Jamesplumb

Boutique Hostem, London

James Brown, the shop's owner, looked to the work of interior design duo JAMESPLUMB, founded by Hannah Plumb and James Russell and so..asked them to project him shop.

Upon meeting the designers and seeing their home and studio (a cottage in Stockwell Green that houses a veritable treasure trove of delightful curiosities, amongst them a lamp that began life as an antique roller skate and 19th century bird cages) Brown knew that Hostem’s interior concept lay in their hands. The two met at Wimbledon School of Art, where they studied fine-art sculpture. Their aesthetic is based on a deference to history through the re-working of antique and reclaimed pieces, which sees lamps, bulbs and screens re-interpreted and re-born as individual articles.

As the first commercial project for JAMESPLUMB, the designers were aware that Brown had bestowed huge trust upon them. ‘We’d just started the job and arrived carrying a church pew covered in rotten leaves,’ says Hannah. ‘It raised a few eyebrows, I can tell you’. The pew now stands centrepiece as a beautifully bespoke front desk. Gleaning gems from life’s detritus; pieces can be salvaged from the side of the road, a skip, or found at car-boot sales and furniture reclaim yards.