Studio Ashby

Rising star Sophie Ashby is redefining British style for a new generation: creating interiors that are respectful of a heritage of warmth, comfort and color while being global in reference and as inclusive of contemporary art and vintage design as of fine antiques. Her own study, in a Georgian terraced house in London’s Spitalfields that once belonged to legendary English tastemaker Jocasta Innes, exemplifies her approach. The room’s “bumblebee-themed bookcases,” as Ashby describes them, are an Inness inheritance, but the bleached-oak writing desk, at once organic and modern, is a creation of her firm, Studio Ashby. Gino Sarfatti’s 548 desk lamp, designed in 1951, provides a vivid pop of color and form, while the leopard print that covers the vintage desk chair offers a dollop of whimsy. As to the green-velvet-upholstered couch, what could be more English? And what could be more delightful to our ears: Ashby found this diverse assortment of vintage furnishings and the Staccato rug that pulls it all together on 1stDibs.