For Dr Barbara Sturm, one of the world's best known skincare revolutionaries, it’s unsurprising that beauty starts at home. She fondly recalls her childhood spent near the forest in Bad Liebenstein, a ‘beautiful’ village in eastern Germany. ‘I grew up waiting for little salamanders on a little pond,’ she says.
Fast forward to today, and grounding herself in nature remains an integral part of Sturm’s life. ‘I always take my shoes off whenI get home. I like to walk barefoot,’ she explains, sitting cross-legged at the dining table in her family’s chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland, dressed in a simple white T-shirt and her eldest daughter’s Hommegirls blue boxer shorts.
Gstaad is one of the three places that Sturm – along with her husband, lawyer Adam Waldman, and youngest daughter Pepper, nine – calls home. The other properties include a mid-century modern house in Los Angeles and a ‘cosy’ apartment in Düsseldorf, where she opened her first clinic in 2006 and where this ELLE photoshoot took place.
Built in 1903, the flat is located in Oberkassel, a bustling residential neighbourhood on the Rhine that Sturm likens to Notting Hill. ‘We live near a fun Italian restaurant called Prinzinger run by a friend of mine. We end up eating there a lot,’ she says.
Sturm bought the former office space in 2013, but couldn’t initially envision it becoming a home. ‘My friend took me to the apartment, and I took two steps in and wanted to leave immediately,’ she recalls of the moment she first laid eyes on it. But as she caught sight of the space’s high ceilings and sliding doors, she came to understand its ‘beautiful’ potential, along with its ‘hidden treasures’. ‘I found a door made of stained glass, which was typical of the Jugendstil [Germany’s art-nouveau movement] and opened up into three ugly rooms that I knew could be transformed,’ she says.
With the help of her brother and father – both architects – the family set about renovating the lacklustre 260sqm space, removing walls and reworking its layout to create a vibrant and functional home. Today, you’ll find a living room, kitchen, dining room and study, as well as three bedrooms, a main bathroom – and a sauna, naturally.
‘It’s a combination of classic and charming, but not super modern,’ Sturm says of the design aesthetic, which has been rooted in a refined palette of tonal blues (Farrow & Ball’s Hague Blue and Dix Blue, to be precise) and neutral greys (the kitchen walls are painted in the same Farrow & Ball colour – Elephant’s Breath – as those at her New York Mercer Street store).
With an eponymous skincare line famous for its uncomplicated yet highly effective ethos, which has accrued a legion of fans from Jennifer Aniston to Paris Hilton, Sturm has an attention to detail that is expected but no less inspiring. Beneath a hand-blown glass Bocci chandelier in the living room is a Sturm-designed blue velvet sofa (‘a sofa should be so cosy you never want to get up from it’). Meanwhile, the emerald-green velvet dining chairs from German supplier Westwing perfectly complement the lime-green Louis XIV-style table beneath a gold-hued Sky garden 2 suspension lamp by Marcel Wanders for Flos. ‘I don’t like it when a company makes something that everyone has,’ she says, of her love of bespoke.
While her skincare line is known for its minimalist, monochrome packaging, it’s refreshing to learn of Sturm’s love of colour and animal print in her day-to-day life. ‘We have every colour possible at home,’ she says, noting the playful Matthew Williamson Tyger Tyger wallpaper in the kitchen and the bathroom’s puffer-fish-printed Cole & Son’s Fornasetti Acquario wallpaper. ‘If I see something I love, even if I don’t have a place for it, I buy it,’ she says of her fun-focused approach to interiors, referencing the ‘super-cute monkey lamps’ in the kitchen and handmade horse-shaped lamp stands in Pepper’s bedroom.
An enthusiast of bargains and one-of-a-kind pieces (‘I don’t like things to be super-expensive’), Sturm spends her downtime roaming the likes of Paris’ Marché aux Puces and London’s Portobello Market to build upon her impressive art collection, exemplified by the 'Woman Carrying the Milk' piece by Elena Gorokhova that hangs in the study. Meanwhile, her high-low aesthetic boasts the perfect blend of modern and antique, whether it’s the kitchen’s Lem bar stools by Shin & Tomoko Azumi for Lapalma, or the kitchen-cabinet knobs she found for €2 each.
Feeling free, Sturm says, is an important component of helping her to feel at home – no more so than in her bathroom. In addition to a freestanding bathtub, shower, wood and grey-tiled floors, and black Dornbracht taps, sits a sizeable shelf beneath her mirror, which is home to her skincare. ‘I like as much light as possible in the bathroom and space for all my products,’ she explains. ‘When you travel and live out of a suitcase as much as I do, it can tire you out. Home is where I have everything that provides my stability.’
Explore Dr. Sturm’s Anti-Inflammatory Lounge at the Frieze London, October 11 – 15. The collaboration will see Dr. Sturm bring her anti-inflammatory ethos, education, and immersive experiences to all five of the Frieze international art fairs annually and reinforces her long-standing commitment to the arts.
This article was originally published in the November issue of ELLE.
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
