Glenn Spiro opens intimate jewellery atelier in Mayfair with designer Valerie Name Bolaño

The London jewellery house Glenn Spiro has opened a new boutique at 26 Bruton Street in Mayfair, designed in collaboration with Venezuelan interior designer Valerie Name Bolaño. The space, which occupies a former atelier of couturier Sir Norman Hartnell, is conceived as an intimate salon rather than a conventional retail store.

Glenn Spiro and his son Joe Spiro worked with Bolaño to create an environment that reflects the brand’s identity — known for avant-garde silhouettes and unusual materials — while allowing the jewellery to remain the focal point. The result is a layered interior that combines antique objects, custom-designed furniture and a restrained monochrome palette.

Por que importa

Design concept: an intimate salon, not a boutique
Bolaño told Wallpaper* that the design process began with research into the building’s history. “It was once the atelier of Sir Norman Hartnell, where Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret would have their gowns custom-made,” she said. Archival imagery of the original interiors informed her decision to preserve some of that essence while reinterpreting it in a contemporary way that represents the language of the house.

The key objective was to avoid a conventional jewellery boutique feel. “Instead, the idea was to create an intimate salon, somewhere you could have tea and a conversation,” Bolaño explained. Materials and objects were layered and collected over time — some designed specifically for the space, others sourced as antiques — to avoid the sense that everything had arrived at once. “Much like the jewellery, there is a sense of discovery. You don’t necessarily see everything immediately,” she added.

Contexto

Key facts
| Element | Detail |
|———|——–|
| Location | 26 Bruton Street, Mayfair, London W1J 6QL |
| Design team | Glenn Spiro, Joe Spiro, Valerie Name Bolaño |
| Historical context | Former atelier of couturier Sir Norman Hartnell |
| Design approach | Residential salon with antiques, custom furniture, monochrome palette |

Materials and the Green Room
Bolaño selected materials with depth and texture — heavy weaves, cast glass, antiqued metals, stone and woods — that become more interesting on closer inspection. “The materials needed to have richness, but they also needed to remain quiet enough to allow the jewellery to speak,” she said.

A standout feature is the Green Room, conceived as a spatial translation of a Glenn Spiro jewellery box. “Dark, intimate and enveloping, with only a few carefully placed spotlights illuminating what matters,” Bolaño described. The room houses new pieces and provides clients with a private space to try on jewellery and converse with the designers.

The rest of the atelier follows a largely monochrome cream palette, which Bolaño described as “a beautiful, quiet canvas for Glenn and Joe’s creations.” Against this backdrop, individual objects and materials are allowed to stand out.

Custom details linking jewellery and interior
Bolaño incorporated subtle connections between the jewellery brand’s world and the interior. Her studio’s signature ceramic buttons were reimagined using a motif taken from the Old World Collection, cast in bronze and integrated into furniture pieces. “Almost as though the furniture itself were wearing jewellery,” she said. “I loved that exchange of scale: taking their language of jewellery and allowing it to become part of the furniture and the room.”

The overall atmosphere, Bolaño said, is “residential, intimate, sensual and slightly unexpected, more like a conceptual living room, surrounded by layers of memories and objects collected over many years.”

What this means for design and retail
For readers interested in luxury retail design, the Glenn Spiro showroom offers a case study in how a jewellery brand can translate its identity into physical space without resorting to display cases and bright lighting. The approach prioritises atmosphere, discovery and conversation — values that are increasingly relevant as high-end retail moves away from transactional models toward experience-driven environments.

The boutique also demonstrates how interior designers can collaborate with brands to create spaces that feel both personal and coherent, using historical context, material selection and custom details to tell a story.

Source: Wallpaper – Step inside Glenn Spiro’s sumptuous new London jewellery showroom (https://www.wallpaper.com/watches-jewellery/glenn-spiro-london-jewellery-showroom)

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