Blue Ivy House

Blue Ivy House is a deep response to the design personality of the clients. Eschewing a conservative response for the semi-retired clients, Blue Ivy reflects their deep appreciation for art and literature and immediately responds to the artistic provocations of the material palette and a response to the redefined spatial settings created in the floor plan.
The design accommodates a significant book collection and some quite remarkable artworks. Materials, furniture and coverings were chosen to respond to both the clients brief and references from literature and art. Furniture was carefully selected together with the client, and we selected / assisted with the selection of everything including; dining room pendants ( AJ Royal Pendant by Arne Jacobsen for Louis Poulsen from Cult Design), kitchen pendant and spotlights from Darkon, the Mark Tuckey timber table, the dining chairs (from Danish Red in Armadale), the black steel planter boxes from Redfox & Wilcox, the crotchet floor rug from Jenny Jones Rugs and the Nook sofa, cushions and bed linen from Jardan.
Each room on the ground floor interlinks spatially with the next, and the hall wall creates a circulation zone that serves as gallery and entry. The Kitchen and Dining space is organised around the generous island bench, complimented by the adjacent timber dining table. Open timber shelves increase the practicality of the high overhead cupboards and allow for !display of glassware and objet d’art. !The dining room wall is fully lined with the cantilevered timber shelves which work with the Mark Tuckey timber table. The marble is also used as shelving, fashioned into a full-height bookshelf between kitchen and lounge, and a hybrid marble- timber bookshelves in the end of the kitchen island itself. Upstairs the material palette deepens, with a hand- stitched leather bedhead layering autumnal tones light timber veneer and blue carpet.

Furniture:
Couch - Nook from Jardan
Lounge chair - Plank from Great Dane
Dining table - Simple Conservatory from Mark Tuckey
Dining chairs from Red Danish
Chest of drawers to main bed - Entre 3B from Great Dane
Lighting:
Pendant over stair - Louis Poulson PH Snowball from Cult
Pendants over dining table - Louis Poulson AJ Royal from Cult (Arne Jacobsen designer)
Pendant over kitchen bench - Mrs. T Soft from Darkon (Poul Henningsen designer)
Spot and Track lights - Gemini from Masson for Light
External wall lights - Orsay from Mondoluce
Kitchen:
Matt 2 pack in Dulux North Sea colour
Kitchen stone - Arabescato Jagli from Signorino
Victorian Ash open shelving with clear finish
Freestanding cast iron oven in Ivory colour from Lacanche
Dishwasher - Fully integrated from Miele
Refrigerator freezer - Full integrated from Fisher and Paykel
Concealed range hood from Qasair
Kitchen mixer - Sussex Scala with pull out hose from Reece
Bathrooms:
Floor tiles from Artedomus
Stone - Concordia slab from Artedomus
Tapware - Sussex Scala from Reece
Bath - Vaio Set Bath steel bath from Kaldewei
Concealed cistern toilets and hob mounted basins from Caroma
Walk in robe:
Timber veneer - Oak Rift White Wash from Lignapal
Wine storage:
Bordex racking from Macphee
Floor:
Prefinished Oak floor boards - Eterno Bistre from Tongue and Groove
Fireplace:
Heat and glo gas COSMO I30 gas insert series from Jetmaster

Materials are all selected to be low VOC – including low-VOC Dulux paint system, undyed wool carpets and water-based floor coating systems. The fabrics of the lounge and bedrooms, sourced from Jardan, all utilise low VOC textiles as well as creating a textural palette that is both sensuous and sustainable. Principles of passive sustainable design were followed and natural light was made a priority to minimize electric lighting during daylight hours, despite the fixed nature of the building façade. Although budgets were tight we created a third set of double doors through the east-facing kitchen wall to enhance daylight and improve indoor-outdoor flow, and upstairs slices through the roof allow natural daylight into the bathroom and ensuite through the new skylights.
The external walls and ceiling were retrofitted with high levels of glasswool insulation and windows were double glazed to radically transform the external envelope. The garden utilizes raingardens to capture stormwater runoff for the benefit of the garden and ameliorate the impact to the stormwater system, and external planting was carefully considered to shade west-facing windows in summer but let winter daylight in. Lights are on sensors to minimize energy wastage.