Dezeen Magazine

Charcoal sketches cover the walls of The Drawing Room by Faye and Erica Toogood

London Design Festival 2015: London-based Studio Toogood has created an autobiographical "drawing room" filled with furniture, clothing and personal objects at Somerset House (+ slideshow).

Installed as part of the 10 Designers in the West Wing exhibition, The Drawing Room is a collaboration between sisters Faye and Erica Toogood.

The Drawing Room by Studio Toogood

"This year we've chosen domestic spaces as a starting point for both of our projects," said Faye Toogood, who has also designed an installation at the V&A museum with her sister for this year's London Design Festival.

The Drawing Room by Studio Toogood

"The Drawing Room is really the first time we're uniting an interior space with objects, clothes and sculpture," she told Dezeen.

The Drawing Room by Studio Toogood

The term drawing room dates back to the 1670s, and was typically used to define the quarters within a large house in which guests would be entertained.

The phrase has a double meaning in the installation, where visitors are encouraged to sit down and relax in the space, which has been lined with tarpaulin sheets covered with charcoal drawings to evoke the feeling of a derelict country house.

The Drawing Room by Studio Toogood

Similarly to the siblings' Cloakroom installation at the V&A, the project unites their practices of furniture and fashion design.

The Drawing Room by Studio Toogood

In the centre of the room, charcoal-hued Roly Poly chairs from Faye's Assemblage 4 collection are placed around a handwoven rug that has been strung together from fragments of canvas and rope.

The Drawing Room by Studio Toogood

Garments from Studio Toogood's most recent fashion collection hang from a metal rail, and a vintage cabinet is filled with objects that were a starting point for the project.

The Drawing Room by Studio Toogood

"This is a very personal space to us," said Faye, who previously designed gender-neutral retail spaces at Selfridges. "It's a fictional but autobiographical room that is filled with objects, scenes, walks and places that we remember as children."

The Drawing Room by Studio Toogood

Recordings of birdsong play into the room were influenced by Faye and Erica's father, adding to the autobiographical element of the project.

The Drawing Room by Studio Toogood

"Our father's an anthropologist," said Faye. "We grew up listening to him trying to remember all the bird noises."

The Drawing Room by Studio Toogood

10 Designers in the West Wing takes place at Somerset House from 21 to 27 September 2015. Exhibitors include Patternity, which turned its monochrome graphics into a 3D installation to create a "giant patterned playground".

The Drawing Room by Studio Toogood

Studio Toogood's The Cloakroom at the V&A features 150 oversized foam coats for visitors to wear while following a trail around the museum, which is also hosting a giant crystal zoetrope and a tower of tiny ceramic shops during London Design Festival 2015.

Photography is by French+Tye.