While the world spent the past six months figuring out how to cope with COVID-19’s “new reality,” TSAR Carpets’ Melbourne-based Head Designer, Ross Cleland, channelled his creative exploration into a series of soothing and biophilic floor covering designs. For its new Fall 2020 product launch, TSAR is pleased to release The Retreat Collection - available exclusively at the company’s studios in Melbourne, Sydney, New York, London, and Shanghai.
“The word ‘retreat’ connotes withdrawal and seclusion from it all,” said Cleland. “I found my retreat in the countryside with my family to be quite the opposite. The river next to our house was the source of my renewed artistic vigour despite everything that’s going on in the world - and challenged me to try out new colours, patterns, and techniques. The end results are carpet designs flowing with positive, wholesome energy. I am so proud to introduce The Retreat Collection of Axminster carpet designs to the world, especially during these precarious collective circumstances in which we find ourselves.”
The Retreat Collection started out as an investigation of fluid mechanics in the art studio—a sort of trial-and-error experiment with inks on paper and air propulsion from a hand dryer. Cleland played with particular blues and greys, and then added more vibrant colours such as reds, yellows, purples, and greens. He ended up with a series of free-flowing textures that give the collection a freeform, unstructured quality. Using natural bodies of water as an inspiration and art as the means, Cleland transcended two-dimensional surfaces into modern architectural complements. While the Retreat Collection’s design vocabulary was initially developed in a series of hand-crafted moments within the artist’s studio, TSAR’s Retreat Collection distils moments of serendipitous ephemerality into a range of carpet designs that are balanced with a marked timelessness and a purposeful approach.
Leveraging TSAR’s vertically integrated manufacturing, TSAR realised Cleland’s vision into an Axminster carpet collection to be applied to a variety of interior design programmes and architectural sequences. Framed around the concept of the future of hospitality design and suitable for a wide variety of interior applications, TSAR’s Retreat Axminster carpets add visual movement and flow underfoot. By using interchangeable colours, each design can take on a new meaning and purpose, responsive to the architecture and bespoke to its interior context. Designs can be applied with individual room placement or as continuous patterned carpet. Specification, colours, and image scale can also be customised to suit any project scheme.
Standard Axminster carpet appearance is traditionally plain cut pile—which means manufacturers would usually need to simulate the pattern’s visual depth—by using trompé-l'oeil effects. TSAR has innovated three proprietary techniques to deliver custom, large-scale carpet and rug designs that allow for true depth and a hand-tufted feel while maintaining the value-driven price point of large-area Axminster carpet applications.
This is a process of hand-shearing areas of the carpet's pile in order to create textures around woven design elements. This particular technique transforming one-dimensional perspectives to patterns that draws the eye across the carpet with ridges and valleys, enhancing and highlighting areas of flat designs woven in Axminster.
Available as limited quantities, this technique brings lustre to the carpet, which is otherwise not possible in Axminster production. Again adding depth and dimension, but also elevating the product for a lusher, more textural and hand-tufted outcome.
Using small quantities of loop pile in TSAR’s Axminster designs means that the visual can be broken up, and stop the eye from scanning the floor plan with no pause point.
About the Author
TSAR Carpets is a Melbourne-based design brand with over 30 years of expertise in the manufacturing of luxury custom carpets and rugs. A family-owned business founded by David and Kerrie Sharpley, it is now a global company recognised for its passion for textiles and its profound knowledge of the hand-tufted technique. TSAR delivers bespoke floor coverings for high-end residential, hospitality, and commercial environments worldwide.
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SpeakEasy with Shalini Misra: A Masterclass in Wellbeing Design
In this episode of the SpeakEasy podcast, Grant Pierrus is joined by internationally celebrated interior architect, designer and property developer, Shalini Misra as she sheds light on her journey in the interior design industry, shares her unique professional insight on interior wellness and provides a masterclass on the role and integration of wellbeing as a core design principle.
Shalini discusses an integral interplay in the relationship between our inner selves and our surrounding external environments, giving emphasis on how the interior design of these spaces can influence the way we feel and function within them.
She shares her expert insight on designing homes with wellness in mind, and explains her professional strategies for achieving an effective wellbeing design through lighting considerations, selection of materials, intelligent space planning and craftmanship.
Finally, Shalini talks about how interior design approaches to sustainability is intrinsically interlinked with these principles of wellbeing as an important component of personal and interior wellness; including the creation of nature connections through biophilic design.
Tune in to the whole conversation to discover more.
Shalini Misra
Founder and Creative Director, Shalini Misra is an internationally celebrated interior architect, designer and property developer. Shalini has been creating spaces since she founded her multifaceted practice over 20 years ago. A qualified architect from the Delhi School of Architecture and Planning (SPA) in India, Shalini specialised in Urban Planning at the University of Columbia in New York before studying Virtual Reality in Architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London.
Melbourne-based and SBID Accredited design brand TSAR Carpets, a leading global manufacturer of luxury custom floor coverings for residential, hospitality, and commercial environments, announced the opening of its new London studio on 28 September 2020. Situated in the Parsons Green district of Fulham, South West London, the studio will serve as TSAR’s UK, European and Middle Eastern base of operations that not only exhibits a comprehensive selection of TSAR carpet and rug product lines, but also serves as a destination for innovative ideas and creative project collaborations with designers and architects.
“We are thrilled to expand our global presence with a new London showroom,” said David Sharpley, CEO and Co-Founder of TSAR Carpets. “TSAR’s product and service commitments will be brought to our residential and commercial trade clients in the UK, Continental Europe, and Middle East territories.”
Joining the TSAR Carpets UK business development team are veterans in the architecture and design industry, Mike Constable and Carly-Anne Fitzgerald. Mike Constable is the Director for TSAR Carpets UK and has worked within the London and UK interior design market for over 20 years and will be a familiar face to many. Following his time with Silent Gliss and Robert Allen, Constable spent 12 years with JAB Anstoetz as UK MD. Carly-Anne Fitzgerald, who is the Business Development Manager and Design Associate for TSAR Carpets UK, has experience in both lighting and furniture design as well as prior experience with carpet, having worked with UK and international manufacturers.
“The new studio is poised to showcase TSAR’s high quality, custom-made carpet and rug portfolio, and further inspire our residential and commercial clients with the spaces they are imagining and designing,” said Constable. “We want designers and architects to have an immersive, tactile experience with TSAR’s products. And together with my colleague Carly-Anne, we are here to serve as a valuable resource for our design-savvy clients.”
The TSAR London studio, located at 126–128 New Kings Road, is a short walk from the Chelsea Harbour Design Centre and The Kings Road, which was made famous by fashion legends Mary Quant and Vivienne Westwood. Opening hours are Monday - Friday from 9:00am to 5:00pm, by appointment only.
The finalists for SBID Awards product design categories were revealed earlier this month! Receiving entries from 49 countries around the world, the SBID Awards 2020 has been the most globally represented edition to date.
With the public vote open until 30 September, you can vote for your favourite products across each of the 17 categories and have your say in which designs have what it takes to take home a prestigious SBID Award!
This category is dedicated to all interior accessories such as cushions, bed linen, tableware, stemware and decorative items including art and photography.
Click here to view all category finalists
This category focuses on any products suitable for use within a bathroom ranging from bathroom cabinets, mirrors and towel rails to shower doors and screens. Both residential and commercial bathroom products are eligible.
This category is dedicated exclusively to brassware. Entries can include but are not limited to mixer, pillar and dual flow taps and shower heads.
This category focuses on interior cabinetry and joinery such as wardrobes, doors, fitted furniture and bespoke pieces.
This category encompasses all commercial and residential fabrics and textiles, upholstery, curtains and curtain accessories. Textiles and fabrics can be synthetic or made from natural fibres.
This category focuses on interior flooring and floor coverings. Entries can include but is not limited to carpet, laminate, tile, vinyl and rugs.
This category is dedicated to all furniture for use within a contract or commercial interior such as a hotel, restaurant or hospital. Furniture can range from tables and chairs to sofas, banquettes, benches and stools.
This category is dedicated to all interior furniture solely for residential use. Furniture can range from tables, chairs and sofas to benches, stools and beds.
This category focuses on heating and cooling in an interior space. Eligible products range from fireplaces, radiators, stoves, grills and underfloor heating to air con, comfort cooling, and fans.
This category is for ironmongery, metalwork and architectural hardware including hinges, locks, handles door knockers and door furniture. Products can also include inset metalwork and bespoke forgery.
This category rewards skill and innovation for kitchen products such as appliances, kitchen cabinets, and kitchen worktops.
This category can include any interior product used within a leisure or wellbeing facility such as a gym, spa or games room. Eligible products include gym equipment, spa equipment and associated wellbeing products to games tables and associated products.
This category is dedicated exclusively to lighting design. products can include general, ambient, mood, task and accent lighting for both residential and contract interiors. Lighting products range from architectural lighting, chandeliers, lamps and desk lights to ceiling lights and bulbs.
This category is solely for outdoor products for either residential or contract use ranging from outdoor furniture, outdoor lighting, signage, garden furniture, sun protection, fire pits, BBQs and grills.
This category is dedicated to sanitaryware including baths, sinks, shower trays, bidets, urinals, wash planes etc.
This category is for audio visual and/or lighting schemes as well as individual products. AV/lighting schemes are eligible for both residential and commercial interiors. Entries should reflect how the concept meets the needs of both the client and the end user. Individual products such as TVs, speakers, home automation and music systems are also eligible.
This category is for architectural and interior surfaces and finishes. These include but are not limited to panels, wallcoverings, stone, veneers, ceramics, wood, acrylic, glass, mouldings, paint and tiles.
Voting closes at 5pm (BST) on 30 September.
Visit www.sbidawards.com to find out more!
The finalists for SBID Awards interior design categories were revealed earlier this month! Receiving entries from 49 countries around the world, the SBID Awards 2020 has been the most globally represented edition to date.
With the public vote now open until 30 September, you can vote for your favourite projects across each of the 17 interior categories and have your say in which designs have what it takes to take home a prestigious SBID Award!
This category rewards skill and innovation in the use of visual software. The entries include any interior design visual or CGI that has been created on a visualisation programme, including AutoCad, CAD, 3ds Max, InteriCAD and Vectorworks.
This category is solely for club and/or bar interior design projects. Nightclubs, private members clubs and bars are eligible for this category – they can be permanent, pop-up or temporary.
This category includes any interior project within a hospital, healthcare facility, care-related property or wellness centre. It will take into account innovative approaches to healthcare environments and how the patient/visitor is engaged. Gyms, spas and well-being centres are accepted within this category too.
This category is dedicated exclusively to bedrooms and suites within hotel interiors. Entries include full or part refurbishments, both new builds and restoration projects, and show high levels of creativity and innovation.
This category is dedicated exclusively to public spaces within hotel interiors. Entries include a full or part refurbishment, both new builds and restoration projects and should show high levels of creativity and innovation. Projects can include lobbies, spa’s, ballrooms and meeting rooms.
This category welcomes kitchen, bedroom and/or bathroom designs within a residential space. Projects can include a single room or several rooms within a property.
This category is dedicated exclusively to office design. The entry should reflect how the concept creates a pleasant, efficient workspace and meets the needs of both the clients and the employees who work in the space.
This category is exclusively dedicated to properties located in the Asia-Pacific region. Projects include residential developments; development sales centres or buildings that market newly built apartments and mixed-use developments. Projects can be a complete refurbishment or just the public areas within these buildings.
This category is dedicated to all interiors of public spaces created as a service for the community, such as airports, libraries, schools, museums, universities and religious buildings. Projects can be complete refurbishments or smaller commissions within these buildings.
This is the premium category of residential interior design for an apartment. It focuses on design trends and the wow factor of residential projects with an overall value of over £1 Million. Projects can include a single room, several rooms, or a whole property.
This category focuses on interior design projects with an overall value of under £1 Million in residential apartments, and recognises not only the achievement for the budget but also functionality and aesthetics. Projects can include a single room, several rooms, or a whole apartment.
This category is specifically for projects that have delivered the best interior design solutions to meet the client’s brief for the budget available up to £50,000. Projects can include a single room, several rooms or an entire house.
This is the premium category of residential interior design for a house. It focuses on design trends and the wow factor of residential projects with an overall value of over £1 Million. Projects can include a single room, several rooms, or a whole property.
This category focuses on interior design projects with an overall value of under £1 Million in residential houses, and recognises not only the achievement for the budget but also functionality and aesthetics. Projects can include a single room, several rooms, or a whole apartment.
This category is solely for interior designs within restaurant interiors projects. Judges will take into account functionality, compliance and fit-for-purpose design. This can include permanent and temporary restaurants or cafes for hospitality services.
This category covers all commercial interiors created for retail outlets including shopping centres, shops, showrooms, pop-up shops and art galleries. Projects can be a complete refurbishment or smaller commissions within these buildings.
This category is for marketing suites and show homes, focusing on functionality, aesthetic and the ability to translate the developer’s vision and engage the end-user.
SBID Accredited Partner, KI Europe has published new Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for its portfolio of UK-manufactured products to help customers meet their sustainability objectives. Valid for five years, these documents help to achieve credits towards SKA, BREEAM, LEED and other certifications and standards.
KI’s furniture helps the world leading organisations create happy, healthy, high performing working and learning environments for their people; bringing together good design, advanced engineering and sustainable resources.
An EPD is a standardised and verified way of quantifying the environmental impacts of a product based on a consistent set of rules known as a PCR (Product Category Rules). Conformant with ISO 14025 (ISO 14025:2006 Environmental labels and declarations - Type III environmental declarations - Principles and procedures), these cradle-to-grave EPDs are concise and include environmental information and life cycle assessments (LCA) which have been conducted by Giraffe Innovation Ltd. LCAs cover materials, production, distribution, use, through to end of life; helping specifiers and customers to confidently make more sustainable procurement decisions.
Jonathan Hindle, KI’s Group Managing Director, EMEA, comments: “Sustainability is a top priority for a growing number of public and private sector projects. These EPDs show our commitment to tackling our shared issues such as climate change, carbon footprint and environmental impact. Additionally, analysing the environmental performance of our products over their lifetime can help us to develop even better products and processes in the future.”
KI’s products manufactured in the UK with third-party verified EPDs, published on Environdec (www.environdec.com) include:
Additional KI products including bespoke items have self-declared third party reviewed EPDs that have been produced by using the same calculator and standards.
This week's instalment of the #SBIDinspire interior design series features a residential design by Ledbury Studio. This London pied à terre is located in a leafy square of imposing mid-19th century properties in Pimlico. The owner was completely refurbishing the two-bedroom apartment and wanted a copper kitchen for her stylish open-plan kitchen-living space. Ledbury Studio’s Metallics Collection kitchen – the first copper kitchen our client had ever seen – was, therefore, the perfect fit.
Company: Ledbury Studio
Project: Pimlico kitchen
Location: Pimlico, London
What was the client's brief?
The owner had a very definite vision for her whole apartment that included rich colours, mid-century furniture and metallic accents – and the copper kitchen was a key part of this. The kitchen was to be situated on one side of the room with sitting area on the other, so she didn’t want something that looked like standard square kitchen cabinets. They had to resemble standalone pieces of furniture that would blend into the look of the whole room.
What inspired the interior design of the project?
Our client was searching unsuccessfully for a copper kitchen when she saw the first incarnation of our Metallics Collection at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2018. When creating that kitchen, I had chosen copper because I wanted to harness the beauty of solid metals and use them in a contemporary kitchen setting that was different to anything else out there. Which is why our client was so excited to see the kitchen in her head become a reality!
The design needed to be a beautiful but practical working kitchen in a compact footprint. As such, the antiqued copper doors are kept to one side away from direct contact with heat or water but still provide the focal point our client wanted. For the worktops and splashback, I chose hard-wearing Bianco Macaubas quartzite, rather than the marble that was originally specified in the Chelsea kitchen. Thus, the island serves as a functional sink and prep area, as well as a breakfast bar to gather around. And finally, to answer the brief for furniture that looks like standalone pieces, I included a glass-fronted display cabinet in black-stained oak with an unusual dropped worktop.
What was the toughest hurdle your team overcame during the project?
The biggest challenge was to create a glamorous design that worked in this relatively small space. With the kitchen and sitting room forming a multi-functional area, I had to ensure I got the balance of the design right between having an island, a breakfast bar, a wall of cabinetry, and then having a really attractive sitting room as part of the whole set up.
What was your team’s highlight of the project?
This was one of our earliest projects and I think the highlight was that it showed us just how different and how attractive the use of the copper could be. Seeing the copper combined with the stone and the wood in a kitchen context and seeing how well it could work – that really was very exciting.
Questions answered by Charlie Smallbone, founder of Ledbury Studio.
We hope you feel inspired by this week's residential design! Let us know what inspired you #SBIDinspire.
If you missed last week's Project of the Week, featuring a unique restaurant design, click here to see more.
This week's instalment of the #SBIDinspire interior design series features a 2019 SBID Awards finalist in the restaurant design category. As the next step in their expansion plans, Peggy Porschen asked Kinnersley Kent Design to design a new flagship parlour on the King’s Road in Chelsea. With demand for everyday indulgences growing and a huge following, Peggy saw an opportunity to create a new, all-day destination for her baked delicacies. The new Chelsea parlour consists of two floors over 220sqm in an attractive corner site which had been the Chelsea Quarter Café.
KKD's concept loosely centres around the idea of a ‘Peggy Porschen Home’ and each room offers a slightly different experience. On arrival, you are greeted with the magnificent five-metre-long patisserie counter followed by the ‘salon de thé’. Downstairs the grand dining room acts as an event space for private parties or extension of the parlour for busy periods and customers can enjoy a drink at the bijou ‘pink bar’. The aim was to try to capture the charm of the Belgravia parlour while adding something new and exciting for the customer.
SBID Awards: Restaurant Design sponsored by Blooms Art
Company: Kinnersley Kent Design
Project: Peggy Porschen Chelsea
Location: London, United Kingdom
Our brief from the beginning was to create a space which embodied the spirit of the brand through every touchpoint whilst capturing the magic of the original Belgravia parlour. As Peggy has such a large social media following the new space also had to be inherently ‘Instagrammable’. The Chelsea location is a two-floor site. The space needed to cater for takeaway, coffee and cake, light meals, provide a flexible event space for customers to hire for children’s parties, friends or family events which could be used as an extension to the main parlour in busy periods. It also had to provide an opportunity to grow the existing retail offer.
Peggy’s beautiful baked creations were the main inspiration for the branded interior. From the outset, the focus was on the culinary artistry and the ‘food being the hero’. For that reason, the design and details are toned up and down according to the location within the parlour- for example, the patisserie counter is very modern and monolithic with minimal elegant glass displays which allow the artistry of the cakes to shine, whereas a more decorative and playful mix of traditional details and modern references are toned up within the seating areas.
Every project comes with its own difficulties but for Peggy Porschen the design involves a rich palette of materials, pattern and detail along with the design of lots of bespoke and one-off pieces. ‘Attention to detail’ is at the heart of both the Peggy Porschen brand and Kinnersley Kent Design’s approach as a creative studio. To deliver this in such an intricate and detailed project requires close collaboration, coordination and a shared philosophy across every team involved was vital.
Working with founder Peggy and her husband Bryn so collaboratively on this project was a pleasure and I think the highlight for us was being given the responsibility to take this iconic brand, which is a real labour of love for them both and expand it to offer something new and exciting without losing any of the Peggy Porschen charm.
Why did you enter the SBID Awards?
We’re extremely proud of this project and it is an honour to have our work recognised by SBID who are known to celebrate some of the best international work in our industry.
Questions answered by James Scott, Associate Director at Kinnersley Kent Design.
We hope you feel inspired by this week's restaurant design! Let us know what inspired you #SBIDinspire
If you missed last week's Project of the Week, featuring a Victorian-printworks-turned-office-space, click here to see more.
Through over 500 tile designs, SBID Accredited Industry Partner, Parkside is a trusted tile specification company with the versatility to provide solutions for any commercial interior.
With a philosophy of developing thoughtful responses to the unique demands of clients and their projects, Parkside delivers a range of additional services including waterjet cutting, colour matching and bespoke digital print. Chymia, a collaboration between Mutina and Laboratorio Avallone is the latest porcelain tile collection available in full exclusively at Parkside.
Chymia fluctuates between the discipline of graphic design, expressive gestures of mark making and the two extremes of black and white, where symbols and textures are combined to create patterns of light and shadow on the surface. Black forms the basis, in a distinctive tone created by designer Gennaro Avallone, with the patterns taking on various shades of black all the way through to white. Throughout the collection, black and white are never separate but co-exist, with each pattern also available in white, taking on various shades all the way through to black in a reversal of role.
Each of the 22 (11 black, 11 white) designs in Chymia is obtained by combining the principle black and white structures with 11 patterned textures, achieving a tile that can be used randomly in monochrome compositions. The collection involved research on glazes and raw materials, along with the combination of traditional applications and modern technology to achieve the absolute colours used.
Chymia came to life in a collaborative project between ceramics manufacturer Mutina and Laboratorio Avallone, a Milan-based studio whose research reaches in to painting and sculpture to create unique objects of contemporary furnishing. The collection was developed with the aim of making a break with traditional styles, restoring an original quality to ceramics with unexpected outcomes.
Sarah Holey, marketing manager, Parkside: "Chymia is a collection that’s full of surprises. Taking the apparent simplicity of monochromatic pattern, it reveals that careful experimentation and attention to the creation of pure colours can bring depth and new-found results to a seemingly traditional black and white palette. Infusing new meaning into checkerboard or bringing more depth and nuance to all-over black or white, it offers some hugely exciting opportunities for designers and we’re delighted to welcome it to the Parkside portfolio."
This week's instalment of the #SBIDinspire interior design series features a retail design by GP Studio. Following the successful opening of Hershesons ‘one-stop beauty’ flagship in Fitzrovia, the brand has now launched its greatly anticipated new site in Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge.
Much like the vast, 5000 sq ft space opened on Berners Street, this super salon is a one-stop-shop for all your beauty needs. Rejecting conventional ideas surrounding the traditional salon model, it’s now the turn of the Harvey Nichols location to experience the new concept, but of course with its own iterations.
The new ‘super salon’ brings together a unique mix of top industry brands – James Reid, Dr Dennis Gross, as well as hosting a collective, a first for the hair industry, with the world’s best stylists and colourists taking up short-term residencies – Jenny Choo and Lena Ott to name a few. Farm Girl completes the list of amazing names, providing the uber-healthy food and refreshments across the space, creating a unique café-come-work-come-social-space.
SBID Awards: Retail Design sponsored by Perennials & Sutherland
Company: gpstudio
Project: Hershesons Harvey Nichols
Developing on from the flagship space in Berners Street, create a true destination ‘beauty playground’ within 4th Floor Harvey Nichols Knightsbridge, that combines high-end convenience with an injection of playful excitement – A home from home hangout, a workspace, a beauty space.
As with Berners Street, the space breaks the traditional salon norms - customers are encouraged to explore and sit wherever they want, creating their own unique journey and experience. Retractable mirrors prevent you from having to stare at your reflection whilst surrounded by foils, window benches provide a spot to watch the world go by whilst having your nails attended too and the treatment rooms provide an air of calm and sanctuary. Two VIP rooms provide complete privacy, raising the level of service to a complete luxury experience – Polished bespoke terrazzo floors juxtapose with traditional rattan and timber, whilst the existing windows fill the rooms with daylight to create a high-end Parisian apartment feel. Gone is the green marble and reeded glass synonymous with Berners Street, replaced by sumptuous yellow travertine and Georgian wired glass giving the Harvey Nichols space an identity all of its own. The existing traditional critical windows make for a striking architectural background, which bathes the bespoke terrazzo floor in natural light late afternoon creating a stunning centre piece to the main salon area.
Creating a new design DNA for 4th Floor Harvey Nichols, whilst still retaining the same essence, vibe and experience synonymous with Hershesons Berners Street.
Seeing the bespoke terrazzo floor with the beautiful natural light late afternoon cascading over it. It creates a stunning centrepiece to the main salon and has been a talking point by all who visit every since.
Questions answered by Gemma Ratcliffe, Associate Director at gpstudio.
We hope you feel inspired by this week's design! Let us know what inspired you #SBIDinspire
If you missed last week's Project of the Week, featuring an office and members club, click here to see more.
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