Inside an Art-Filled 500-Square-Foot Victorian Flat in London - Design Notes

I'm not really sure what drew me to art. I've always enjoyed pretty things. I think things that are made in a really genuine way, where the artist or the craftsman is just really kind of in love with what they're doing and really wants to share that. I worked at Sotheby's in the print department for a few years, then I went to work for another gallery for almost 14 years, and then 10 years ago I set up my own gallery. What guided me in making my home was that I wanted to have objects that all resonated with me. You know, I think the best homes and the best interiors are ones that are really genuine, you know, that really reflect the people that live there, that really reflect the place that they are. And that's hard to do, you know, because you really have to engage with it. And when you can really put yourself and your life and the place all together, I think that's when the magic really happens. This flat is a really kind of standard West London white terrace flat. They're all roughly 500 square feet. When I bought this flat, I took the view that, OK, I know what I'm working with, it's not that much, so I'm going to move it all around to make it exactly the way I want it to be, so that I can live here as happily as possible. This is the living room, which is the main space in the flat. It also has this wonderful south-facing window, so it has really, really nice light. I knew I wanted the sofa there. I wanted people to be able to sit and talk to people in the kitchen. I knew I wanted a wall of bookshelves. I didn't want them everywhere, so I thought, OK, one big bookshelf all the way to the ceiling. So those were sort of the two anchor things in this room. And I knew I wanted the sofa to be the same colour as the pantry or the kitchen, because that kind of defined the two ends of the space. Not surprisingly, probably, I have a lot of pictures, so I took the decision that one wall would be a salon hang, and one wall would be a single big thing. The painting's by Susie Murphy, an artist that we work very closely with, and are lucky enough to represent at the gallery. I then wanted something underneath it, and actually I had that bench made, because I wanted something that was long and thin, and of course you can never find the size that you need. And it also was a nice place to put objects. This chair, I really wanted a sort of cane berger, and I found one that was a ruin, and then had it recaned at great expense. And this is the remnants of a short but distinguished needlepointing obsession of mine. I also use this as my office when I work from home, this is very much my desk. When I was in the process of buying bits and pieces for the flat, there was the Jasper Conran sale at Christie's, and I saw this table, and I just thought, oh my god, it's the most beautiful table. I literally fell in love with this table. I sit there every day, I write letters from there, I do my emails from there. I really enjoy that conversation of this very old and beautiful table, with all these contemporary pictures. It somehow feels entirely right, even though these things were made literally centuries apart. So this is the kitchen. I wanted a really good stove, because I like to cook, and I wanted a place that I could have people for dinner. The fridge is hidden in here, the dishwasher is hidden under here, the sink is very small, but we manage. And then all of my dishes are out. Yeah, I had this idea, I didn't really want traditional kitchen cabinets. And I can remember saying that to the architect and the builder, and they just kind of couldn't understand that I didn't want cabinets. This is a holler print from about 1620, I think, of a dead mole. And it's actually exquisitely beautiful, but I love that it's sort of next to my stove. I have a sort of habit of buying baskets in French markets, and they all live up here. In this space, I did want a really strong color. I wanted it because it made this area separate from this area. This is very much the kind of entertaining eating space, and this is kind of the working kitchen space. I love when I have three people and me for dinner here, and we can all actually have a nice, cozy dinner, and I think, oh God, that's amazing. It's amazing you can do it in such a small space. Yeah, somehow it's all here, which is like a little miracle, actually. This is my bedroom. This is probably the smallest room in the house, and this is the one that I think was kind of sacrificed to the kitchen and the sitting room, but it's like a little nest, and actually it's perfect in that way. We took the enormous fireplace out and made this small one. This is this amazing mug that I just found online, which I love. It says something really funny on it, like, the real cabinet of friendship, and then it has a picture of a handshake. It's fabulous. I painted the walls jonquil, which is a really wonderful Edward Bulmer color, but in 20%, and the bathroom I painted in full color, so there's a nice conversation, I think, between the darker and the lighter colors. The art is a mix of things, more delicate things, quiet things, pictures that are particularly meaningful to me. The piece over the bed is by an artist, Sarah Graham, who I've worked with for many, many, many years. She only works on extremely large scale, so I had to sort of choose one work and then find a home for it. This is my beloved Dax and Peanut, who shares this small flat with me, and this is his bedroom, he would probably say, rather than mine. I knew that I wanted wallpaper only in the small hallway, and I literally was driving myself crazy looking at wallpapers, and then I thought, well, actually, an artist that we represent at the gallery, she makes wallpapers and fabrics. So I rang her, and I said, Georgie, I'm going to put this, it's called Endless Column, I'm going to put Endless Column in my little hallway. She kindly chose a paint color, and I saw the sample, and I thought, this is such a weird color. In a million years, I wouldn't have chosen that color, and it couldn't be better. That's her magic. So the bathroom in this flat now was the bedroom when I bought it. It meant that we could create a bathroom that felt kind of luxurious and comfortable and nice to be in, even though it was so small, and I also really wanted to have a tub, so this was the biggest tub we could fit in this space. I have this ceramic piece, which I really love, which sits very happily here. Then all my sort of bits live in these Revellious ceramics. A dear friend of mine had a couple of these, and I just, I loved them, I loved the proportion of them, I loved the graphic of them, I loved how modern they felt. I wanted to figure out a way that I could have privacy here, but also keep natural light coming in, so I came up with the scheme to put a shelf, a curtain underneath, and then plants above. And by some miracle, I've managed to keep these plants alive. I think to develop your own taste in art and to ultimately buy things that you want to live with and that are meaningful to you, you have to really look at them. And I think that sounds silly, but it's amazing how, and I'm guilty of this too, we don't actually look at things enough. The point of a picture is to be seen. That's what it exists for. It's to be seen and to communicate something that the artist is trying to share. To let pictures do what they're meant to do, we have to look at them and then really spend time with them and think, do I like this, does this speak to me, do I want to see this every day, is there a place for it in my home, is it meaningful to me? And that takes time and presence. So I think to develop one's taste really is just a question of being engaged with looking. © transcript Emily Beynon