{"id":540,"date":"2025-09-19T15:15:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T15:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/?p=540"},"modified":"2025-09-23T09:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T09:51:11","slug":"emma-louise-payne-presents-the-objects-we-live-by-inside-london-townhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/19\/emma-louise-payne-presents-the-objects-we-live-by-inside-london-townhouse\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Louise Payne presents The Objects We Live By inside London townhouse"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"BC<\/div>\n

British ceramicist Emma Louise Payne has opened the doors to her new London atelier, where she has invited seven designers and makers to each take over a different room for London Design Festival<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The five-storey Sussex Square townhouse, Seventy-Six, is hosting work by Payne<\/a> along with David Irwin, Studio BC Joshua, Brogan Cox and Nat Maks, Gather Glass, Daniel Mullin, Atelier Thirty Four and Granite + Smoke.<\/p>\n

\"Ceramics
Furniture by David Irwin accompanies Emma Louise Payne’s ceramics in the dining room<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Titled The Objects We Live By, the exhibition aims to show how design objects become part of people’s day-to-day lives, rather than just things to be looked at.<\/p>\n

“This exhibition is not about showcasing objects as isolated artefacts, but about understanding how they settle into our lives and surroundings,” said Payne.<\/p>\n

\"Ceramics
Payne’s London Plane collection includes tableware and candles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Objects can feel abstract in a showroom or gallery, almost like they’re floating in space,” she told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

“Here, you see them in the context of everyday life \u2013 alongside family furniture, inherited oddities, and the compromises of a real home. You see how a table or textile might sit with a mix of styles, or how an object might signal memory, taste, or habit.”<\/p>\n

\"Atelier
A pink kitchen hosts Atelier Thirty Four’s aluminium Gradini candleholders<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The townhouse is not just Payne’s atelier; it’s also the home of her parents.<\/p>\n

After moving back to the UK from Denmark, where she studied for her master’s degree, Payne initially set up her ceramics studio at her childhood home in Oxfordshire, but the location proved challenging.<\/p>\n

“I was constantly dragging suitcases of ceramics back and forth between London and our family farm,” Payne explained.<\/p>\n

\"Vases
The hallway hosts sculptural vases by designer and artist Daniel Mullin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This prompted her parents to relocate to London, where they could enjoy more time enjoying exhibitions and theatre, while also giving Payne a permanent base for meeting clients and showing work.<\/p>\n

“It was very much my dad’s idea,” said Payne. “He used to be a photographer, so he’s always been very supportive of my creative career.”<\/p>\n

\"BC
Studio BC Joshua installed furniture in Payne’s father’s painting studio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This exhibition marks the first time the ceramicist has opened up the whole house to the public, with exhibits placed alongside her parents’ furniture and artworks.<\/p>\n

Visitors entered through the former garage, which houses the atelier. Here, wooden easels offer an introduction to the exhibiting designers and makers.<\/p>\n

\"Gather
Gather Glass created stripy, bulbous lamps for one of the bedrooms<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The tour begins in the kitchen, dining room and lounge, where Payne’s own work is paired with furniture and lighting by designer David Irwin<\/a>, and objects by design agency Atelier Thirty Four<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Focal points here include the dining table, where Irwin’s celebrated Hardy Chair<\/a> is paired with Payne’s colourful London Plane tableware, and the kitchen, where Atelier Thirty Four’s anodised aluminium Gradini candleholders pop against a backdrop of bright pink cabinets.<\/p>\n

\"Gather
The glassmaking studio also presented colourful vases and cocktail glasses<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The hallway hosts sculptural vases by designer and artist Daniel Mullin, moulded from a mixture of resin, sand and iron oxide to create unique, textural forms.<\/p>\n

On the next level up, Payne invited Blake Carlson-Joshua of Studio BC Joshua<\/a> to take over her father’s painting studio. His sculptural and intricately painted furniture provides a contemporary counterpoint to the artworks on the wall.<\/p>\n