June in London is shaping up to be a veritable buffet of design inspiration. From the London Festival of Architecture, WOW!house and London Gallery Weekend, there’s plenty for the eyes to feast on. Get plotting and booking now to make the most of it all.
Design discoveries
WOW!house returns to the Design Centre at Chelsea Harbour (June 2 to July 2, tickets from £15) for a month-long immersive spectacle. Across a showhouse made up of 22 rooms and outdoor spaces, interior designers get to share their creativity — minus the diva demands of clients — and you can experience what it’s like to live in the spaces they’ve designed.
In Kennington, gallery and design store 8 Holland Street is extending its London Craft Week exhibition, entitled South of the River, until June 13. Explore mixed mediums of design across two townhouses by the likes of lighting specialist Palefire and art curator Wondering People (243-245 Kennington Lane, SE11, open Thur-Sun).
In Clerkenwell, meanwhile, it’s free to check out Crafting the Everyday: 300 Years of Nara Meets Danish Modernism (16A Bowling Green Lane, EC1, until June 16). The collaboration between Japanese heritage brand Nakagawa and furniture maker Carl Hansen & Søn (where the event is being staged) sees a series of lived-in interiors shine a spotlight on longevity and the value of the homemade. And not forgetting the London Festival of Architecture (June 1-30), which this year takes the theme of ‘belonging’. Expect tours, performances and open studios.
Gone shopping
Popping up at 321 King’s Road, SW3, from June 10-13 is Folie Chambre, the Yorkshire-based design studio, where you can coo over founder Natalie Tillison’s discerning curation of mid-20th century finds from across the Continent. It will also feature the Made By Folie range of mirrors, tables and lighting crafted in Yorkshire.
Over at the National Portrait Gallery, you can buy a slice of Grayson Perry, left, minus the art-collector prices. The shop’s range (starting from £18), which includes bone-china plates, a mug and a table runner, features details from his self-portrait, A Map of Days, which you can see at the NPG.
Take it outside
At long last, outdoor fabrics have had a refined makeover thanks to interior designer Michael S. Smith (of Obama White House fame). The American has teamed up with Zoffany to create a range of stripes, florals and plains, with the British brand’s archives of French chintz and Japanese silks providing the blueprint. Everything is printed in England, too (from £100 psqm, zoffany.design).
To spruce up garden furniture and woodwork, look to award-winning garden designer Pollyanna Wilkinson’s collab with natural paint firm Edward Bulmer. Three nature-inspired shades, named Helleborus, Thicket and Shadow, will work in any setting (from £22, edwardbulmerpaint.co.uk). Get inspired for your own project with London Open Gardens (June 6-7, £26.15 for an adult weekend ticket). More than 120 sites are set to open, including the usually locked garden squares of Notting Hill and Kensington.
Snooping around
If the thought of entering an art gallery fills you with fear, mark London Gallery Weekend in your diary (June 5-7, londongalleryweekend.art). More than 120 of the city’s top galleries, including Alison Jacques and Sadie Coles HQ, throw open their doors to the general public, making this monde feel more democratic.
Meanwhile, those with pockets deep enough will be snapping up a stay at the Dorchester’s plush Oliver Messel Terrace Suite. Luke Edward Hall has furnished the space, which looks out onto Hyde Park, with a covetable mix of antiques and contemporary pieces. And it’s just around the corner from Mount Street Neighbourhood Summer Festival, where an exhibition from label By Walid is being staged, showcasing one-of-a-kind homewares and sculptures crafted from historic textiles (June 15-20, closed Sunday).
Book club
Coinciding with a major retrospective at Tate Modern is a reprint of Frida Kahlo at Home (Frances Lincoln, £20), a look inside the spaces that inspired the painter. Through the words of Suzanne Barbezat and archive pictures, this visual biography traces Kahlo’s life from her childhood in Coyoacán through her student years in Mexico City to her time in the US and her return to La Casa Azul, now a historic house museum.
For those feeling crafty, Free-Form Quilts and Patchwork (Batsford, £25) by Kent-based textile artist Jessie Cutts is an inspirational guide to creating bespoke quilts outside the confines of precise patterns. It’s ideal for the patchwork-curious who are seeking a welcoming approach.
