Bold & BEAUTIFUL
“I’ve never felt like a hoarder,” says Gabi Tubbs in the light, bright sitting room of her Regency-style Brighton home, having nevertheless admitted that countless boxes of the fabrics and ceramics she has collected at antiques fairs, auctions and vintage shops remain unused. “The house is like a beautiful woman with lovely bones – you don’t want to swamp it with lots of things.” Happily, Gabi doesn’t get too tied to her possessions: “I see myself as a custodian – happy to pass things on. When
I go to a friend’s house for dinner, I might take them a lovely old jug with flowers in instead of a bottle of wine.”
A former style director of Homes & Gardens magazine, Gabi has a particular weakness for china. On her kitchen wall is an arrangement of differently sized and shaped blue-and-white plates and serving dishes, mainly willow patterned. It’s all the more striking for contrasting with the plain, modern units.
Gabi has favoured bold floral designs ever since the fabric company Zoffany upholstered her spare bed for a photo shoot. She built a botanical theme around this, but avoided patterned wallpaper for fear of it overpowering the space.
The living room has a different feel. “I have a Matisse-ish rug by Riviere that everything else in the room works off, from the lampshade to the oil painting of roses,” she says
Coloured glass chandeliers suit this townhouse beautifully, and the glassware theme continues on the mantelpiece, which houses Czech vases as well as absinthe bottles in the form of bunches of grapes. The latter were brought back from France, a regular hunting ground over the years.
Antique furniture has always been a passion of Gabi’s, and her 18th- and 19th-century French armchairs have been reupholstered locally in fabrics such as red-and-white ticking sacking. A generous scattering of cushions in jewel-bright Designers Guild fabrics adds a contemporary feel: “I love sitting and reading in my living room – it’s calming, cosy and elegant, and you can watch the world go by.”
GABI’S OBJECTS OF DESIRE Glassware, blue-andwhite china, chandeliers, antique French furniture