Anna Jewsbury is the founder of the cult jewelry and homeware brand Completedworks. When we saw her artfully restrained London home featured on The Modern House, we were curious to find out more about her design process. We soon discovered that Anna studied maths and philosophy at university and that her training in numbers and logic relates directly to her impeccable eye for design.

“At university level, the approach to studying maths changes,” Anna explains. “You are taught to come at each problem in a creative way, and I definitely think that has influenced the way I approach design.” Logic is also involved: “In philosophy, we were taught that an argument is beautiful when there is nothing there that doesn’t need to be there. I try to take that same approach with design, whether that’s with my jewelry or here in my own home.”

Let’s take a tour:

Photography courtesy of The Modern House.

Anna’s home is a three-story former pub in London’s Marylebone. Built in the 1820s, it was converted into two houses in the 2000s and was in need of “a lot of love” when Anna and her husband—the British Iraqi development expert Hassan Damluji—first viewed it in 2020. At the time, the couple were living nearby with their young son, Rafi. “We moved in between lockdowns at a time when a lot of young families were moving out of London. The fact that it was run down meant both that we could afford it and that we could create a space that really works for us, rather than paying for someone else’s vision.”

Fortunately, the couple were able to see past the somewhat squalid interiors to appreciate the generous Georgian proportions and original features including marble fireplaces, delicate structural pillars, and lofty ceilings.