Inside Laylah Holmes' New Showroom
PROJECTS
Laylah Holmes has opened a new home for Holmes Bespoke, a by-appointment showroom set inside a restored former police station overlooking the Thames in Chiswick. The building replaces years of receiving clients in the garden studio at her family house, a setting that convinced her a lived-in space told the story of her rugs better than any retail floor could.
Horwood Interiors advised on the layout, Hyde House built the bespoke furniture, and Chiswick artist Mary West contributed a series of new works inspired by the river running past the door.
That river gave its name to Holmes Bespoke's new Thames collection, its hand-tufted rugs, fitted carpets and tapestries threaded through the house alongside established pieces from the studio, including the Fire Opal and Blue Diamond rugs from Hidden Gems and a Louis runner reworked in aubergine for the staircase.
In the bedroom, the new Tide carpet sits beneath a headboard upholstered in Westward, one of the studio's signature tapestry designs; on the terrace, an indoor outdoor rug from the Summer Garden range takes the weather.
Upstairs, the design studio remains the starting point for every commission, its sample library built by Philip Clay and arranged like an archive, reached by a rolling ladder that holds hundreds of rugs in reach.
Downstairs, a HUX London kitchen turns the ground floor into space for intimate dinners and client gatherings, instead of a showroom appointment.
Holmes chose her collaborators with the same care, seeking out makers whose commitment to craftsmanship and sustainability matched her own, many first met through the Decorex Sustainability Taskforce and Walpole's Brands of Tomorrow. The result reads less like a showroom than a shared house, built on the belief that independent British makers do their best work together.
