Journal

THE SUNDAY SIX – Tiles, A new Project & Milan

The tiles, we need to talk about the tiles. Plus a trend I’m calling time on, the correct height to hang a painting above a sofa, which is not the height you think it is and three other things worth five minutes of your Sunday.

No. 01 The pantry tiles

The most asked question on our Sixty3 London instagram page. The tiles!

For this project we chose Jakob Lime Parquet for the wood effect porcelain tiles and a mix of Porcini and White Emperador Marble for the chequerboard both from Mandarin Stone. In the entrance we went for the larger size and in the pantry we used the same combination but in a smaller format for the smaller space. The palette of these tiles worked so perfectly with the painted cabinetry. We chose Roman Plaster by Little Greene for the kitchen.

No. 02 From Milan this week and what we need to stop specifying.

Salone del Mobile, the annual furniture fair in Milan that sets the direction for the industry, closed yesterday. The clearest message this year was about what is leaving the room, not what is entering it.

Polished chrome. Every serious brand presenting this week had moved their hardware to brushed, oxidised or patinated finishes. Unlacquered brass is no longer the brave choice, it is the default. If you are mid-renovation with chrome taps on the spec sheet, this is your sign to revisit.

Perfectly matched stone. The bookmatched, vein-aligned slab is starting to read as trying too hard. What is replacing it is asymmetry, deliberately mismatched cuts and stone that shows its origin rather than hiding it.

Hard right angles on joinery. Softened edges everywhere this week. Not full curves, not scalloped, but a gentle radius on the corner of a cabinet door or a rounded return on a plaster wall. A small move that softens the whole room.

The thread across all three is the same. Tactile, honest and slightly imperfect is where the best work is going.

No. 03 An exciting new project

One of the reasons we wanted to reshape the Sunday Six was to share things here before anywhere else and this is the first of them.

We have been appointed on a new build in Hertfordshire. We worked closely with DDA Architects on the initial layouts and renders who we have collaborated with on previous schemes. At around ten thousand square feet, currently well into the concept design phase, it’s a privilege to be working on such a beautiful home. If you want to follow a project from empty plot to finished home, this is the one to stay for.

No. 04 A small idea that changes a room

Hang your art lower than you think. The standard gallery hang is 150cm to the centre of the piece, which is correct in a gallery and wrong in a home. In a house with sofas, dining chairs and beds, 150cm leaves art floating in the middle of the wall with nothing beneath it to anchor the eye. Drop it to 140cm, sometimes 135cm above a sofa, and the room reads as considered rather than decorated. This is the single most common mistake I see in otherwise beautiful rooms.

No. 05 Back in stock

The sun is out so it’s no surprise that the piece we have been reaching for all month is our Rattan Chargers. On linen placemats and under every plate on every table we have styled since the weather turned. They do the thing a good charger should do, which is make the table look super stylish but without looking too stuffy or formal. Stocked as individuals so you can choose the number you actually need.

No. 06 What caught my eye this week

Kelly Wearstler at H&M Home. I have watched every piece of content coming out of the Palazzo Acerbi installation this week and I am properly excited. Twenty-nine pieces and a full modular system, launching globally on the third of September. Chairs that reconfigure into sofas. A checkerboard marble patchwork coffee table. The Curva vase, the Emera lamp, a boucle modular seating system she is calling Soluna.

Wearstler is the first designer H&M Home has ever done a furniture collaboration with and she has not diluted her language to hit the price point. The shapes are still unmistakably hers. This is going to be the most influential mass-market collection and it will end up specified into homes looking for an affordable price point for styling items by autumn. I’ve got my eye on the floor lamp!