“I don’t think I’m quite comfortable in minimalist spaces,” says multi-platinum selling artist Florence Welch of her whimsically cluttered London pad. “It’s the first house that I moved into after I moved out of my mum’s – but my mum said I wasn’t allowed to move further than ten minutes from the house, so here I am.”
With her roots firmly in South London – it’s where Welch was born and also attended art school – the musician reimagined a “mature" version of her childhood bedroom and a cabinet of curiosities. “I haven’t really changed the space that much,” she says. “It was just coats of paint and changing door knobs, because small things can really make the difference. Finding bits of furniture you like and re-upholstering them… I’ve always been like an inherent decorator.” Her mother’s paintings hang next to a pair of leather lungs made for her debut album cover, as well as countless postcards and books picked up on her travels.
“Having lots of stuff and having lots of chaos around you is like a way to hide,” reflects Welch. “These little piles of books just grow everywhere like stalagmites and stalactites. I definitely need to be with my own thoughts and listen to music and read and write. It’s kind of how I make sense of the world.”