Of course, the reality of life inside the serene apartment looks a little different from the photographs. “I do actually have two kids,” Gibbon laughs. Each evening, toys disappear into boxes, cupboards, and under-bed storage, restoring the calm she worked so carefully to create.
The effort has paid off. Despite (and perhaps even because of) the apartment’s modest footprint, her older son has no interest in moving. “He never ever wants to leave this apartment—it’s home,” she says.
Not every room required reinvention. In the bathroom, Gibbon relied on paint, small ceramics from her studio, and a postcard depicting Barbara Hepworth’s Mother and Child to make the existing space feel more personal.
“Whether it’s something from your travels, like textiles, or an antique, or a design piece that you found in a specific place, I think it helps create depth in a space,” Gibbon says. This vignette captures that philosophy: ceramics from her own studio, a sculptural object sourced in Morocco, and a painting by Michael Iveson layered atop an 18th-century Swedish chest.
Gibbon began embroidering the West Elm linen curtains in her son’s room while pregnant with her first child, eventually finishing them years later after the arrival of her second child. An open metal bed preserves the room’s natural light, while a Moroccan rug—cut from a larger piece she sourced on her travels—grounds the space. A compact bookshelf by Standard Practice keeps favorite titles within easy reach. The pendant light is by Ferm Living, and the bedding is from Toast.