Hollie Bowden converts London pub into pared-back jewellery showroom
Lime-washed walls meet aluminium display fixtures in this minimalist studio and showroom that designer Hollie Bowden has devised for London brand Completedworks.
Set over two floors of a former pub in Marylebone, it provides space for Completedworks to design and display its jewellery and ceramics, as well as to host an array of craft-focused classes.
The brand was established in 2013 and up until now, has largely been sold via high-end department stores such as Dover Street Market and Liberty. But founder Anna Jewsbury felt it was time for Completedworks to have its own brick-and-mortar space.
"We increasingly had clients asking to come and see our pieces in person but felt that we didn't have a space that felt considered and reflected our vision," she said. "We wanted people to be able to enter our world and get to know us, and for us to get to know them."
For the design of the showroom, Jewsbury worked with London-based designer Hollie Bowden, who naturally looked to the brand's jewellery for inspiration.
This can be seen for example in the hammered-metal door handles that appear throughout the studio and directly reference the creased design of the gold Cohesion earrings.
"[Completedworks] is known for the beauty of the textural surfaces and flowing almost baroque forms," Bowden explained. "We developed a display language that played off that, with minimal details and strict lines."
Almost every surface throughout the studio is washed in beige-toned lime paint, with only a few slivers of the original brick walls and a worn metal column left exposed near the central staircase.
Bowden used brushed aluminium to create a range of display fixtures, including chunky plinths and super-slender shelving units supported by floor-to-ceiling poles.
The space also houses a couple of angular aluminium counters for packing orders that include discrete storage for boxes and subtle openings, through which tissue paper or bubble wrap can be pulled.
A slightly more playful selection of colours and materials was used for the studio's custom furnishings.
In the main showroom, there's a modular display island sheathed in lilac linen. Meanwhile in the office, designer Byron Pritchard – who is also Bowden's partner – created a gridded wooden cabinet inlaid with translucent sheets of paper, intended to resemble a traditional Japanese shoji screen.
This isn't Bowden's first project in London's affluent Marylebone neighbourhood.
Previously, the designer created an office for real estate company Schönhaus, decking the space out with dark-stained oak and aged leather to emulate the feel of a gentleman's club.
The photography is by Genevieve Lutkin.