Through The Keyhole

Simple and unpretentious, yet warm and luxurious; this is Rose Uniacke’s calling card, a signature style that echoes through her design projects such as the Jo Malone London Townhouse. ‘Once I’ve worked on a space, I want it to be welcoming and to feel like home,’ says the British interior designer, who has built an international reputation for combining the grand with the humble, the sophisticated with the relaxed, and the old with the new.

‘The brand was very clear and strong, and this classic Georgian building was so glamorous,’ she says. ‘I laid oak floors to soften everything so it wouldn’t look too formal. I also went for a natural feel by using raw materials that play on the idea of the ingredients used in Jo Malone London’s fragrances. They weremy inspiration. I’m obsessed with balance in rooms and allowing spaces to breathe.’

Rose, who works closely with traditional British craftsmen, designed most of the furniture and lighting herself, including hand-blown bubble glass lanterns, a long oak table inspired by an old draper’s table and a wrought iron and steel hoof side table.

She also added subtle details throughout the Townhouse to reflect Jo Malone London’s famous packaging, ranging from the chalky pale paint on the walls to thin black lines stitched across natural calico cushions ‘like the black ribbon’. Full-length buttermilk yellow silk curtains provide shots of warmth to a number of rooms and, for character and quirk, she added a pair of antique art deco glass wall lights and a vintage black and cream metal floor lamp, which live in the drawingroom.

Overseeing her antiques business, designing her own collections and running an interior design practice, not to mention being a mother to five children (four of whom are grown up), and wife to the Harry Potter producer David Heyman, makes for an exceedingly rich tapestry. ‘My life is quite varied in a fantastic way and I love my job, so it doesn't often feel like work,’ says Rose. Still, every now and then, she likes to escape, either by walking or whiling away an hour in an art gallery. But, she laughs, ‘I don’t do yoga!’