Emma Louise Payne presents The Objects We Live By inside London townhouse
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.
The five-storey Sussex Square townhouse, Seventy-Six, is hosting work by Payne along with David Irwin, Studio BC Joshua, Brogan Cox and Nat Maks, Gather Glass, Daniel Mullin, Atelier Thirty Four and Granite + Smoke.
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.
"This exhibition is not about showcasing objects as isolated artefacts, but about understanding how they settle into our lives and surroundings," said Payne.
"Objects can feel abstract in a showroom or gallery, almost like they're floating in space," she told Dezeen.
"Here, you see them in the context of everyday life – 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."
The townhouse is not just Payne's atelier; it's also the home of her parents.
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.
"I was constantly dragging suitcases of ceramics back and forth between London and our family farm," Payne explained.
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.
"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."
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.
Visitors entered through the former garage, which houses the atelier. Here, wooden easels offer an introduction to the exhibiting designers and makers.
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, and objects by design agency Atelier Thirty Four.
Focal points here include the dining table, where Irwin's celebrated Hardy Chair 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.
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.
On the next level up, Payne invited Blake Carlson-Joshua of Studio BC Joshua to take over her father's painting studio. His sculptural and intricately painted furniture provides a contemporary counterpoint to the artworks on the wall.
The remaining contributors each took over a bedroom. Glassmaking studio Gather Glass created a space filled with colour, including a new series of stripy bulbous lamps, while artist Nat Maks and designer Brogan Cox – co-founder of the Sebastian Cox studio and workshop – furnished a room with their ink-marbled Tide Tables.
Textile studio Granite and Smoke took over the attic bedroom, creating a strong geometric feel with the Infinite Loops rugs, Shapes wall hanging and Large Check quilt.
"We thought carefully about which makers suited which rooms, so each space feels intentional and personal," Payne told Dezeen.
"BC Joshua's work very much straddles the border of art and design, so placing it amongst my dad's paintings felt playful, whereas placing Granite and Smoke in the attic felt more cosy and lived in."
The attic bedroom also features an en-suite designed by Payne, featuring a tile mural inspired by a Greek statue on display in the adjacent stairwell.
Payne said the exhibition will be the first of many, as she intends to host two exhibitions in the house a year, during London Craft Week in May and London Design Festival in September.
"I want the exhibitions at Seventy-Six to grow year by year, for it to become a place people come back to because they know there will always be something thoughtful and exciting to see," said Payne.
"Homes are products of our lives; they reveal what we choose to live with, what we can't part with, and even what we tolerate because it carries meaning," she continued.
"Showing work in this context makes those choices more visible – and I think it helps people imagine design as something they can live with, not just admire."
The Objects We Live By is on show from 13 to 21 September as part of London Design Festival. See Dezeen Events Guide for a dedicated festival guide, as well as other events taking place around the world.
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