Bayswater Retreat 1250 Sq Ft of Honey-Toned Calm for a London Jeweler

This first-floor apartment located in Bayswater, London, is a peaceful refuge for British jewelry designer Joe Spiro's daily life and creative inspiration. The apartment building was constructed in the early 20th century, with its original layout consisting of several small rooms. The decoration style was classic, but it failed to meet Spiro's requirements for spatial sense and light. Spiro chose to temporarily set aside the complexity and brilliance of daily life and create a warm, simple and private living atmosphere of 1,250 square feet indoors.

The interior design was led by Valerie Name Bolaño, a designer born in Venezuela and currently residing in Paris. When she renovated Spiro's apartment in 2023, she reorganized the original spatial structure: she expanded the entrance hall, combined two bedrooms to form a master suite, and added a dressing room. She also repositioned and adjusted the height of the doors to maximize the penetration of natural light and the greenery from the opposite side of Hampstead Garden into the interior. The walls and ceilings were decorated with honey-colored stone, complemented by wide oak flooring and the stepped geometric contour of the plaster fireplace moldings, creating a warm and serene visual order for the living room.

In terms of detail handling, Boranió fully integrated Spiro's personal collection and artworks, including those by Frank Auerbach, Antoni Tàpies, as well as the works of young London artists Alvaro Barrington and Alexander James. The kitchen and leisure areas were given soft tones, ranging from cream to beige to blush, complemented by custom wool carpets, silk wallpaper, and bronze button cushions, creating a cozy atmosphere like a cocoon. The stainless steel countertop in the kitchen contrasts with the blood-red painted cabinets and dark green Guatemalan marble flooring, while the 1930s-style Schumacher floral-patterned bench under the bay window injects unexpected liveliness and fun into the space.

In this apartment, Joe Spiero steps away from the complexity of daily creation and enters a minimalist world meticulously composed of light, materials and details. The space presents a private, comfortable and personally distinctive modern living experience through strict lines, soft colors and meticulous craftsmanship.

In the quiet sanctuary that Joe Spiro and Valerie Name Bolaño have sculpted above Hampstead Garden—where honey-colored stone walls catch the morning light and 1930s Schumacher blooms peek beneath a bay window—there is already a language of soft geometry and borrowed greenery at work. Slip the Monza Rustic Elegance Serene Floral Pillow Cover onto the blood-red kitchen bench or the blush-cushioned reading chair and its muted, sun-washed petals immediately begin to speak that same dialect: the linen-cotton weave echoes the living-room’s wide-oak grain, while the faded floral print mirrors both Frank Auerbach’s earthy impasto and the dewy leaves that filter through the re-positioned doors. Because Monza is double-sided, one side can face the room’s bronze-button silks for a gentle tonal shift, the other can greet the Guatemalan green marble floor with a whisper of cream, allowing Spiro to rotate the cushion like a curator turning a small canvas—each flip a fresh, serene vignette within the 1,250-square-foot cocoon. It is, in short, the perfect removable “garden” for an apartment that has traded dazzle for distilled calm: a single pillow that carries the outside green inside, yet never disturbs the jeweler’s carefully balanced hush.