The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - The Telegraph Magazine
Jewellery designer Caroline Bucci at home
How jewellery designer Carolina Bucci took a Grade-ii-listed London townhouse into the future – Kate Moss artworks, glass balloons and all. By Sarah Royce-greensill. Photographs by Alexander James
THE FIRST THING I NOTICE on entering jewellery designer Carolina Bucci’s home is the smell of her home-made muffins, fresh out of the oven. ‘I’m Italian so of course I can cook, but it’s not my passion,’ she says. ‘But baking, I love.’
Eager to enjoy the fruits of her labour is her youngest son, Julius, nine, who’s lured up from his downstairs bedroom. He’s lived in the family home, a maisonette on the ground and lower floors of a Grade-ii-listed townhouse in Bayswater, all of his life. Bucci and her husband James Pyner, an art dealer, relocated to London from New York in 2004, two years before their eldest son Lucas, 11, was born.
When they moved in, they set about restoring original features such as the marble fireplace and ceiling cornices. ‘It needed to be brought back to its bare bones. Our style is eclectic so we wanted a solid, almost blank background.’
The walls, therefore, are painted in a soothing palette of greys and blues, but
The art and objects old and new give the feeling of an incredibly chic cabinet of curiosities
it’s the furnishings, art and objects old and new that give the feeling of an incredibly chic cabinet of curiosities.
A pair of reupholstered 20th-century wooden chairs sit in front of a Zanotta coffee table that’s piled with coffee-table books and glass vases; a vast 19th-century French wooden table in the entrance is laden with fresh flowers, framed photographs and more books. An Italian farmhouse madia (kitchen cupboard), ‘a few hundred years old’ and originally used for proving and storing bread, has been repurposed into a bar, upon which sit a framed Florentine mosaic and a bespoke Laura Hart artwork. Comprising two butterflies in Murano glass, it was commissioned by Bucci for her husband for their anniversary. ‘Every piece has a story or a meaning,’ she says.
More Murano glass floats in the form of five colourful Livio de Marchi bal- loons, while the seemingly opaque chandelier is also a product of the ancient Venetian technique. ‘Depending on how the sun comes in, you might see purple or navy or red.’
Murano glass is a particular passion of Bucci’s. ‘It’s an amazing Italian art that’s sadly dying. It’s very much like our jewellery: made by artisans, not in a factory. You can’t master it in six months – it takes years and years,’ she says, adding that she is working on a ‘special project’ involving Murano for her new London store, which opens this spring.
Born in the village of Fiesole outside Florence, Bucci is the fourth generation at the helm of her family jewellery house, which her great-grandfather started as a pocket-watch repair shop in 1885. Despite always knowing she wanted to go into the family business and having ‘the most idyllic childhood’, aged 18 she fled the Italian hills for New York. ‘I wanted concrete and taxi horns; that was peaceful for me,’ she smiles.
The move both opened her eyes to new possibilities, and helped her appreciate her family legacy. ‘You need a bit of distance to understand how magical Florence is. I realised the importance of all the things I’d wanted to break away from.’ Her jewellery melds these two worlds. Wear-everywhere ‘Lucky’ bracelets, inspired by the friendship bracelets she used to make and sell on the beach during family holidays, are loved by the likes of Victoria Beckham and Sarah Jessica Parker, but are made by weaving gold and silk on an ancient Florentine loom.
In the sitting room, there’s another reminder of Bucci’s roots in the form
of an enormous gilded mirror above the fireplace: it was originally the headboard of her grandparents’ bed and was one of the first pieces the couple moved into the house, having driven it home from Florence. Such antiques are juxtaposed with a regularly changing roster of contemporary art, courtesy of James. ‘I’ve learnt not to get too attached,’ she says.
Even the vintage Murano gets used. ‘If you break it, it hurts, but at least you’ve enjoyed it’
But she is particularly fond of two Stefan Brüggemann paintings in the kitchen, one featuring Kate Moss obliterated with aluminium paint. ‘These are not leaving.’ Elsewhere there’s a Be Andr installation on the wall spelling the word ‘Taste’, and cabinets filled with more Murano glassware.
Despite the impressive artwork and potential for catastrophic breakages, the kitchen is the hub of the family home. With its gaping skylight and window overlooking an inner courtyard, it has a feeling of light and space that’s emphasised by multiple mirrors. Even the vintage Murano gets used. ‘It’s the same approach I have to jewellery: you need to use it. If you break it, it hurts, but at least you’ve enjoyed it.’
Downstairs are three bedrooms, decorated in shades of blue. The boys’ rooms are filled with instruments, toys and football paraphernalia, while the master bedroom is Bucci’s ‘hiding place’. Through one of the wardrobe doors is a hidden en suite, and there’s another family bathroom for the boys complete with aeroplane-shaped taps and a neon sign that lights up either ‘Lucas’ or ‘Julius’, depending on who’s in the tub.
Back in the kitchen, Bucci tells me she’s just finished catching up on eight years’ worth of cataloguing family photos. That in itself sounds like a full-time job, let alone the jewellery design, running a business, and the ‘constant work in progress’ that is their home.
‘Sometimes I don’t sleep much,’ she acknowledges wryly. ‘It’s a question of prioritising and getting organised. Ultimately, they are all things that I love and care about, so it’s important that they get done.’ And get done they do, even down to the home-baked muffins. carolinabucci.com