Never Been Seen: Edition One

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“I’m crying, it’s so beautiful. I know this might sound strange, but it reminds me of when the forest takes over abandoned palaces. So untouched by humans the fairies come in.” - the Client

The interior design of this room is an incredibly precious gem. We wanted to share it in the first edition of Never Been Seen because of how unique it is. 

With this room, we wanted to create a grotto - it is a very small space that is entered into from a very big open space - a grand main entrance hall which reaches high up through the house. It is a huge ocean of a room and so like the ocean, we wanted to create this little cave - an inlet or grotto with knobbly, stalactites dripping off the ceiling. 

We embraced the smallness by really leaning in. I like to capitalize on that feeling of smallness. Inspired by some of the amazing plasterwork in the rest of the house, we decided to give this little room some of that opulence - but in a slightly bonkers fashion. 

We took sections of traditional plasterwork, broke them up into pieces and recreated a totally new abundant forest scene.We sourced much of the plasterwork from Plaster Mouldings Direct. Elisabeth Hoblyn, the project manager on this job, and all round creative legend, was able to sculpt them together in plaster into something completely unique. Elisabeth is also a ceramicist and artist in her free time. Because she works with clay she wasn’t too afraid to get involved with the sculpted plaster leaves to pull it all together into this bespoke masterpiece. 

Zhero logistics were amazing to work with - attaching this much plasterwork to a ceiling in this way is incredibly challenging - we couldn’t risk having any of it fall off and onto people’s heads! Zhero ensured all the work was safely done and as a result much of it has been drilled in. The work that has gone into creating this is pretty extreme.

You might notice that also included are some little surprises - biscuits stuck to the ceiling! This is very specific - some of the original plaster works in this house have wheat sheaves to hint at food-based abundance. We’ve played off that with our own playful plaster biscuits that have found their way into the scene. 

The overall opulence is inspired by the Rococo mirror which the client has owned for a long time, but we love it! 

The blind is a playful take on a venetian brocade by Pierre Frey. It has 2 colours. Blue and pink. A similar blue to the walls but not the same. Rather than colour matching, we used slightly different but complementary colours in order to enhance both elements. 

The blue paint on the walls is deliberately calming. I wanted to create a big impact in this small room. The blue elevates the plasterwork. This blue takes it from being a slap in the face to a dream-like state! Calm and ethereal. The white and indulgent plasterwork with the blue is a marriage made in heaven. It’s like being in the sky. Otherworldly. It feels really special.

If you love this blue paint, it will be in the Rachel Chudley Colour collection launching later this year. Find out more about Rachel Chudley Colour here.