The cream stucco of Cora Sheibani’s handsome house in Notting Hill gives little clue of the exuberance that lies within. Descend the stairs from the grand entrance hall into the kitchen and you are met with a riot of colour, wit and modular ingenuity. A jewellery designer known for her playful approach, Cora shares the townhouse with her financier husband Kaveh, two of their three children and a sweet Havanese dog. While the impressive sweep of rooms on the ground floor is hung with important artworks by the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat (her father is the art dealer Bruno Bischofberger) and anchored by a capacious custom-made Zaha Hadid dining table, the kitchen below pulses with a more youthful energy.
This is where meals are cooked, games nights are held and the family gathers at the Barber Osgerby-designed marble tables, which also swiftly double as a base for a ping-pong playfield. ‘That’s why there are four separate sections,’ says Cora, before proceeding to drag them round the room while sporting silk pyjamas and pearls. She is a woman of action.
The kitchen is a collaboration with the artist Richard Woods and offers a refreshing alternative to more conventional domestic schemes. Known for his distinctive faux woodgrain aesthetic, Richard has reimagined the cabinetry ω in two-tone patterns. ‘It’s quite different to his other work,’ says Cora. ‘It is more minimalist. My husband wanted a Richard Woods floor when we first had the kitchen done 18 years ago. At the time, his boards were always black and a colour, and I thought it would be too dark in this room.’ The idea was shelved until the old kitchen needed replacing: ‘It was so costly to repair the scratched doors and not a permanent fix.’ Serendipitously, the artist’s new work captured Cora’s attention. ‘He showed stools in two colour tones rather than black at Andreas Siegfried’s London gallery, Siegfried Contemporary, and I just thought, I love the softness of them,’ she recalls.
Even so, the project evolved slowly. ‘It took us almost a year to finalise the colours,’ Cora explains. ‘At first, I wanted orange and blue, and Richard proposed yellows and this lime green… And I was like, really? Lime green?’ In the end, trust won out. ‘You’ve got to say that the artist probably knows what he’s doing.’ The resulting palette sings brightly. The hand-painted cabinets are akin to a huge artwork, which is also satisfyingly ‘easy to refresh’, and open to reveal jaunty orange laminate interiors. What prompted that decision? ‘Because it doesn’t cost more having it orange as opposed to white,’ says Cora matter of factly. ‘Laminate is out of fashion, but actually it’s great and super practical.’
Curiously light plywood chairs echo these zingy orange tones, adding a hit of colour to the dining area, and riff off a Francesco Clemente triptych that was recently hung above a run of cabinets. ‘It’s funny how surprised people are to see all the colour when they walk in, but it works,’ says Cora. ‘It’s optimistic and way more fun to sit on an orange chair.’
For all its aesthetic punch, the room is still supremely functional and informed by Cora’s childhood memories of growing up in Zurich surrounded by Memphis furniture with bold shapes and irreverent colour combinations. ‘That’s why this doesn’t seem that bold to me,’ she says with a smile. ‘The design is simple, even though the colour’s strong.’
It is an approach that infuses her charming jewels, which often feature flora and food (think precious potted plant earrings and jelly rings decorated with diamond sprinkles), and are crafted in Switzerland, Italy and Germany. ‘I don’t make the jewellery myself,’ she explains. ‘But I still lik to use my hands to make things, so I enjoy cooking. Although nowadays, I prefer gardening to relax – there is less judgement.’
Nonetheless, her kitchen is filled with evidence of culinary prowess (sous-vide machines, dehydrators, a much-loved KitchenAid mixer) and a similar rigour underpins her work – a seriousness about quality and exploring new ideas. ‘I want my pieces to stand the test of time but not be timeless – I want them to be of the time,’ she says. ‘Timeless, to me, is slightly boring. Great design should be in dialogue with the era in which it’s created’.
