Conservation PIECE

Design editor Emilio Pimentel-Reid has artfully combined the very best of old and new in his beautifully restored Regency apartment in Bath

- SERENA FOKSCHANER

The 1960s sofas have been reupholstered in Romo Oatmeal linen underneath, with a slip cover in York Stripe by British brand Fermoie. Emilio likes to change the covers seasonally. A 19th-century English chair has been given a fresh look with ticking fabric. The Shogun floor lamp is by Mario Botta for Memphis.

The influence of good mentors can last a lifetime, as Emilio Pimentel- Reid will tell you. The design editor has had some of the best. From his earliest employer, Calvin Klein, he absorbed the virtues of minimalism, while a stint with the late fashion designer and antiques lover Oscar de la Renta immersed him in colour and pattern. This led to working at Nest, a ‘rarefied’ interiors magazine in New York, where office decor included a floor-to-ceiling Mark Rothko and Aesthetic Movement ceramics and furniture, mixed with pieces from Maison Jansen. All this, he reflects, gave him the confidence to combine ‘the best I can afford’ of old and new.

It’s an approach he has applied to doing up his Bath apartment. Ranging over the ground and first floors of an 1815 stone terrace, Emilio describes the colourful setting as the ‘reward’ for his daily commute into London, where he runs a design industry consultancy. The ceilings soar to five metres high and sunlight falls in bars through the sash windows, which are even larger than the ones in Bath’s Royal Crescent. ‘It was the last hurrah for glazing,’ says Emilio. And then there are the views. During lockdown, he perched on his African stool at the Regency table overlooking the cascading horse chestnuts of the park opposite – one of the first public green spaces in the country. ‘Bath is good for the soul. Being surrounded by beauty can only be a positive,’ he says.