Modern elegance meets whimsical charm in this countryside home in London

Awash with delights and surprises among the quieter interior moments, Beata Heuman’s home—a pretty two-storey Victorian terraced property in Hammersmith—is a true reflection of the designer I have known for 15 years, who is conservative yet wild, eternally inquisitive, extremely funny, and rarely predictable. On stepping inside, you are surrounded by walls lined with serene, bamboo-coloured fabric that you can’t help but run your fingers down. Ahead is a staircase thickly carpeted with giant, painterly black and copper zigzags, so witty and inviting that you want to leap up them to see what magic might exist beyond.

A lacquered circular hall mirror offers a glimpse into the sitting room, home to a wall of bookshelves topped with a row of antique Punch almanacks and a wavy-backed chaise longue. Above another sofa adorned with red-and-white-striped cushions is a huge photograph of a hay-bale stack—perhaps a reminder of Heuman’s childhood on a Swedish farm. There are many such unexpected design details in the house, including a mural in her daughter’s bedroom inspired by one she once sat sipping martinis beneath in the bar at New York’s Carlyle Hotel, and a headboard in her own room that she made from a carpet featuring the image of a demure nude.

Heuman has a magpie’s eye for gathering and mixing things up, honed over years of experience. After finishing school, she spent a year in Florence, revelling in the beauty of Renaissance art and architecture, before moving to London, where she was introduced to the interior designer and turbo-socialite Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Haslam. Seeing the potential, he took her on to learn the trade at his firm.

Haslam’s style combined a deep appreciation for traditional English interiors and classical architecture with a rule-breaking attitude that appealed to Heuman’s childhood sensibilities. As she puts it, "He is open-minded, fearless, and loves to experiment." She recalls office mornings when he would turn up in a "giant brown mohair cardigan with a moustache glued to his upper lip", or wearing a beanie with hair sewn onto the back, and "we weren’t meant to bat an eyelid". One lesson she learnt was that "Once you stop caring what other people think and just do what you want, that’s when you get something worthwhile and inspiring."

She flourished under his wing for nine years before setting up on her own in 2013. Today, her studio has grown to a team of 10; her clients are increasingly international and she is fresh from finishing Adwoa Aboah’s home. She has also launched her own furniture and interior collections, which include all sorts of Wonka-esque creations, from her ‘Luckdragon’ stool—inspired by Ancient Roman chairs—to the ‘Dodo Egg’ pendant along with marbleised fabric, and wallpaper reminiscent of the patterns found in Florentine bookbinding.

All Heuman’s schemes tap into the joy of storytelling and her own home is a glorious example of this, taking you on a visual journey between Britain, Italy, and Sweden, skipping deftly between familiarity and surrealism, balancing perfectly riotous English eccentricity, sleek Scandinavian style, and Renaissance-age elegance with something that is entirely her own.

Feature Image: @beataheuman/Instagram

This piece originally appeared in the October 2022 print edition of Harper's Bazaar UK