My Coldplay.com

Coldplay’s bass player loves street style. His fashionista wife is an old romantic. So what happened when they set up home together?
A dream home doesn’t materialise overnight, as Jo and Guy Berryman know. It took them two years to find an Edwardian mansion, then a year to bring it back to its former glory.

Yet now they’re living there, it feels as though they’ve been there for ever.

Despite their 13-month-old daughter Nico, this is a grown-up house with a groovy rock ‘n’ roll edge. Former fashion stylist Jo, co-owner of chic boutique Jezebell in London’s Marylebone, oozes cool (from her Jonathan Saunders dress to the Cole & Son wallpaper she’s chosen for the living room) and is the perfect foil to Guy’s hip street style as bass player with Coldplay.
They met at university - ‘We swirled in the same social circles, but were only friends,’ says Jo - and got together later, long before Coldplay hit the big time.

They married in September 2004, found their London house in April 2005, and moved in the following year. ‘The house wasn’t derelict, but it needed a lot of updating,’ says Jo. ‘When the surveyors found dry rot, we decided not to do things by halves. So we started from scratch.’ They gutted everything, opening out the rooms to let in light and create a sense of space and serenity.

‘We’ve turned a six-bedroom house into a three-bedroom one,’ says Jo.

They decided against using an interior decorator. ‘It was important for us to marry our tastes, as we have different aesthetic sensibilities. Guy studied architecture and is design-led, while I’m nostalgic and feminine. It results in a nice balance,’ she says.

‘We wanted to create a family home where we can bring up our children, but also an easy living and working space that suits us both.’ It’s the finishing touches that make this home so fabulous, from American oak floors stained grey (inspired by New York’s Mercer Hotel) to new architraves, original doors and staircases that have been stripped and repainted.

They enlarged the basement to create a utility room and storage space, and opened out the kitchen, expanding a skylight, to create a comfortable hub. ‘We needed a good kitchen because we love to cook. Guy’s in charge and I’m his sous chef — we whip up simple, rustic trattoria fare.’

The mood of the house is effortless yet striking, particularly the dark paint hues and bold wallpapers. ‘This house can cope with murky colours,’ says Jo.

‘They work with its space and proportions.’

Keeping the hall and landings neutral creates a calming, unified space around bursts of detail and colour in the rooms.

‘It’s easy to add detail to a room using a vivid wallpaper without feeling as if we’re cluttering the space,’ says Jo.

The house is the perfect backdrop for their growing contemporary art collection - there are pieces by Damien Hirst, Peter Saville, graffiti artist Julia Chiang and former A-ha keyboard player Magne Furuholmen.

It was vital for Jo and Guy to create a house where they could entertain.

‘It’s always filled with people, and music is an obvious part.’ Yet, despite its elegance, it’s a work in progress. ‘To make a house a home, it needs memories,’ says Jo. ‘So, it needs more pictures and a few scuffs on the walls.’

Jezebell, 59 Blandford St, London W1. Tel: 020 7935 7109; www.jezebell.co.uk

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