At shep&kyles design we are lucky to work with some incredible furniture designers and suppliers. Frequently we adapt and personalise furnishings for projects; but for chalet-hôtel Blythe we went one step further and collaborated with two leading furniture design companies in the UK, on conceived and designed pieces specifically for the hôtel.
The first of these collaborations was with Jay&Co. Founded by Jay Blades MBE – who you may have seen as the host of BBC1’s The Repair Shop – Jay&Co are a furniture company that specialise in one-off designs often using recycled and reclaimed materials. Sustainability and environmental credentials are a core part of their company, along with beautiful design, UK craftsmanship and a pop of bright colour.
For this project, we designed three products together. The first being bespoke cube poufs for the chalet-hôtel bedrooms – the bedrooms being named after ski pistes in the Portes du Soleil, as you will see below.
Practical and durable, these cubes are designed to slot under the console tables in the bedrooms, and especially in the smaller rooms to provide extra seating (or somewhere to throw clothes!). Each cube is custom designed for each bedroom.
In Charniaz, the room colour palette is dark green, with a copper freestanding bath. The cube is therefore upholstered in a soft grey-green commercial grade velvet with a pop of Designers Guild orange in the “ball” in one corner of the top face of the pouf. This zing of bright colour echoes the copper tub and the copper/bronze bedside pendant lights.
In Le Fornet, the sides of the pouf are clad in stunning striped Designers Guild fabric, with a grey metallic top and teal “ball”.
In Conche and Chavanette, the colour palette is once again Studio Green and Purbeck Stone from Farrow and Ball, but this time with gold accents. In this bedroom, the main cube fabric is the same Warwick velvet as in Charniaz, but the “ball” is a soft gold from Designers Guild.
All fabrics in the bedrooms – all upholstery and cushions – were either from Warwick, Designer’s Guild or Timorous Beasties (one of our favourite companies, who also have a long-standing relationship with Jay&Co!).
There are freestanding baths in the three of the bedrooms (as well as walk-in showers in the en-suite bathrooms). For these rooms the client requested a small side table that toiletries could be placed on, adjacent to the bath. We discussed this with Jade from Jay&Co, and came up with the idea of a small tripod stool, with a small lower shelf as well as the top of the stool. One of Jay&Co’s signature details is a “leg dip” paint accent on their reclaimed chairs, and we wanted to have this identifiable feature on our product.
In bedrooms Ranfoilly and Grand Paradis, we created a slightly more contemporary feel for the stools, in keeping with the modern Hidrobox baths. The stools are painted a glossy black with a blue leg-dip – a brighter pop to the deep Farrow and Ball Hague Blue walls.
The mezzanine bar with its stunning roof terrace is one of the jewels of chalet-hôtel Blythe. Nestled at the top of the building, overlooking the double-height dining room, we created a cosy bar area, with lots of comfy seating that could be arranged into groups according to client wishes. We collaborated with Jay&Co on a simple oak side table with a quirky shape and shadow gap at the base to give a “floating sensation”. These are solid and substantial enough so that they cannot be knocked over, but they are also easy to move as required.
Our second collaboration was with Esti Barnes from Top Floor rugs in Chelsea Harbour. Esti and I have worked together for well over a decade (I am sure that neither of us want to work out for exactly how long!) and I am used to customising her beautiful world-class rugs for individual projects. However, for chalet-hôtel Blythe we went one step further.
The architecture of the building is complicated, to say the least! Rooms have angles and curves, and the design is much more complex than the typical alpine chalet. I wanted to specify a more organic shape with the rugs. I have seen this done on a few other projects, but these seemed to me that they were plain rugs or even lengths of carpet cut to various curved shapes. Our approach was very different. We selected various designs from the award-winning Top Floor collection, and then re-designed them to specific shapes, sizes and colour combinations – each one referencing the design, dimensions and colour palette of the room. The photo above is of Ranfoilly.
In the Conche bedroom, the main rug colour is a warm neutral, but the rug has a gold design in silk woven through the wool. Soft and sumptuous, the rug beautifully accents the gold room accessories.
In Grand Paradis, the circular patterns on the rug echo other design elements in the room – the large back-lit segment mirror, the trio of Bocci pendants above the floating console table and the Occhio bedside pendant lamps. The fabulous quirky Hippo chairs and custom Jay&Co pouf (round for this room) continue the theme. The rug plays with pile depths, and is gorgeously tactile underfoot.
Our collaboration continued in the main chalet-hôtel salon. For this room we chose the icicle rug from Esti’s Wintertime collection. In a stunning off-white, there is a large rectangular rug in the main sofa area, and two smaller freeform shapes in the more intimate seating areas nearer the fireplace.
These rugs are shaped to fit the smaller seating spaces, and also feature the icicle design. Two swivelling Walter Knoll Bao armchairs sit atop one of the rugs, whilst next to the fireplace there are two iconic Gubi Pacha lounge chairs and a Gubi Pacha ottoman. The side tables are Timothy Oulton Xylems.
On first glance the rugs are clearly beautiful, but a closer examination reveals the detail in the design and manufacture. The photograph above shows the complexity of Esti’s design and the quality of the workmanship to the very edge of each rug. The colours were carefully chosen to complement the salon furnishings.
The mezzanine bar features three Esti rugs. Again, in bespoke freeform shapes, these Tugra hand tufted rugs are another of my very favourite designs. Sitting atop them, in addition to the Jay&Co side tables, there are leather Saddle chairs and shaggy Pastekh stools from Timothy Oulton.
Thank-you so much Jade, Esti and your teams for your vision, creativity and hard work in collaborating on these products. You have been simply fabulous and I can’t wait for the next opportunity!
Many thanks also go to Gio Fleming, Damian McArthur and Stéphane Gaultier for the photography – I was equally privileged to have amazing collaborations with all three of you!
