Take 5 with Hari Salem

I love to travel, and along with my wife Catherine, we’ve been fortunate to travel far and wide over the years. When visiting India, I was instantly inspired by people, the mood, the colours, and all the exciting things it has to offer. On one trip to Jaipur Rajasthan, I came across a back alley with a guy selling old Indian furniture and he offered to take me to his warehouse to show me more. I handpicked many items I loved, and they arrived with me in London sometime late via a shipping container. From this, I furnished three of my West London salons, plus put some pieces in my own house in London and Sussex. I’m all about a curation of individual pieces – A door or a mirror, and I’d say my taste is a mix of themes, I’m not just dedicated to one.

I opened the first Hari’s salon on Brompton Road in 1976. At the time, my hobby was going to auctions and old antique shops. I heard about an auction in Nottingham, a church was closing, and I just had to go. Before I got there an American guy came in and bought the whole church. I went a little crazy at the Vicar, but he had a solution being his untouched vestiary. I took one look and bought the whole vestiary. In the salon, the reception desk was a pulpit, our pricelist was a hymn board, and I bought an old Victorian toilet with a wooden seat – it had beautiful patterns and designs. So, our first salon was Victorian gothic and entirely unique. The floor had old flagstones from Italy. My obsessions have continued to change over the years and manifest themselves in how I design the salons. Brompton road changes of the years I suppose is a good example of this.

I had a moment where I was obsessed with Art Deco furniture and started collecting it. I was in South Beach Miami when the love affair started. And my second salon opened in 1983 displayed some of my collected pieces. I found a 1920’s Milner’s shop in South London that had just closed, so I bought its contents! We photographed the shop and tried to replicate it to a t. And so, the entire salon was all original art deco furniture which was incredibly unique including chairs, lighting, all the stations were built from original ziggurats and just so unique.

Venice and its food are a passion me and Catherine’s have also enjoyed over the years, we used to go there a lot. It’s there I discovered all their amazing lighting and the opulence of Murano chandeliers which is the story behind the chandeliers you’ll see across Hari’s salons. We brought them over and made a feature of them in the salons. What I love doing is mixing different designs and cultures together, it’s eclectic and an artform really – It’s very difficult to mix things up without it looking like a dog’s dinner! So, for example when we did our South Kensington salon in 2019 we mixed Indian furniture with Murano Chandeliers and Corten

I randomly came across a designer, Walter, a Belgium guy that used to do crazy designs. He started designing the clocks in all the salons that were all bespoke. The idea is that I really hate salons or restaurants that are all the same or have no character. I am Inspired by aesthetic and visual of things and I think it’s important to make the creative environment of the salons inspiring. I’m a detail person and so are so many of my talented staff. Whilst the salons aesthetic and business continues to evolve, I like to think my personality remains present always and our values remain timeless.