Things are winding down here at Sight Unseen HQ, where as of tomorrow we’ll be on a much-needed summer holiday for two weeks. So today, we bring you an appropriately tiny story about a very tiny project: an office by Studio Swine in London’s Soho neighborhood where three people share a 100 square-foot space. We first learned about the duo — RCA product-design grads Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves — during this year’s Noho Design District, where they showed a series of golden geometric button covers in the Once Removed show at our 22 Bond space. We were further intrigued by works like their recycled-plastic Sea Chair. But if you read our story yesterday on Kent Fonn Skåre, you already know why we find this simple office scheme particularly endearing — not only does it take advantage of pegboard to maximize wall space, but it’s also inspired by “New York Art Deco meets Memphis,” say the designers, and it uses a freewheeling mix of contrasting materials like marble, colored steel, linoleum, and reclaimed wood. After reading a bit more below from Murakami and Groves about how they constructed the various elements of the office, stay tuned for your chance to purchase their geometric marmoleum wall pouches, coming soon to the Sight Unseen shop!

“We tried to maximize the feeling of space with a grand marble-tiled floor and a floating desk to free up the leg area. The parquet desk we made from reclaimed mahogany flooring, locally salvaged from an old high school. We love beautiful tropical hardwoods, but we for us, sourcing it new wouldn’t have been as beautiful. Finding this reclaimed wood has been a great guilt-free solution for us, and the grain is stunning once planed and polished up.”

“The shelves are made from the offcuts of oak trees when they’re sawn square, and we sourced them from our local woodyard in Kent. We love the colours in the bark, and we used thin red metal brackets to bring in a little industrial feel to counter the rustic wood.”

“Marmoleum floor tiles are type of linoleum made from 97% natural material, yet they look fantastically fake and bold in pattern and color.”
“We fell in love with marmoleum and wanted desperately to use it somewhere, so we decided make all of the office accessories, cabinets, and box files with it.”

“We made the pouches by sewing together marmoleum in geometric shapes to contrast with the utilitarian feel of the grey pegboard and the traditional feel of the mahogany and marble.”