The Recycled House -Sydenham Arts Festival

The Recycled House 2012

Artists' Open House - Sydenham Arts Festival  2012

If you are on the Visual Arts Trail - Sat/Sun 14-15 then make your way here, this is a great find.

I wholly recommend you take the time to visit to this living art piece, The Recycled House. It's a real home & ever changing installation piece, conceived and constructed by the creative pair of Kate Shipp and Mark Hill. Though amongst the salvaged beauty is a very real and admirable ethic : This is anti-consumerism writ large

Sydenham Arts Festival gives us a brief (one week-end only) opportunity to see this amusing and captivating space. Imagine a house decorated by Sir John Soane but sourced by Albert Steptoe. The interior is full of items saved literally from skips and scoured at boot sales. Items swapped, traded and made from salvaged materials or scrap, things most of us would overlook.


I've personally been to the house a number of times and each time I discover a new part I'd overlooked before. Though it may well have never been there in the first place, in all it gives you a heady flood of images and objects to view; be warned though, this is no trip to Ikea.

Also much of what you see is for sale. Mark is a working artist & trader, so don't be surprised to find price tags on your tea cups or cake stands. Also ask to see his other work too; it's all there on the walls, with much more hidden in the plan chests.

The house is located at.....


4 Longton Avenue SE26 *click on for a map near to the beautiful Sydenham Wells park

It's easy to get to by car, bus or train  * see links

By train, head for Sydenham in SE26 on the fantastic new overground Train Service and it's about a 10 minute walk from the station.
Buses from Crystal Palace run every 10 minutes.

Contact details

shipp.hill@virgin.net

www.therecycledhouse.co.uk

And, maybe I'll see you there....

The Recycled House 2012

Artists' Open House - Dulwich Festival 2012

I wholly recommend you take the time to visit to this living art piece, The Recycled House. First and foremost, it's a real home. It is also a living & ever changing installation piece, conceived and constructed by the creative pair of Kate Shipp and Mark Hill.

The Dulwich Festival gives us a brief (one week-end only) opportunity to see this amusing and captivating space. Imagine a house decorated by Sir John Soane but sourced by Albert Steptoe. The interior is full of items saved literally from skips and scoured at boot sales. Items swapped, traded and made from salvaged materials or scrap, things most of us would overlook.

Do cast your eyes downwards as you cross the threshold. That wood-block floor was not so long ago a humble roof joist, now all  carefully sliced into tiles and laid by hand. It's an insight into the couple's ethos of re-use, and one where any material has possibilities.

They themselves describe the house as;
"illustrating the possibility of living elegantly whilst reducing the environmental impact"
I personally think it forces you look at things in a new light, it's a mirror of how disposable we've become as a society. It pulls you up, it makes you consider anew. And I know I feel better for it.

In the photo, Kate Shipp & Mark Hill

The space though is quite beautiful, almost museum like, though not overly precious, being after all a family home for the couple & their two children.


I've personally been to the house a number of times and each time I discover a new part I'd overlooked before (though it may well have never been there in that guise, such is the nature of change here).

In all it gives you a heady flood of images and objects to view; be warned though, this is no trip to Ikea.

Also much of what you see is for sale, the house acting as both home and Gallery.
Mark is a working Artist & trader, so don't be surprised to find price tags on your tea cups or cake stands.

Do ask to see his other work too; it's there on the walls, with much more hidden in the plan chests.

Look (or more succinctly listen) out for their other project METAMONO. An Electronic three-piece music collective, playing one off gigs and the Festival circuit.

Of course all this looking (and listening: Metamonos' latest 10" single is on sale here) can be both exciting and exhausting. So, to revive your spirits Kate & Mark set up shop in the garden, serving tea & home-baked cakes on alice-in-wonderland style cake stands ( yes,  Kate & Mark make and sell these too )

All this reviving refreshment, served in the tranquility of the garden, gets you ready for another look at this truly unique house.

Lastly, there's usually a little Pop-Up shop in the garden to feast your eyes on.
Bring some cash or a cheque book, as the The Recycled House is a gem of a visit.

Open on 12-13th May Only

11:30-5pm
No need to book


The house is at
4 Longton Avenue SE26 *click on for a map near to the beautiful Sydenham Wells park

It's easy to get to by car, bus or train  * see links

By train, head for Sydenham in SE26 on the fantastic new overground Train Service and it's about a 10 minute walk from the station.
Buses from Crystal Palace run every 10 minutes.

Contact details

shipp.hill@virgin.net
www.therecycledhouse.co.uk

And, maybe I'll see you there....

Mark

Paint it black, paint it white.

Be bold and paint your living space in ultra-dramatic mono-chromatic.
What could be simpler than Black & White ?

There's something very refreshing in choosing a scheme of such dramatic opposites. A real chance to create something punchy, something so timeless and classic in the living theatre we call home. It's also an opportunity to wrestle things down to their absolute minimum, no matter what period your pile was built.

The extreme purity of such a scheme perversely draws colour to it. We can't help ourselves; solid black and white wall spaces cry out out for art, objects and mirrors to be placed on or alongside them.
image copyright paintsomecolour 2012 all rights reserved

Even designers like Sue Timney of Timney-Fowler who've made the whole mono-chrome black & white part of their brand are still drawn to use colour to enhance and enliven their look.

There is I think an instinct to add bold primary colour into the mix. Red, yellow, green and blue all flash large in such a space. The smallest item or casually placed accessory grows in stature, taking on an almost gallery like significance.

But why is that? Well in part it's this reductionist scheme that helps our brain park up large chunks of space, it encourages us to focus on the very object in isolation.

Lighting as in any living space is key, after all, head-first down the basement steps isn't much fun, no matter how glamourous the interior from which we've unwittingly launched ourselves.

Well placed down lighters in the ceilings illuminate the runway on which we walk, strategically placed near a pair of opposing mirrors and we see a multiplying of spaces and lights into the darkness. It's high drama and almost mysterious in it's depth.

And nothing could be so easy, could it. All you need to do is order these two simple colours, choose what goes where and crack on with it.

You may though find a small but significant question posed as you order your paint.

"What colour black and what colour white do you want"

It's because these two simple choices aren't actually so black and white after all. The reality is that they are in fact refined colours all of their own, blacks with blue or green or red in. Whites which though at the end of their range are in fact pared-back colours or hues, shades of a much stronger version of themselves, but still colours no less.


As with all the paint colours we ponder on, there's a growing number of choices now available.
Lamp black, bible black, near black, british standards black. The same goes for white and the list is virtually endless.


We still need to choose them with as much care as we do any other colour, they can be warm and cool. They can take on a mood all of their own and I see them as more alike than far apart, they define each other far better than any other colour paring. We use them linguistically too, as a metaphor for clarity and simplicity but they are in fact deeply complex in their make up. And if we don't look carefully we could miss the very beauty that is there to behold.

Part II: Choosing Colour

It's all getting rather emotional really. I mean choosing a whole colour scheme can be somewhat unsettling, specially when starting a new project from scratch. The thing I see on a regular basis is a huge pile of freshly purchased interior magazines ( complete with all the promo-cards falling out everywhere) a complement of coffee table books, colour-cards from the usual suspects, plus a few specialist paint suppliers that most will have never of heard of. It is in short, brain damage of the highest order.

It's something that we obviously don't intend on doing but it is the way many end up. It's like a crash course in taste and design all heaped into a very short space of time.

No wonder you're overwhelmed by it all & unsurprisingly how often we revert-to-form by playing it safe.

Really though; it doesn't have to be like that. The thing is a magazine features maybe 3-4 interiors in one edition. Each has its own look, after all they need to appeal to their broad readership. If you're new to all this then you probably haven't developed a look as such, so trawling through the magazines, cherry picking the bits you like is as far as you've gone, right?

I'll let you in on a something here. Most successful designers have a 'formula' or a 'look'
( though they'd be loathed to admit it). It works by them developing a signature style or palette, I should know as I work with many of them. No one designer covers all the areas, the styles, the looks. However, I know of 3-4 individuals who could collectively fill  a magazine with their unique styles. Mono-chrome and angular. Natural, tonal, shaded. Masculine, industrial, vintage blah blah blah. I could go on.


Conversely, we all know of somebody, who it seems effortlessly pulls off a decorating scheme, wardrobe, dinner-party with such aplomb as to make it look easy.
"Oh I just threw it together" they say, but how ?
Under their cool & calm disclaimer is a strategy, acknowledged or not. They're generally creative, observant and pretty well organised.

So, can you take some of this for yourself, can you get into character ?
I think what's needed here is a little bit of healthy compartmentalised thinking. Use it as a tool to aid the whole process. Think of how the super-markets do it, so subtly that we don't notice. All the milks, cream & yogurt in one isle. Or a department store, bags & perfume on the same floor, like for like as it were.

Now transport that thinking to colours on a colour card. They're usually gate folded & organised into groups for a good reason. Farrow & Ball and the excellent Paint Library are a both good examples here. What I do is, start out by discarding the colours I definitely don't want, then isolate the groups that might work, cutting it down to a good half-dozen.

Conversely, If you do try to view the whole card as one sheet, it can blow your colour-fuse. It exhausts the brain's processing power, much like if you viewed a whole store offer in one go.

So be kind to yourself and learn to organise your thinking. Keep it neat and keep it simple.

Here's an example of how I work.

This image was taken on the north-coast of Cornwall in the West of England 2011. It's un-edited and was taken using an i-phone 3GS. The image is stored on my laptop, my phone and on Image-Shack.

I don't usually start with a colour chart, it's actually the last place I look to find the colour of my dreams.
So when i'm starting a project with a client I use other resources to inform the direction we're going in. Of course I have made valuable mental notes as i've chatted informally with a client. Clothes, objects and attitude (even the food in the fridge) are a good indicator .

If you look at the image above, take your time and notice the tonal range in the stone, from pale grey to taupe browns, green-grey lichen complements the reds of the rock-flowers. There's enough of a range of shade and colour here to imagine a scheme.

As i'm at creating a scheme with this, i'll isolate the colours-shades that i'm trying to use as the core part of that scheme. It could be a strong Gray-white that will take up the main area. Adding the deeper tan-taupe colour for a painted floor. The stronger grey-browns on the skirting & maybe the architrave. Windows and doors in the lightest shade of French Gray. The rest, like the reds & green saved for furniture, blinds and textiles like linen or raw silk.

It doesn't take long before we are living it in our minds eye and imagining the scheme as real. Now is the time to start looking at the colour samples, now we're dreaming it, we have a story and we are emotionally connected to it. And all that from one image.

Over the years I have built a resource library of my own, mainly photo's stored digitally online but also physical items too.  At the last count  I was up to around 10,000+ digital images. Technically it has never been easier and i'm now at my most productive. I go out and about on scouting days, through this great city of London. I ride the train & my Brompton bicycle, armed only with an i-phone. There is endless materials and objects for inspiration. Open an Image-Shack account for yourself, it's free. Get up-loading and building a library for your own future schemes. It really is so simple.

Lastly.....

The image at the top of the page is an Oswald Boateng jacket from his Spring-Summer 2011 collection. Shot in Bond Street W1 on one dark evening back in April (again taken with an i-phone) It stood out a mile off, so it had to go in.
The whole image is again a scheme of it's own. All the deep rich browns, tones of matt-gold and cream, all set off with that exquisite butter-fly bright turquoise-blue. I can easily see a neat apartment having a bedroom or a lounge like this. Add some reflective glass & natural wool, wood and waxed leather.

The possibilities and inspirations are endless, you just need to make time to look. Take images, send, save or delete them. Use your phone as a mobile reference library. All created by you.

In part III of this article, i'll show you how i've used paint colour-cards and the images to build a story board. The paint codes, the finishes and some of the projects from them.

You can also try this colour test  Farnsworth-Munsell 100-hue test, it's fun and it will also show you where your colour eye is most accurate .

Oh, and some very useful reading, Farrow & Ball's Living with Colour.

Meantime, feel free to ask me anything.


Mark

Choosing Paint Colours.

Through the eyes of a decorator. 

"The last place you want to look for the colour of your dreams, is on a paint chart"

I don't wish to undermine any of the paint producing companies out there.  They do work really hard, bringing us all their colours, very neatly presented, on handsome gate-folded cards.

Some of these charts & cards are so well produced, so desirable, that they are coveted by painters, designers & customers alike.
We guard them, less they go missing somehow.
And all that is great, it creates an image, a recognisable brand, but do they really work?

By the statement above I mean - do we really choose a colour from the card alone?

Basically no we don't.

There is a whole lot of pre-processing going on before we even look at the cards. We already have our own highly ordered set of colours buried deep in our psyche, a language built culturally and stored emotionally in our highly developed brains. A visual library if you like,  it's a store we've developed from childhood and continue adding to, reinforced & enhanced by our moods and feelings about ourselves, and perhaps surprisingly, how we want to feel too.

Remember, colour and the way we see it is a perception, a play of light, an illusion.

So with all that going on:- how do we make use of it; how do we tap into this and bring it into our conscious mind; how do we actually make sense of it?

Some choices are simple and instinctive, try this exercise:

The juiciest apple is green or red? *see answer below  But how do we know that?  Because we've been taught early on.  Oh, and a banana is definitely yellow, right? Except when it's green.

We've a mental image of a banana in yellow, because this is the ideal colour, it's ripe, delicious and ready to eat.  We've attached an emotion to it, we even say Banana Yellow to describe a colour.

Horizon: Do you see colours the same as me? a BBC programme illustrates this beautifully. Watch it if you can, it's a real eye opener.

In Part II of the article i'll go further into the methods i've been working with based on all this. It helps to expand our visual colour skills & i'll show you how i've personally tapped into this resource. With a little practice nearly anyone can develop awareness & confidence and it's the confidence that allows us to make better and informed choices.

For now....


Mark


The juicy apple question has no right or wrong answer. 
Though it does show you've selected a colour & attached a positive emotion to that choice.

Colour choice

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.  

~Aaron Rose

I've seen the light....

I'm often shown a paint chart, followed by "What do you think of this one" as someone points out one of the many shades, colours or hues on a card. 

Often I think it's fine, as a colour goes. But where that colour or shade works best in a decoration scheme is not so obvious.

Choosing a colour or a shaded down version near to white isn't exactly rocket science, but it does help if you have a handle on the science part, as it can be very helpful for making a colour choice work in a space.

As we know, a south facing room with decent sized windows will be bathed in warm morning light on a good day. Conversely, even on a good day a northern facing room is less illuminated and warm, why is that ? Of course it's the light but it's also the shape of that light and the direction it comes from that makes a difference.

The radiation from the sun; part of which we see as light, travels in waves. And it's the shape of the waves that determines how we see colour. Red/orange at the beginning of the spectrum has the longest wave length and blue/violet at the other end has the shortest.

The light in the early part of the day is warmer in colour due to our proximity to the sun producing the red orange and yellow colours of the spectrum . During the later part of the day as the sun is further away, the cooler colours of the spectrum, blue, green, indigo and violet become more apparent.

But how does all this relate to the colours we choose to paint our rooms and spaces?

As an example; if you painted two rooms with opposing north-south aspects in the exact same blue colour, the room that faced north would appear a more intense version of that blue. But why ?
Simply because when the sun light eventually comes round to the northerly aspect it would be in the short wave form due to the distance at that point in the day. The short wave form is the cooler blue part of the spectrum, so adding more blue light to an already blue room, thus making the colour grow as it were.

In other words the nearer the sun the warmer the colour range, the further the sun the cooler the colour range. * However, to put this into perspective. The wavelengths of visible light to the human eye lie between 400-700 nanometers. A nanometer (nm) = 1 billionth of a meter, which is the standard measurement used to express wavelength.


So, surely if you choose a light shade of near white it will be fine. Well firstly, all the shades of near white are really pared back colours all of their own. They play with the light in the same way albeit more subtly. There is a trend for muted greys and off whites for interior schemes. These are produced by mixing a range of high quality pigment colours and this is where the detail is important.

In classical colour mixing it is possible to blend a combination of tonal and complimentary colours to produce one final colour like French Gray. Now to achieve a grey colour you mix red and its spectrum opposite olive green. This into a white base with the addition of yellow ochre and lamp black produces a classic decorators colour French Gray.

So, when this grey colour is used in a room it will appear to change its tone and intensity depending on the light conditions. In the morning sun light it will show its greyness more apparently due to the red light wave in the light neutralising some pigments in the paint. But as the day goes on the room will appear more grey-green or grey-mauve  as the lightwaves change to draw the pigment in the paint colour. By dusk the whole room will have achieved a deeper shade of the cooler colour range in the spectrum, it will in the shadows take on a whole grey-geen or cool grey mauve tone of the final colour. All very calming and restful, all very encapsulating as a colour to live with.

The real deciding factor then is not the room or the colour, it's the light that shines through. It's what makes the real difference in the end.

Mark

The Recycled House.

Artists' Open House - Dulwich Festival 2011

I wholly recommend you take the time to visit to this living art piece. It is first and foremost a real home. It is also a living & ever changing installation piece. Conceived by the creative pair of Mark Hill & Kate Shipp.

The Dulwich Festival gives us a rare opportunity to see this both amusing & captivating space. Imagine a house decorated by Sir John Soane but sourced by Albert Steptoe. The interior is full of items saved literally from skips & scoured at boot sales. Items swapped, traded and made from up-cycled scrap, things that most of us would overlook.

It's also quite beautiful, almost museum like, though not overly precious. It is after all a family home for the couple & their two children.

They themselves describe the house as
"illustrating the possibility of living elegantly whilst reducing the environmental impact"
I think it forces you look at things in a new light too, it is a mirror of how disposable we've become as a society. It pulls you up, it makes you think. I know I feel better for it.

In the photo, Kate Shipp & Mark Hill

I've personally been to the house a number of times and each time I discover a new part I'd overlooked before. Though it may well have never been there in the first place, in all it gives you a heady flood of images and objects to view; be warned though, this is no trip to Ikea.

Also much of what you see is for sale. Mark is a working artist & trader, so don't be surprised to find price tags on your tea cups or cake stands. Also ask to see his other work too; it's all there on the walls, with much more hidden in the plan chests.

Of course all this looking can be both exciting and exhausting. So, to revive your spirits Kate & Mark set up shop in the garden, serving tea & home-baked cakes on alice-in-wonderland style cake stands ( yes,  Kate & Mark make and sell these too )
All this reviving refreshment served in the tranquility of the garden, gets you ready for another look at this truly unique house.

Lastly, there is a little Pop-Up market to feast your eyes on. Bring some cash or a cheque book as this The Recycled House is a gem of a visit.

Open on 7-8th May and the 14-15th May

11:30-5pm
No need to book


The house is at
4 Longton Avenue SE26 *click on for a map near to the beautiful Sydenham Wells park

It's easy to get to by car, bus or train  * see links

By train, head for Sydenham in SE26 on the fantastic new overground Train Service and it's about a 10 minute walk from the station.
Buses from Crystal Palace run every 10 minutes.

Contact details

shipp.hill@virgin.net
www.therecycledhouse.co.uk

And, maybe I'll see you there....

Mark

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