Decorator to the stars strives for ‘calming’ look
Rose Uniacke was, until a few years ago, a chic interior designer, familiar to those in the know, with a shop bearing her name that takes up the best part of a block in the heart of Chelsea in London — and a small, discreet client list.
Then, two years ago, Victoria and David Beckham commissioned her to make over their Holland Park house — and she became That Interior Designer, chosen by the couple who could have had anyone.
A little over two years later — the house is finished and the Beckhams moved in over the summer.
“Of course I can’t tell you anything,” she says with a laugh.
A house that Rose Uniacke decorates (it’s not a big enough word for what she does, which is more, as she says, “reinventing space,” respecting the period features of a building and “simplifying to make it comfortable for modern life”), is currently the apogee of modern English elegance.
She is the queen of pared-down luxury. She’ll have gutted the house, thrown out all their furniture (sourcing 20th century “name” pieces is her specialty, as well as commissioning bespoke pieces).
At 53, Uniacke is a part of London fashionable society (her husband of nine years is Harry Potter producer David Heyman), and a mother of five (she has an eight-year-old boy with Heyman, as well as three children with her first husband and a stepson she brought up as her own). That’s part of the key. Uniacke knows all about balancing chic and lots of kids, grandeur and practicality and making it all look easy.
Uniacke in her home environment is an excellent advertisement for the brand, which is why many clients get invited to the house.
“It is good to show people, I guess,” she says, “because it is nice to be able to demonstrate something with atmosphere.”
You won’t find a fridge magnet in a Uniacke House or lots of framed photographs spread around; you will find plenty of empty, light saturated space.
“I don’t over furnish,” she bursts out laughing. “I guess I am not overly decorative because I like a more serene atmosphere, because it is calming.”
She trained as a gilder and restorer, before working for her mother, antique dealer Hilary Batstone, and becoming a respected dealer in her own right. She knows furniture (often the design of a room will begin with a piece of furniture or an art collection), and she is discreet.
In spite of demand, she has deliberately kept the business small and manageable so that “everyone gets me, face to face.”
It’s a long process, communication is key, and there are going to be times when the client is upset. “I am aware of how exposing it is and so hopefully we tread delicately. We take the strain. It is a layered process. And my clients trust me.”