New Irish lighting brand House Five elegantly balances Japanese and Scandi influences
Inspired by Danish and Japanese design icons of the mid-twentieth century, each piece is handmade in a home workshop in Glasnevin by couple Luke Conlan and Gauthier Gilbert.
In 1616, Candlelight Law required every fifth house in Dublin to put a candle in the window to light the path of walkers after dusk. Now, over 400 years later, a new handmade lighting brand whose ethos is “harmony through design” brings that little-known piece of history into the present day with a nod to the past in its name.
House Five is inspired by Danish and Japanese design icons of the mid-twentieth century, and each piece is handmade in a home workshop in Glasnevin. Behind the brand is couple Luke Conlan and Gauthier Gilbert, who began experimenting with woodwork and rice paper in late 2019, and continued right through the worst days of the pandemic.
Though neither have formal training in design, Luke learned woodwork from his dad who was always tinkering around with tools, while Gauthier attended Beaux-Arts in France two days a week for 14 years.
If you’ve picked up the Autumn/Winter issue of IMAGE Interiors, you may have already admired the couple’s handsome home. Though the star of their Alexander Strain-built house is perhaps the beautifully restrained teak-panelled kitchen extension – designed by Ryan W Kennihan and made by SM Wood Design – the meticulous restoration of the original house by Luke and Gauthier is very special too.
While documenting their DIY on Instagram @redbrickrenaisssance, the couple restored the original iron railings and floorboards, stripped doors and architraves of decades-thick paint, refurbed original 1960s Parker Knoll armchairs found on Done Deal, and even built a workshop in the garden using reclaimed bricks from the back of the house with learnings gleaned from Gauthier’s stone mason grandad.
It’s not surprising the pair considered interior design as careers, but being unable to visit client homes during lockdowns put that plan to rest. The couple clearly live and breathe craft and design, and spend their spare time finding mid-century furniture in unlikely places, while also sourcing from antique dealers and flea markets.
“We always visit the Puces Saint Ouen whenever we visit Paris, and on one of our visits back in 2015-ish, we saw a vintage Dornstab lamp by JT Kalmar and we were both blown away,” recalls Gauthier. A seed was sown.
“We’re both really driven by the desire to create. Even if our creations aren’t necessarily that successful, the creative process is what really drives us,” says Luke. “We’ve explored lots of other crafts like pottery, weaving and metal work, and Gauthier is a talented painter. Lamp-making is our true passion though.”
Though they work closely in the design phase, when it comes to the making Luke works on the sculptural wood bases in ash, sapele and walnut, while Gauthier makes the shades in rice paper from mulberry trees and cane rattan.
The couple experimented with a lot of different woods when developing the range, including oak, teak and cherry wood, but eventually landed on this trio. “This is because they are sustainable, incredibly hard-wearing, have very unique graining, and most importantly, there is incredible diversity in all three woods,” explains Luke.
The shape of the shades emerged from a sphere. “This was the most simple and elegant shade-type we could think of. We used this as a starting point and adapted the shape of the shade to work with the wooden forms,” says Gauthier. “La Bulle, for example, was elongated to speak to the curve of the lamp stem, while La Muse is more organic and slightly more fluid. Each of the lamps evolved similarly.”
For the most part, the lamps are task-based, for desks or for reading, and available to order with a lead time. “We will continue like this for the foreseeable and introduce more products, including a new range of lamps, in the near future,” says Luke. “We’re also preparing to launch our line of scented candles, which we’re really excited about.”
House Five will be at Gifted in the RDS this December 6-10. The couple are keen to expand the business by participating in some more European design exhibitions in 2024, and are aiming to launch a second range of floor and table lamps by the summer.
“Our ambition is to make pieces that we are proud to have our name attached to. We set out to do something different in the lighting space and if we want to achieve this we have to keep refining our craft and designing beautiful lamps, that’s our ambition,” says Gauthier. “We are constantly working on new designs and creating; if we can continue doing that we would be happy.”
As demand increases – all five designs sold out within three weeks – and the colder weather sets in, making the wood bases in the small home workshop becomes more challenging. “We have a limited space to work in, which was fine when we were just making lamps for friends and family, but now that we’re taking orders from the public, space is very limited,” says Luke. “Luckily, woodwork is quite manual so I keep warm by shifting big sheets of wood around.”
Also Read
