Why the Most Memorable Homes Begin With a Story

Bayres’ founder, Victoria, on heritage, collecting and creating with history

Set within an 1895 Edinburgh tenement, Victoria’s home studio is also where Bayres began. Layered with inherited pieces, antiques and references gathered across countries and generations, it reflects the ideas at the heart of her work: provenance, memory and honouring what came before.

For Victoria, the most memorable homes are the ones that tell a story.

For anyone discovering Bayres for the first time, how would you introduce yourself and your work?

I’m Victoria, Founder & Creative Director of Bayres, an interior design experience anchored in heritage.

For me, heritage can take many forms. It can mean honouring the provenance and patina of an object, but it can also be something deeply personal — a quilt passed down through generations, a childhood book you still remember, or a place that has stayed with you.

Storytelling anchors my approach to design. I’m interested in finding those stories and keeping them at the heart of the project.

I’m originally from Argentina, with Italian and Spanish roots, and I now live and work in Edinburgh, so my own blend of places, memories, and references inevitably threads into Bayres too.

How did Bayres begin?

Relocating to Scotland made me appreciate my heritage in a completely different way. When you move countries, you have to decide what you take with you and what you leave behind, and I became much more conscious of the meaning we attach to the pieces we choose to keep.

It made me understand how interiors reflect our identity — not only where we come from, but where we’re going. Even the name Bayres carries that tension. It comes from the affectionate way Argentinians refer to Buenos Aires, but in its historical English spelling — bringing a little of where I came from into where I am now.

What role did Edinburgh play in shaping Bayres?

It really began with renovating our 1895 Edinburgh tenement flat, which is now also my home studio.

From the beginning, I wanted to honour the story of the home and preserve as much of its original character as possible. Working with a home that already had more than a century of history meant carefully considering what to preserve, what to restore and what new layers to add without losing what was already there.

It became a very personal exploration of many of the ideas that would later shape Bayres.

What do you love most about what you do?

I would say I love finding and honouring the story at the heart of a project. It might come from the history of the building, a piece that has been passed down, a memory, or a connection to a particular place.

There’s something very special about taking those references and translating them into an interior that feels deeply personal — where every detail has meaning.

What makes a home memorable to you?

A memorable home tells you something about the person who lives there. It feels layered with choices, memories and references that couldn’t simply be replicated somewhere else. For me, that is what gives a home its character — not perfection, but a sense that every layer has arrived for a reason.

What makes a home feel truly personal rather than simply well decorated?

It’s the layers that come from real life — inherited pieces, objects collected over time, memories attached to a place, or references that mean something to the person who lives there.

A beautiful room can be admired, but a memorable room stays with you because it tells you something about the life being lived there.

How has living in Scotland influenced you?

I think it’s the closeness to nature. Even in Edinburgh, the landscape never feels far away — you can be by the sea, in the hills, or surrounded by woodland within a short distance.

I also love the sense of identity here. You see it in the architecture, traditional crafts, local customs and the way people continue to celebrate where they come from. Coming from Argentina, where we’re also very proud of where we come from, that really resonates with me.

Are there particular traditions or stories that keep finding their way into your work?

I’ve become particularly drawn to traditions connected to the seasons and the landscape — gathering, harvest, plant folklore and the old customs around marking the changing year.

I love discovering that a flower or plant I might pass on a walk has a story or meaning that has been carried for generations. It’s changed the way I look at the landscape around me, and many of those stories have naturally found their way into my pattern collections.

My first collection, Midsummer Dream, grew from exactly that — Scottish wildflowers and the folklore surrounding them, translated into patterns for the home.

What is it like creating in Edinburgh?

Creativity is quite understated. There’s a strong community of independent makers, artists, craftspeople and small businesses here, often working in ways that feel very considered and personal.

There’s also something quite special about creating in a city where the past is so present. You’re surrounded by centuries of architecture, craftsmanship and history, while new ideas constantly emerge alongside them. That relationship between old and new feels very natural in Edinburgh, and it’s something I really value.

How do the seasons affect the way you work and live?

Scotland has made me much more aware of seasonality — not only in the landscape, but in how I dress and how I approach a home.

I find myself responding to what’s happening outside: the changing colours, the light, the materials I reach for, what’s growing or beginning to fade. There’s a natural rhythm to living with the seasons here that has become very much part of my style.

What does a typical working day look like for you?

I like a slow start to the day, usually with my own blend of yerba mate and home-grown mint. After that, no two days are quite the same. I might be working on an interior, developing a pattern, sourcing antiques or following a thread of research for a new collection.

I’m quite tactile in the way I work, so I’m rarely behind a desk all day. I’m always looking — through old books, antique shops and exhibitions, or walking around Edinburgh and gathering from the landscape. Often, the best references are the ones I wasn’t looking for.

What do you think people often misunderstand about heritage?

I think how alive its heritage is. From the outside, it can be easy to see Scottish traditions as belonging to the past, but living here you realise how naturally they continue into the present.

You see traditional materials being reinterpreted, crafts passed on, old buildings adapted rather than erased, and customs that are still part of people’s lives. Heritage here isn’t only about looking back; it continues to evolve.

What advice would you give someone trying to develop a style that feels personal to them?

I’d say start with your own story — where you come from, what you’ve inherited, the places you’ve lived and the references that have stayed with you. But don’t feel bound by it either.

Our stories are always evolving, and I think our personal style should be allowed to evolve with them. What we choose to carry forward is just as much a part of the story as where it began.