Master of the minimal

Nicole Swengley5 April 2012
The Weekender

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Party planning just moved up a notch. The man whom celebrities now choose to create a total party experience is Bangkok-born Ou Baholyodhin, currently the coolest design guru in town. The Corrs took advantage of Baholyodhin's genius for designing and calmly co-ordinating an entire event - music, lighting, image projection, VIP passes, coat tags, staff uniforms, special furniture - for the launch party for their last album; Madonna has hired him to plan her end-of-tour party in July.

"I love these events, even though they are extremely hard work," says Baholyodhin. "I'm an impatient person and I like to see something I've designed happen immediately, which you don't when you're designing restaurants, shop interiors or residential property." His speciality is the creation of sensational atmospheres. "We once turned the Royal College of Art into a New York nightclub for a one-night party for Warner Bros," he says. "We painted the walls pink, purple and lilac, laid polka-dot floor-coverings and installed a bar and dance floor lighting. The party ended at 2.30am. By 8am, the place was back to normal."

Party organising is just one string to Baholyodhin's bow. Now 35, he studied furniture and product design at Kingston University and at Les Ateliers ENSCI in Paris. In 1995, his Doormouse door-stop won an award in the Muji design competition and, using the prize money, he set up a design studio in London. You have probably perched on his stools at the K-bar, and shopped in stores he's designed for retailers such as Joseph.

Now Baholyodhin has turned his attention to the domestic interior. His portfolio spans not only furniture (on sale at The Conran Shop and direct from his studio) but also ceramics and textiles. He is currently working with Thai silk manufacturer Jim Thompson on designs which should hit London shops next year; also in the shops will be his minimal white ceramic tableware designed for the Thai company Propaganda. Sick of your bog-standard bathroom suite? Lauffen, the Swiss sanitaryware manufacturer, has commissioned him to design a Japanese-influenced bath, basin and loo. You can view his range of cushions and rugs at next week's House and Garden Fair at Olympia, which offers a flavour of Baholyodhin's personal style. Here he has created a calm, Zen-like space filled with pod-style leather and suede cushions and tactile rugs with amoebic designs inspired by the mobiles of the modernist sculptor Alexander Calder.

The rugs, available from the Rug Company, are designed to be fitted together to form a runner, or used individually as bedside mats. They are even small and light enough to take on a picnic, as are the fuchsia floor cushions designed for Alma Home.

"I love the idea of mobility," says Baholyodhin. "The word furniture is often translated as 'mobile' in other languages, for example in French or Spanish. It's a reminder that furnishings are flexible and transient."

His cool design approach also accounts for bespoke furnishing commissions from those who admire his easy-living minimal style (he's now designing furniture for Mel C's Hampstead home).

"My pieces are practical and minimal," he says. "They fit in so easily with more dramatic furnishings that people often fail to notice them. I don't have an ego problem with that, it's the intangible experience that counts."

The House and Garden Fair runs from 28 June to 1 July at Olympia. Admission, £12 in advance, £14 on the door, £5 for children under 16. Ticket hotline 0870 121 2525. Ou Baholyodhin will give an hour's talk on design at 3.15pm on 29 June.

Ou Baholyodhin Studio (by appointment only) 020 7426 0666.

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