New York edge meets English eccentricity in an interior designer's London apartment
Interior designer Joyce Sitterly is reminiscing about her former flat in Camden. ‘It felt like New York to me,’ she remembers. ‘The moment we moved in, it was home.’ Recently married to production designer Arthur de Borman, Joyce had emigrated from her beloved Manhattan to London for love. Initially, she settled in Arthur’s east London bachelor pad, but she soon decided if she had to live in the cold, damp capital, she wanted to do it properly. That meant a Georgian house straight out of a Richard Curtis film, which this flat in a former pipe factory, with its concrete ceilings and Crittall windows, most certainly was not. Yet, somehow, its bones felt right. And so they started renting it during that first winter of Covid.
Joyce’s possessions were shipped from New York and the newlyweds set about making it their home. ‘Between Arthur and me, we have so, so much stuff,’ Joyce admits cheerfully. Anyone who has ever moved in with a partner will understand the delicate diplomacy required to stitch the contents of two lives into one coherent whole. All the more so when both parties are design-minded with strong opinions and 20 years of collecting behind them.
‘Arthur will not spare an item,’ Joyce jokes. ‘He’s a total magpie. If it was up to him, every single item that he has ever bought would be in the place. Things have to be very particularly arranged.’ Arthur will send her images of objects he is sourcing for work and about one in 20 gets the seal of approval. They applied the same process when it came to decorating their home and they have a storage unit crammed to the rafters to prove it.
Slowly, they added, edited, rotated and adjusted pieces in the space, removing those that didn’t make the cut. After about a year of tinkering, they were content. The end result was a visual representation of their individual tastes, butting against and riffing off each other. Arthur is drawn to gilding, florals and a certain English eccentricity. ‘Not chintzy – it’s a little bit Liberace and intentionally gauche,’ says Joyce, who loves Chinese furniture, plasterwork and animal prints. ‘I lean towards a more masculine feel.’
Perhaps the best illustration of the combined aesthetic was the bedroom walls, which Joyce says she now sees as a timeline of their lives and tastes. These were decorated with a mix of religious icon-ography, a framed bag, a painting with intricate Mughal-esque birds (one of a box of 50 that Arthur bought at a sale) and a plate with ceramic mushrooms. Somehow, it all worked.
During the editing process, they found they both had a lot of dark wood furniture that held up well against the concrete, brick and ironwork. ‘It wasn’t a space where we could use really dainty pieces,’ Joyce explains. ‘Everything had to be hefty and strong.’ But the semi-industrial space and the furniture were deliberately softened with textiles. A Moroccan rug given by Joyce’s friend found a place in the bedroom, and was further softened by a tasselled bedspread. Another rug brought colour and texture to the open-plan sitting room, while a zebra hide anchored the seating area.
Both the bed and sofa sported big, squishy cushions you could fall back into. ‘Comfort is paramount to us,’ Joyce says. While not necessarily an approach she would apply to clients’ homes, for her own space, she wanted to be able to relax in style. All the more so once their daughter arrived. Her bedroom – ‘the room she never slept in’, Joyce remarks with a raised eyebrow – was pure magic and about as far removed from a typical little girl’s room as you can imagine. Taxidermy animals, turtle shells, a trompe l’œil curtain with elaborate swags and a gorilla rug.
A flat up four flights of stairs isn’t ideal with a young child, and keen to buy a place of their own, last September they moved to an apartment in an Art Deco building in Highgate. Having thought that they would renovate immediately, they are instead taking their time. It offers a slower pace of life and is enviably near the Heath. Do they miss gritty Camden? ‘From our old home, we had a view of the Overground, but because the windows were so solid, we didn’t hear it. It was quite hypnotic, as we would lie in bed and watch the trains go by. It had this iconic Camden feel.’ You can take the girl out of New York...
Joyce Sitterly: joycesitterly.com
Michael Sinclair1/6
Michael Sinclair2/6
Michael Sinclair3/6Nursery furnishings include a ‘Cabbage Chandelier’ pendant by Bordallo Pinheiro and a Doing Goods ‘Groovy Gorilla’ wool rug.
Michael Sinclair4/6The kitchen is open plan.
Michael Sinclair5/6Birdie Fortescue’s ‘Super King Rattan’ headboard and a cotton ‘Callington’ bedspread from Soho Home add texture in the main bedroom.
Michael Sinclair6/6The flat is in a converted factory.
