God of Small Things: how to curate objects in your home

Mare Street, London
Mare Street, London E8
Christchurch Hill, London NW3
Christchurch Hill, London NW3
My Modern House, Genevieve Lutkin
Artist Genevieve Lutkin and designer Joel Culley’s Clapton apartment
Powis Mews, London W11
Powis Mews, London W11
Canonbury Grove, The Modern House
Canonbury Grove, London N1
Yasuyo Harvey, My Modern House (5)
Botanical stylist Yasuyo Harvey's beautiful interiors in the London suburbs
St Oswald's Place, The Modern House
St Oswald's Place, London SE1

Our recent trip to artist and designer Sarah Kaye Rodden’s converted medieval hall in the Kentish village of Brasted is a lesson in the art of how to curate objects in your home.

“People say ‘your house looks like an art gallery,'” she told us. “But I take that as a compliment. It’s full of art, I like art, and art is part of who I am.” Hear hear, Sarah. Feeling inspired, we’ve selected still-life scenes from of our sales listings and Journal that show how to put together objects in your home.

Mare Street, London E8
The sensitive renovation of this Grade II-listed house near London Fields retained the building’s original character to include fireplaces in every room and two beautiful stone staircases. With a beautiful backdrop, things have been kept simple with a few neutral-hued pieces placed with enough space to stand out by themselves.

Christchurch Hill, London NW3
This handsome double-fronted house in Hampstead retains many elegant original details, including floorboards, sash windows and architraves, whilst supporting the sensibilities of modern design. The current owners have used the mantlepiece above the fireplace in the living room to arrange a panoply of paintings, a Calder-like mobile and a variegated maquette to sophisticated effect.

Artist Genevieve Lutkin and designer Joel Culley’s Clapton apartment
For our ‘My Modern House’ series, artist Genevieve Lutkin and designer Joel Culley showed us around their minimalist apartment in Clapton, which manages to still feel warm and homely. How did they achieve this? “…. we like to allow each object or piece of furniture the space to breathe so you can appreciate its form and qualities. Even though our space is minimal, there’s a definite Wabi Sabi softness to it; there are lots of old and aged objects, natural materials, textures and plants,” Genevieve told us.

Powis Mews, London W11
Powis Mews, the home and studio of renowned designer Ross Lovegrove, is replete with experimental and bespoke details, displaying a catalogue of the owner’s industrial and architectural design work. The lesson here: your own work is as good as any for filling up your home.

Canonbury Grove, London N1
The interior of this Grade II-listed Georgian house in the Canonbury Conservation Area was conceived by designer Faye Toogood, and combines old and new to exemplary effect. Many original Georgian features remain and are complemented by contemporary objets d’art and design pieces, which are displayed in alcoves, mantlepieces and bookshelves.

Botanical stylist Yasuyo Harvey’s beautiful interiors in the London suburbs
“I call myself a botanical stylist. I’m more interested in creating objects and sculptures for beautiful interiors than conventional floristry” said Yasuyo Harvey when we visited her home in Worcester Park for our ‘My Modern House’ series. Harvey’s proclamation that “the raw materials always come first, and I get inspired by what’s in front of me,” demonstrates the potential of found objects for creating a pleasing mise-en-scène.

St Oswald’s Place, London SE1
A double-height ceiling and towering original windows imbue this former Victorian school building with an airy, spacious feel. With a lot of wall space to cover, a wonderfully varied assembly of globes, books, canvases and sculptures create an eclectic interior, proving that sometimes, more is more.

It’s what’s on the inside that counts: check out our Superior Interiors collection for more design inspiration.

Read more: My Modern House: artist Sarah Kaye Rodden on curating an interior from collected objects – from meteor fragments to cannonballs.

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