"Chimneypieces are always to blame," Will Fisher says when the subject turns to redecoration, specifically the recent rethink of his own London drawing room. Though he was “quite wedded” to the existing white-marble-and- siena Georgian mantel, his wife, Charlotte, was ready for something brawnier. Temptations, after all, abound given their business: Jamb, a Pimlico Road institution that they founded in 2001 and that specializes in chic reproductions of historic fireplace surrounds. He balked, she persisted, and the couple eventually installed a gutsy English limestone antique, with a wide frieze of overlapping leaves and perky acorns. The swap sparked a room-wide revamp that took place during the city’s pandemic lockdown. “If you’re going to be confined within four walls,” the dealer says in his defense, “you might as well set about reimagining it.” A soft duck-egg blue from Papers and Paints transformed the fog-gray walls, which no longer provided enough contrast to the stone. Fabrics and textiles demanded a switch-out too. Down went a bolder Turkish carpet of blue, yellow, and madder red, and in came a rolled-arm sofa dressed in a creamy box-pleated slipcover. Paintings were exchanged and rehung, up went a gilt-wood mirror, and a ceiling lantern gave way to a metal-and-glass orb pendant from Jamb’s collection.
A circa 1750 breakfront now looms opposite the fireplace. “It’s got the same dreamy surface” as the mantel, Will says of the plainspoken but impressively scaled treasure, which came from Packington Hall, seat of the Earl of Aylesford, and wound up at Hawker Antiques, Jamb’s sister company. ‘It’s probably the least shiny piece of furniture.” What comes around goes around: Charlotte’s chimneypiece strategy proved to be a catalyst for Jamb’s new range of six stone mantels that embody the antique. “We were playing with scale and moldings and different kinds of stone, and suddenly there was this moment where it really came together,” she says. Adds Will, “We develop new ideas when we fall in love with some- thing.” Another chimneypiece swap is surely in their future. jamb.co.uk
