find suitable sofas at trade prices we worked together on a colour scheme and added a colourful rug and repainted the walls of the main part of the lounge in deeper colours to cosy it up. including a fun blue ceiling. The bespoke console table behind the large sofa allowed a space to display a lamp, books and framed family photographs. A storage ottoman in an accent fabric, a selection of scatter cushions in beautiful woven fabrics and a pair of bespoke paintings tie this scheme together and the whole is much more of a wow-factor when entering the house, as well as being comfortable and functional
As my clients had no art they wanted to hang which would suit this room, I painted a pair of abstract oil landscapes in suitable colours and made the simple, contemporary, wooden frames, painting the frame in black and the slips in cherry red. The deep frames have a back boards of stretched ivory cotton, and the paintings, which are on linen board, are mounted on blocks so that they sit forward from the backboard and have a shadow gap.
I ordered prints of family photos and found suitable frames and displayed them on the sofa table. I also made all of the scatter cushions, from Clarke & Clarke fabrics. Several are reversible, with alternate colour ways on each side
Due to the boxing in in the corner, the L shape sofa would not fit the space unless it sat 25cm forward. I designed a simple, clean lined long console table to fit this space and commissioned Toby Howes to make it in solid oak. http://www.tobyhowesfurniture.co.uk/
We discussed the design and he added a solid back panel behind the shelf to make it very strong. As well as filling the space it allows a place to display books, family photos and a table lamp.
I also made some improvements to the bedroom of the family's youngest son, adding desk chair and lamp and mainly making his loft bed more comfortable and more fun. By making a denim covered back cushion and adding a few scatter cushions, he now has somewhere to lean comfortably while reading. I painted the existing bed rails in black and red and added some white stripes reminiscent of a racecar. Some framed cards, dinky cars and Concorde decorate the space with things and colours that he told he me he likes
I suggested paint colour options for the kitchen and supplied large sample cards of the top shortlist and assisted with sourcing new cabinet handles
The darker colour was a dramatic change, but in such a huge space, felt appropriate and more in-keeping with the vibrancy of the occupants and their new lounge design