Beata Heuman’s 7-Step Guide to Making Your Home Feel Cozy This Fall

It’s the sort of London afternoon that can only be described as “blustery”—plane leaves whirling through the air, pedestrians clutching umbrellas and casting nervous glances skywards—but in Beata Heuman’s newly opened office at 188 Hammersmith Road, the atmosphere is delightfully cozy. The designer’s Willow Ink fabric—inspired by 18th-century Stoke-on-Trent ceramics and memories of porcelain cups of tea on rainy days—covers the walls, while pots of red geraniums crowd the windowsill and the eye travels from one curiosity to another: a mustard-yellow beetle-shaped pencil sharpener Beata’s mother used as a schoolgirl in the ’50s; pewter candlesticks Heuman originally sourced for a client while working for Nicky Haslam, then bought back at auction many years later; a fried egg by Schiaparelli. It’s an office, yes—behind the Shoppa founder’s desk is a bookshelf crammed with reference volumes on everything from the Ballet Russes to Josef Frank—but it feels like a home, too, a place where you would happily while away a few hours over coffee and buns and gossip.

Which, of course, is exactly what Heuman intended, though it proved much more complicated to transform the Grade II-listed building in which she currently sits into a workspace and showroom than she expected. It was a former employee of Beata’s who first stumbled upon a listing for the townhouse, situated five minutes walk from the Thames. Until the pandemic, it had served as headquarters for an airline that went bust, gradually falling into disrepair. Despite the condition, the chance to transform the space—and at a discounted price, given the state of the building – proved too tempting for Heuman to pass up, especially given its history. Although it was constructed in the 19th century as a country villa, it spent much of the 20th century housing different societies—ultimately serving as headquarters for the Constitutional Club, whose former members include Winston Churchill. “It was a little like having a baby; I didn’t realize how much work it would be until it was too late,” the Sweden-born, London-based designer says of the address, known simply as 188, with a laugh. “Especially since there were lots of layers of ‘renovations’ to peel away when we moved in—modern tiling, et cetera.”