Blacksheep were commissioned by a private bachelor client, who had just purchased a traditional, four-storey Victorian townhouse in Clapham, south London, to create a more contemporary interior for the home, with extensive AV facilities and newly-appointed rooms, including a cinema area, study/games room and enlarged master ensuite bedroom.
The brief for the project was to use bespoke joinery to create rooms with discreet or even completely hidden storage (with a complete ban on open shelving!), with hidden or integral AV and individual TV screens throughout the house, to be hidden where possible when not in use. Doors were also to be re-hung to improve entry where needed. Blacksheep also created bespoke furniture for the house where appropriate to meet the exact needs of the client.
On the lower ground level, the house is now comprised of a main kitchen area, new cinema room and dining room. On the ground floor are the office area, formal living room and a games room. The ensuite master bedroom (for which two existing bedrooms were knocked into one) is located on the first floor, along with a further guest room and bathroom, with two further double bedrooms, a single bedroom and a bathroom on the top floor.
Design Walkthrough
Lower-ground Floor
Entrance to the lower-ground floor area is from the ground floor via a lobby and cloakroom area, which leads directly into the dining room and adjoining kitchen. A new mirror, in antiqued glass with replica antique white painted frame, conceals a former door into what is now the new cinema area, so that this area now has a single point of controlled access from the dining room area. A side door leads off the space to a dedicated laundry area, as well as to the main stair leading up to the outdoor ground floor level
The dining room and kitchen have new flooring, using a continuous porcelain tile by Grestec, with underfloor heating to ensure the tiles are not cold to bare feet. The rooms are very light, which contrasts with the rich and darker atmosphere created by the cinema room, offset to the left of the space.
A plasma screen on dining room wall has illuminated shelves on either side for feature accessories in a stained timber, which matches the dining room table. The table is from BoConcept and is in wengewood with silver legs. Two feature chairs set around the plasma screen are upholstered in an Osborne & Little fabric. On either side of the plasma screen is a new feature wall covered in a silver leaf paper by Jocelyn Warner. Patio doors lead out of the dining room to the lower patio area and then up a few steps into the main garden.
The cinema room, accessed by flipped-out double doors leading from the dining room, which can of course seal off the space, features a shagpile carpet and an ultra-deep L-shaped sofa, bespoke-designed by Blacksheep and upholstered in a textured velvet-feel cloth. Feature cushions are in an Osborne & Little fabric, in a similar colour palette to that used for the dining room armchairs. On entering, the wall to either side of the door is in the same silver leaf paper as the dining room feature wall, by Jocelyn Warner.
The cinema room projector is set within the ceiling, with recessed speakers, and the screen drops down in front of a permanent artwork. Four hidden storage cupboards are set below for DVD storage with double cupboards on either side. The whole section is halo-lit, with hidden lighting, to give the impression that it is floating. The door leading into the lobby is concealed on both sides with the cinema room side concealed by a hanging fabric wall panel.
Ground Floor
The ground floor entrance leads into a traditional hall area, with a formal living room and games room leading off to the left and a new study area to the rear of the hall. Stairs lead directly down to the lower-ground floor lobby. The hall is a simple, white-painted space with wall-mounted cupboards from Bo Concepts and a Crudenza unit for keys and post. The space is animated by a new light feature with five teardrop-shaped pendant balls, which hang from the top storey right the way through the stairwell space. The existing oak timber flooring has been retained throughout the ground floor area.
The study to the rear has a new full-height storage wall to hide the owner's computer hard-drive and a bespoke new glass desk to work from. Other furniture in the space includes a 'Togo' sofa and footstool by Michael Ducaroy from Ligne Roset.
The formal living room is dominated by a bespoke (by Blacksheep) L-shaped sofa, upholstered in chocolate brown velvet and a large beige rug, facing onto a Noguchi coffee table. Another hidden plasma screen is located in the formal living room area, with large-scale smoked mirroring in front of it, created by Aqua Vision, so that it is invisible when switched off, into which the piece of art on the opposing wall reflects. The surrounding, completely enclosed unit is once more halo-lit to give the impression of floating and this bespoke unit is also used in the adjacent games room. Blacksheep removed the fireplace in this room to create a more contemporary feel. Stripey 'Mizu' curtains are matched with 'Sumi' cushions from the same range by Warwick Fabrics - some in a more concentrated stripe and others in plain silks. An Arco lamp sits in front of this front bay window space and further feature lighting takes the form of bespoke pendant shades.
In the games room, the plasma screen is concealed behind cupboard doors and surrounded by a smoked mirroed recess and halo-lit storage area. The room also has a new bespoke snooker table (altered by Blacksheep to suit the room's colour scheme), dark-stained and on casters so that it can be moved around to suit. Two dark Egg chairs are also in the room, along with some of the standout pieces of the client's art collection. Wallpaper has been used to fill the recesses behind the screens in the room.
First Floor
The double-space master bedroom and ensuite bathroom includes a spacious new walk-in wardrobe area with halo edge lighting.
Within the bedroom and wardrobe area, flooring is carpet, with a special L-shaped area of luxurious walnut separating the two areas. Feature cream damask wallpaper by Osborne & Little is used for two walls. A bespoke huge-scale bed has a suedette padded headboard in a milky coffee colour, with coffee and cream colours used throughout this room. There is more pattern here than elsewhere, with striped curtains (by DesignTex) and a plainer fabric for the bedspread. Bespoke underlit shelving is in walnut and a feature chaise longue (by Highly Sprung) is covered in a blue striped 'Romo' material from Sacho. The room also features a free-standing lamps, a Moroccan mirror (the client's own) and two walnut bedroom tables from La Fibule.
A second key piece of furniture is a freestanding walnut unit (also from La Fibule), which sits on the walnut flooring corridor and further separates the bedroom from the wardrobe area, which has double hanging space for clothes, walnut-clad drawers and bespoke beige pendant. A window area has been turned into a feature with a bespoke joinery, including a padded blue striped seat (using 'Romo' fabric), a mirror, silk stripe curtains by DesignTex, and cupboards built all around the area.
A walnut corridor, the second half of the L-shaped adjoining area, then leads to the bathroom and a second full-height facing mirror turns this area into a catwalk for parading clothes.
Second Floor
A smaller level of intervention on this floor includes new white storage, which has been installed along with some new works of art.