英伦风情的简约之家 | 谷物杂志创始人罗莎·帕克的家

Stepping into Rosa Park’s flat in a Grade I-listed Georgian mansion block in Bath, we can’t say we’re surprised by the feeling of calm that greets us. Like the pages of the magazine she founded and edits, Cereal, Rosa’s space is a soothing mélange of muted, natural tones, fine design and craftmanship, mixed in with considered displays of objects that hint at how far and wide she and her husband, photographer Rich Stapleton, have travelled.

Here, Rosa shares the story of renovating her flat, her love affair with Bath and why beige has got under her skin. Don’t forget to listen to our brand-new podcast that features Rosa as our inaugural guest. Hear her talk about her three favourite spaces around the world and why she’s got a thing for Belgian design here.

“Do you ever notice that a lot of fashion designers wear black? I think it’s because, when you’re exposed to so much, you tend to kind of retreat into the most streamlined version of yourself. It’s not a blanket rule, but I suppose Rich and I fall into that category… except black for us means beige.“A lot of people ask us, ‘Don’t you get bored of this colour palette?’ or, ‘Don’t you want some colour?’ Through my work, I have so much colour in my life and just because it’s not in my sofa doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I love colours and so does Rich but at home this is just what we like.“It’s the sense of having a uniform and having a colour palette that just feels easy and works for us because, more than anything, we wanted this space to feel comfortable.“We looked at 55 flats over the course of a year before we found this one. We weren’t willing to compromise on location. In fact, our search was concentrated to about five streets in Bath we really love.“And the layout had to make sense because so often the problem with Bath flats is that they are in buildings designed as whole townhouses, not individual apartments. Over time they’ve been hacked away at in awful ways and now everything’s protected, so sometimes you can’t even reverse the horrendous decisions that were made in the ‘70s and ‘80s.“We came across this flat on a street I love. I think it’s spectacular, actually. It was built as a very grand boulevard and it still impresses to this day.“We came to see it and, although there’s kind of an old folks home vibe to this building, the location was a tick. It’s fully serviced and because Rich and I are both away for about two weeks of any given month, the idea of a lock-and-leave was very appealing. There’s also gated allocated parking, which is a holy grail in Bath – you can’t park anywhere in this city! We made an offer the same day.“And then we renovated it for about four months, totally gutted it at first. It had green walls, green carpet, funky tiling and velvet curtains. And the previous owner had so much stuff in here. Unreal. The opposite of our aesthetic!“I’ve just never had a particularly flamboyant or dramatic style in my home interiors. Maybe it’s because of my parents. When my friends see photos of my parents’ place they say, ‘Oh, it kind of looks like your house.“I share a lot of similarities with my family, whose style is quite pared-back. Culturally, we Koreans have an artistic tradition that is quite restrained. And, obviously, I’m Korean and that aesthetic influences me a lot. With my gallery, Francis, which I set up last year, Korean aesthetics are a huge, dominating force.“But we live in Bath, the most English place in the world. It would be silly for us to not recognise that this is where we are. And I always think interiors, or even how you dress, are dependent on your location. How I dress in L.A. is different from how I dress here, so how I would decorate my home in those two places is different.“Rich and I had this realisation the other day when we asked ourselves, do you think we like beige so much because we live in Bath? Subconsciously, beige gets into your system when you live here and I guess it could go either way: you could hate it, or you could just be like, yeah, this is my life and embrace it.“We admire the architecture in the city a lot