Abisola Omole on Her New London Interiors Store and Embracing the Term Influencer

Down a discreet pathway in the north London neighborhood of Islington, an area best known for its Georgian terraces and leafy residential squares, the minimalist storefront ofstudio Arva is immediately intriguing. Through its floor-to-ceiling windows, you can make out what appears to be a swimming pool; but look a little closer, and you’ll notice it’s actually a sculpture. (In a nod to its playfully artificial nature, the space’s founder, Abisola Omole, has nicknamed it the “perennial pool.”) Across the room sits a small bar serving madeleines and non-alcoholic spritzes, while in another corner, a “bodega” contains a fridge ofarva-branded bottled beverages—flavors include yuzu with pear and lychee with hibiscus—that Omole has recently perfected the recipes for.

As with Omole’s various other ventures—writing, content creation, styling, and brand consulting—she didn’t follow an existing formula when she decided to set up a furniture shop. The space balances her interest in accessibility with an elevated, ever-changing rotation of homewares: a range of vintage finds reupholstered in contemporary fabrics, say, or the enormous made-to-order shelving units designed by Omole herself that host a medley of curated glassware across a range of price points. The premise is simple: “I wanted to keep things easy,” Omole says. “I didn’t want the feeling you get when you go into places and you have to ask, so all the prices are clearly marked. I wanted it to feel cozy, for people to come in and just hang out.”

Creating a welcoming atmosphere is at the heart of Omole’s design philosophy. As someone who was early to the lifestyle influencer space—she first began blogging in 2008, before launching her own creative agency in 2012—Omole is more than familiar with the interior design formula that any Instagram user now also knows all too well. (Area rugs, usually checkered; sofas with plush, photogenic curves; a side table topped with a mushroom lamp; anything inspired by vintage Italian design.) But while purchasing these pieces is something anyone with a credit card can achieve, actually putting it all together is an entirely different feat.

Having played a hand in popularizing this now-familiar aesthetic, Omole also knows how to cut through the noise. Her signature approach may be minimalist, but it also features plenty of character, expressed through the collected books and low-brow vintage finds carefully placed throughout. Ultimately, Omole’s objective with studio arva is to provide a curated array of products so that others can apply their individualism to their own homes.

An important element of Omole’s understanding of good design is that it should be open to anyone. In 2018, following the success of her blog, she launchedThe Apartmenta content creation studio complete with furniture and homeware accessories for influencers and brands to use in their own imagery. Now, with studio arva, she’s making that setup permanent, with everything in situ also being available for purchase.

Despite having parlayed her online success into a sprawling array of businesses, Omole refuses to be snobbish about the term influencer, as plenty of those in the more traditionalist wing of the design world continue to be. “Influencers, content creators, whatever we want to call them, are always going to be part of our strategy, because I consider myself one, and most of my friends consider themselves to be too,” she says, noting that lifestyle influencers have also played a pivotal role in introducing a new generation to what has historically been a rarefied, closed-off world.

So too does Omole’s modern, relatable approach push back against the idea that an interest in design-forward interiors should be available to people of any wealth bracket or background. “I’ve talked to some friends who are from money and we talk about how different our holidays were,” she continues. “I think about when I was 20 and I first started to learn about design. I’m like, imagine if I started to learn about this at 12? My sister who’s 15 has seen all of this, and she’s going to surpass us all—her taste level is already insane. And that’s why I want to give those opportunities or exposure to people who are younger, or earlier in their career—it levels the playing field a little bit.”

Within studio arva, Omole combines the old with the new; the established with the emerging; the one-of-a-kind with thoughtfully-placed mass production. Her feed alone is evidence of a curious, curated life—and taken as a whole, it offers a more democratic vision for creating your own design-forward interior world.

For while Omole may be constantly spinning the plates of her multiple businesses, she still lives in a houseshare with her two sisters, just down the road from the Islington store, near where they were raised. And the store, it turns out, is just the first step as Omole continues to bridge the gap between online and IRL. “I’m obsessed with how a physical place can make you feel, so even though I was in that sort of digital world for so long, when Icould do something physical, I was like, yeah, let’s try it,” she says. “I want my own hotel one day. There are so many things I want to do.”

studio arva, Islington Square is located at 129D Upper Street, N1 1QP. Open from Wednesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; private appointments are available.