Jaz Rosten-Edwards had always wanted to have an art gallery – so she turned her house into one.
Houses on a residential street can blend into one. Especially if there is a row of them built as a set at the same time – but things can be very different within. As I discovered on a quiet road, where a fairly modest-looking Victorian artisan’s cottage on the outside turns out to be a wonderland within – and you’re right in it the moment the front door opens.
As Jaz Rosten-Edwards welcomed us into her hallway, I was so jaw-dropped I could hardly stutter ‘hello’. The walls, ceiling and woodwork painted the rich, deep grey of Farrow & Ball’s iconic Downpipe and the fabulous 1950s Italian chandelier would be an impressive introduction on their own – but then there are the artworks. They cover the walls, ceiling to floor, both sides and all of them invite further investigation.
A mixture of original paintings, black and white photographs, prints and mixed media pieces, all interestingly framed, you could spend a happy hour examining each one – and asking Jaz who they are by and where she found them. All of which she is happy to recount. She can remember all the details for all of them. This is a woman with a true passion for art.
Which is why, she explains, taking me through to the dining room – equally dramatic with Hague Blue on all surfaces, walls covered with art works, plus sculptures and neon – and inviting me to sit at the (genuine) Saarinen tulip table, after a busy career in the corporate world she came to open her own art gallery.
The trading party of the gallery is online (and called oneoffto25.com because it sells a mixture of original art works and prints, up to editions of just 25 pieces), but her house acts as a showcase for the works on sale, via her Instagram account @jazzierere.
“I’ve always been creative and I decided to fulfil my dream to have a gallery, without the overheads of a bricks and mortar space. I post shots of works by the artists
I represent in the house on Instagram, because is shows the art in its natural habitat and people can see them to scale. Then they can go to the site to buy them.”
Prices are kept at the very affordable end of the art market, ranging from £35 to £120 for a limited-edition print and from £200 to £1,200 for a painting. This is deliberate because Jaz is passionate about inspiring as many people as possible to discover the joy of owning original artworks, which is so important to her.
“I started collecting original works, because I didn’t want to buy disposable art. Original art evokes emotions and I want people to experience this when they choose it. I also want to help emerging artists by giving them exposure as well as helping them to sell their art.”
And via her online service between artists and collectors, it is the joyful emotional aspect of choosing and owning original artworks that Jaz wants people to experience.
“People ask, ‘what should I invest in?’ and I always say, ‘buy it because you love it’. It has to be a gut reaction. A sacrifice might be needed to buy it, but it’s worth it. I don’t think it’s necessarily good practice to buy everything you want.”
This philosophy of buying thoughtfully and buying well holds true for Jaz for every aspect of furnishing a home. Her wonderfully rich environment – I wanted to get out a clipboard and ask her where she had found every single thing in it – is an eclectic mix of vintage, chain store, good quality new and unique, sourced over time with thought and consideration. Something she feels strongly about.
“It’s important to think about sustainability and the impact upon the environment. I think we are moving towards fast interiors, and fast art type purchases. There are obvious parallels that can be drawn with fast fashion which has tainted aspects of the industry. I believe in buying well and buying once. Not in a snobbish way, but if you want a unique home, accept it will take time. Consider purchases, don’t go for instant gratification.”
This is why, while the majority of the furniture and lighting in this home are very special vintage finds – like that chandelier in the living room, which is from The Old Cinema ‘antique and vintage department store’ in Chiswick – the items they source are of very good quality.
Jaz, whilst citing another example of good quality, indicates a bright blue velvet-covered sofa on the opposite side of the dining room as being from Designers Guild who produce good furniture that lasts the test of time. “As my mum used to say, ‘the cheapest becomes the dearest’. I think about the supply chain of everything I buy – I try to be a mindful shopper.”
Jaz takes the same quality-matters approach to paint – a smart move, considering the impact the strong colours throughout the house make. Taking me further on through what Jaz describes as ‘a long, thin house’, it’s a bit like gloriously strolling through a Farrow & Ball paint chart. With all surfaces Off Black in the kitchen, Studio Green (a rich deep green) in the bathroom and the utility room. A very bold change in a house which was all magnolia and peach when they bought it nine years ago. “It was very safe,” says Jaz. “But there’s no right or wrong, it’s just a matter of taste.”
But while that kind of neutral scheme was very much not to Jaz’s taste, they haven’t done any structural work whatsoever on the house. Very unusual in these times of knocking through, opening out, going up and adding on. “We had architect plans drawn up to expand into the loft, like other houses on our street have done, and have another bedroom and bathroom, but we decided with just the two of us, we didn’t need to.”
Leaving Jaz to pour all her love and energy into the furnishings… Which start right at the back of the house, in the lowliest corner, the utility room, which is not only painted that lovely colour, it has a chandelier and artworks of its own too. As does the bathroom. Why would you leave a wall blank, when you can hang a beloved painting on it to admire and enjoy?
“If you are going to include artwork in your bathroom it needs to be an oil painting, for example, so that it will not be too adversely affected by the environment where moisture and condensation may be an issue. I always give my customers practical advice if they request it especially if they have not bought original art before”.
Another detail I spot here yields a fiendishly handy tip – Jaz mixes real pot plants with faux ones. It’s a very clever way to fill your house with greenery, without creating an enormous plant-care workload requiring the time and commitment needed to rear a litter of puppies.
Travelling from Studio Green to the Off Black of the kitchen there is another genre of Jaz’s art collection to enjoy, in very striking black and white ceramic pieces by Jude Jelfs, who she discovered at a ceramics show – part of the round of visits to galleries, art fairs and open studios which are now a crucial part of her business life.
The kitchen also shows off Jaz’s inventive ingenuity. A print of a hare dressed in a velvet frock coat and ruff turns out to be a laminate tray attached to the ugly white front of the boiler with Command strips. “It surprised a plumber. He’d never seen anything like it before, but had to admit it worked.”
She’s taken no prisoners with the rest of the kitchen space – changing nothing physical, but painting every surface, including cupboard doors, drawer fronts and tiles, a striking ultra-dark grey, and changing handles. The ceramic stool in black and white, like the Jude Jelfs pieces, which looks like Fornasetti is one of Jaz’s considered new pieces, from Rockett St George.
Moving back into the dining room – and starting to get my eye in, after the initial surprise and slight sensory overload (of a very thrilling kind) – I notice themes. Hands appear quite often, in two wonderful polyresin ones on the table from Abigail Ahern, some of which are Fornasetti and others found in a Brighton antique shop.
But the thing that really jumps out from Jaz’s wonderful walls are faces. A large-scale painting of a girl over the fireplace, which has a dreamy, fairy-tale quality, is by Janet Stocker, a young artist who Jaz represents.
On the opposite wall is another large painting of a girl, more close up, by Juby Page, an artist Jaz stumbled upon by chance at an art fair in Chelsea. Walking round by herself, she had seen and fallen in love with the painting – that gut reaction she talks about. “When I met up with my husband Mark later on, he insisted on taking me to see a picture he loved at the fair… and it was the same one. We had to have it.”
These are just two of the faces in this room, with several more on the wall behind the Designers Guild sofa – including a pen and ink portrait of a woman which I particularly fall in love with, by celebrated artist Gill Button. “I like faces,” says Jaz, “because I’m interested in people.”
The theme continues when we venture back into the hall, where that floor-to-ceiling hang demands some serious consideration – not least the practicalities of it. How does she hang them all?
“Hanging artworks depends on their weight. For lighter pieces you can use Command strips, which are removable, but I tend to use nails, screws and wall plugs. I do it all by eye, I never use a tape measure. I don’t want it to look perfect – I want it to look lived in, not precious.”
But while Jaz makes it sound as though she casually throws her artworks up, there are other picture-hanging skills involved to make them look as good as they do.
As we turn into the sitting room, I’m struck by two pieces on the facing wall, which look so right together I assume they are by the same artist. One is an old painting, which has been painted over with the word FAKE in large pink letters. Below it is a round painting, on a pink background, also featuring overpainting.
But it turns out they are by two different artists (Heath Kane and Marcie Kobernus, respectively) – and it’s Jaz’s very considered placement that makes them work so well together, especially with an oval painting on a black background to one side and another smaller work with a black background completing the arrangement. “There is always a colour link when I hang pictures,” she explains. “I colour block to create a link between each room.”
She has had plenty of practise, with the arrangements changing and evolving as new pieces – to sell, or to add to her own collection – come in and out of the house. You can see it on her Instagram feed, where there are several pieces hanging in different spots from where they were when I visited.
No wonder she’s got nearly 25,000 followers on the app. Like her home, it’s full of interest and inspiration, curated by an expert eye.
Visit oneoffto25.com to see Jaz’s curated mix of original art works and prints, up to editions of just 25 pieces, and find her on Instagram @jazzierere.
Abigail Ahern abigailahern.com
Designers Guild designersguild.com
Hilary & Flo hilaryandflo.co.uk
Rockett St George rockettstgeorge.co.uk
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The almost black walls of the sitting room provide the perfect backdrop for Jaz’s collection of artworks
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In the kitchen, Jaz has painted every surface – including cupboard doors, drawer fronts and tiles – a striking ultra-dark grey and changed the handles on the units
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A lovely painting of a hare dressed in a velvet frock coat and ruff (above right) turns out to be a water and heat resistant Ibride tray which she attached to the ugly white front of the boiler with Command strips
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Hands appear quite often throughout the house, the pair on the dining table, cast in plaster, are from Abigail Ahern
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The majority of the furniture and lighting in Jaz’s home are vintage finds, but the new pieces she has chosen are of very good quality. A bright blue velvet-covered sofa on the opposite side of the dining room is by Designers Guild
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“There is always a colour link when I hang pictures,” Jaz explains. “I colour block, to create a link through the room.” She has had plenty of practise, with the arrangements constantly changing and evolving as new pieces – to sell, or to add to her own collection – come into the house and go out again
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A large-scale painting of a girl over the fireplace is by Janet Stocker, a young artist who Jaz represents, whilst on the opposite wall is another large painting of a girl, more close up, by Juby Page, an artist Jaz stumbled upon by chance at an art fair in Chelsea
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Prints, paintings and sculptures of assorted sizes cover the walls on either side of the staircase
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The zebra head pot, sourced from a shop called Hilary and Flo, is arranged with other pieces that Jaz has added to her collection over the years
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Although painted in deep, rich tones, the bedrooms are surprisingly airy, with light flooding in from large windows, reflected in touches of gilding and with greenery bringing a bit of the outdoors in
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“Hanging artworks depends on their weight. For lighter pieces you can use Command strips, which are removable, but I tend to use nails, screws and wall plugs. I do it all by eye, I never use a tape measure. I don’t want it to look perfect – I want it to look lived in, not precious.”
TEST
“Hanging artworks depends on their weight. For lighter pieces you can use Command strips, which are removable, but I tend to use nails, screws and wall plugs. I do it all by eye, I never use a tape measure. I don’t want it to look perfect – I want it to look lived in, not precious.”
TEST
“Hanging artworks depends on their weight. For lighter pieces you can use Command strips, which are removable, but I tend to use nails, screws and wall plugs. I do it all by eye, I never use a tape measure. I don’t want it to look perfect – I want it to look lived in, not precious.”
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Jaz mixes real pot plants with faux ones. A very clever way to fill your house with greenery, without creating a plant-care overload. Textures throughout this bedroom, and the chandelier above the bed, add to its luxurious and inviting feel
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Jaz mixes real pot plants with faux ones. A very clever way to fill your house with greenery, without creating a plant-care overload. Textures throughout this bedroom, and the chandelier above the bed, add to its luxurious and inviting feel
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“People ask, ‘what should I invest in?’ and I always say, ‘buy it because you love it’. It has to be a gut reaction. A sacrifice might be needed to buy it, but it’s worth it. I don’t think it’s necessarily good practice to buy everything you want.”
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Pinks, greens and blues picked out in the artworks are matched by soft furnishings. Wallpaper printed with ornate panelling on one wall by Rockett St George breaks up the deep grey used to paint the walls, ceiling, wardrobe and door giving an illusion of ‘relief’
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No wonder she’s got nearly 25,000 followers on the app. Like her home, it’s full of interest and inspiration,
curated by an expert eye
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“I post shots of works by the artists I represent in the house on Instagram, because it shows the art in its natural habitat and people can see them to scale”
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