Inside an art-filled 500-square-foot Victorian flat in London

[bright music]

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 craftsmen

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,

'cause 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,

Okay, I know what I'm working with.

It's not that much. [laughing]

So I'm gonna 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, Okay, 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 color as the pantry of the kitchen,

'cause 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 worked 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

'cause 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.

[upbeat music]

This chair, I really wanted a sort of cane bergere.

And I found one that was a ruin,

and then had it re-caned at great expense.

And this is the remnants

of a short-but-distinguished

needle pointing obsession [laughing] 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,

that'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, [laughing]

'cause I like to cook,

and I wanted a place that I could have people for dinner.

The fridge is hidden in here,

the dishwasher's hidden under here.

The sink is very small, [laughing]

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 holoprint 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.

Like this is very much

the kind of entertaining, eating space.

And this is kind of the working, kitchen space.

I love when I have, you know, three people and me

for dinner here,

and we can all like 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.

[light music]

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.

Isn't it fabulous? [laughing]

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 Dachshund, Peanut,

who shares this small flat with me.

And this is his bedroom,

he would probably say, rather than mine. [laughing]

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 gonna put this,

it's called endless column,

I'm gonna put endless column in my little hallway.

She kindly chose 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.

[bright music]

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 Ravilious 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 came up with this 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.

You know, 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 wanna 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.

[upbeat music]