What do you get if you cross 108 silicone breasts with a clawfoot bathtub? A strange question, ordinarily, but we’re not in ordinary territory. At Maison Colbert—the astonishing East London home of celebrated artists Philip and Charlotte Colbert—the answer can be found upstairs, basking in the butter-yellow glow of the lobster bathroom. Obviously, you get the ‘Boob Bath.’
The home’s designer, Angus Buchanan, reassures me that it’s common for visiting guests (and Vogue journalists) to give one of the boobs a curious prod as they snoop around: “Yep, people tend to do that,” he laughs. Admittedly, it’s a piece that looks remarkably at home alongside the neighboring bedroom’s giant uterus-shaped headboard.
This theatrical funhouse with its acid-trip bedrooms is a flexible gallery space for Philip and Charlotte’s significant art collection, including their own symbolic objets, sculptures, and furniture. Maison Colbert is a space for entertaining, a triple-height indoor garden paradise, and a fully functioning, comfortable family home all at once.
Still, it was a tall order to find a kindred spirit who could burrow into the minds of the Colberts and bring their madcap vision to life inside a row of Victorian townhouses. But the couple found exactly that in Buchanan Studio: a husband-and-wife design practice, led by Angus Buchanan.
Philip is certain that they found the best man for the job. “Angus and Buchanan Studio have been amazing—it was a really positive and collaborative experience,” he says. “The project took much longer than first planned. It was a labor of love that developed a lot over time, but we always loved the idea of creating more bespoke artwork elements and making the house an extension of our artistic practices.”
A complete structural transformation by Chris Dyson Architects meant five dilapidated brick terraced houses were opened up into one vast live-work-play space, with a Tardis-like series of rooms that vary wildly in scale. On the lower floors, there are double-height spaces fit for parties, while the top-floor bedrooms were intentionally designed to be smaller in size, retaining a sense of the original Victorian building’s proportions.
There are four recurring symbols that appear everywhere in Maison Colbert (most prominently in the bedrooms) and they’re integral to every design element of the project. They are the Lobster, the Uterus, the Cactus, and the Eye, each of which has deep significance to the work of Philip and Charlotte. “We both have one defining symbol and then secondary symbols”, Philip explains. “The uterus symbol is Charlotte’s, she uses it throughout her work, from her feminist psychological horror film She Will to her abstract female body sculptures.”
And what about the cheerful cartoonish lobsters that appear everywhere from the mosaic bathroom floor to the claw-shaped desk? “The lobster is my artistic persona, I became an artist when I became a lobster—it’s the central character in my paintings, sculpture, and metaverse. Together, all the symbols combine in the spirit of surrealism at home. The lobster telephone, for example, is my version of the house phone, and Charlotte’s Uterus becomes a bed or her giant eye becomes a coffee table.”
With a background in set design and a penchant for drama (the Buchanan Studio founders emerged into their own wedding through a cloud of pink smoke, aboard a swan pedalo), Angus worked closely with the Colberts over the course of four years, and as the project evolved, no opportunity for whimsy was overlooked. Armed with visual references including La Colombe d’Or hotel (Philip and Charlotte’s favorite) and Tim Walker’s photography, Maison Colbert—playfully named as a nod to Charlotte’s French heritage—was transformed into something fantastical.
The size of the house (over 5000 square feet) combined with the pressure to expand upon Charlotte and Philip’s surrealist themes could have been overwhelming for even a seasoned interior designer, but it was a dream project for Buchanan Studio. “Our favorite thing is to work with creative, visionary clients and Philip and Charlotte were incredible people to collaborate with,” Angus explains. “Throughout the years working closely together on Maison Colbert, they inspired creativity to flourish and encouraged imaginative thinking with no boundaries, which is a true joy for a designer.”
Turn one corner, and you’re greeted with a scene straight from a Wes Anderson film: a hotel concierge desk, complete with bespoke tassel keys for each bedroom and a bar filled with classic French spirits. The lingering air of a grand old hotel continues in the reclaimed Iroko wood kitchen, where everything from the cutlery and crockery to napkins and stationery has been commissioned to incorporate either the lobster or the Maison Colbert logo (it turns out Buchanan Studio created a full brand identity for the house).
The level of exacting detail that Angus points out during our whistle-stop tour is head-spinning: He explains that the ironmongery for the staircase was custom-made, and then laid in a field until it had weathered and gained just the right amount of patination. “It was important for me to ground the building with these classical details and sense of faded grandeur before we layered it up with the fun bits and pop art,” he says. “I wanted it to feel timeless.” Philip agrees that, although the home is essentially brand new, it was important to create a sense of provenance. “We wanted the house to have the feeling of many layers of history, so we incorporated details that alluded to an imaginary past—giving the sense that it could have once been an industrial factory space, which wouldn’t be out of place in the historic Spitalfields area,” he adds.
Even inside the lift (of course there’s a lift), every element is bespoke, including the acid-etched lobster brasswork on the door. There are more subtle elements to the home, however, as seen in the primary bedroom, which is more serene than the other Crayola-bright bedrooms. It has a large walk-in closet and a secret study, while Charlotte Colbert’s metalwork ‘Love’ bed takes center stage.
The books on display in the bedrooms have traditional leather bound covers and appear decades old—that is until you notice their titles, such as A Short Introduction to Lobsters, that were dreamt up especially to fit the theme of each room. There are tongue-in-cheek lobster artworks in the style of Dali or Warhol, uterus-shaped mirrors, hidden doors, and eyes peering down at you from ceiling beams or stained glass windows.
“Working closely with Philip and Charlotte, we built on what they had started,” says Angus. “It was like, here’s a thread, let’s yank it and see where we get to.” In this home, however, nothing is zany for zany’s sake: each element has been carefully and intentionally created with purpose. It serves as a lasting testament to the pin-sharp vision and collaborative efforts of Philip and Charlotte Colbert and Buchanan Studio—even if their restless creative energy ensures it will only continue to evolve.
