For the art consultant Sibylle Rochat, decorating a house is no simple matter. “I like to live in a picture,” she says. “I have a picture in my head and my house has to fit that image, otherwise I feel very unsettled.” Unsurprisingly, it is her art collection that makes the picture, playing the central role in her West London home.

Her interiors are sharp and pared back, dotted with work Rochat has acquired over 20 years working as an art consultant, first at Christie’s in New York, then in Geneva for Marc Blondeau, before striking out under her own name in Paris and London. “I am not a knick knack person,” she says. “I don’t have photographs in frames or random objects. I admire the freedom of other people who do, but I keep it strict. That’s my way of functioning and recharging my battery in my house.”

This discipline means that everything in Rochat’s house is a talking point. A striped piece in the hallway is a Daniel Buren corridorscope from the 1980s, while Robert Rauschenberg’s “Jungle Jam” has pride of place in the dining room, facing off with a work by the young Brooklyn artist Landon Metz. A John Baldessari represents Rochat’s admiration for an artist “who managed to build a bridge between pop art and conceptual art,” while a sculpture of a stubbed-out cigarette simply “made me laugh.”

Separating the kitchen and dining room is a concrete screen by Mark Hagen – “it’s the only piece of art I have bought that has been actually useful,” Rochat laughs. Yet still it caused a headache. “Hanging a house for me is complicated. I have moved this piece four times, each time about 8 inches, but it’s still not quite right. But every time I want to move it, I need to get two movers to dismantle it, and a specialist to check all the pieces are correctly positioned. It’s one of the downsides to furnishing your house with art.” The upside is the story that it tells.

“My art collection is really personal,” she says. “What lives with me is really what I like.” A particularly emotive piece is a work by Mohamed Bourouissa, a film still of a boy, tinged blue, mounted on a piece of scrap metal. I think this is both the cornerstone and also the crossroads of my taste,” Rochat explains. “I love video art, I love music. It’s very sculptural, it’s got that rough aesthetic, the feel of an abandoned yard.”

Contrasting styles denote different areas in the house. A lively series of human-sized John Miller cut-outs travels up the stairs, while in the bedroom the energy is more intimate, with a framed nude by Zoran Muši?, a delicate sculpture by Evan Holloway, and a drawing by her daughter Camilla propped up on the chest of drawers. She alighted on this area of West London in part because of its inimitable Englishness. “I like the Chelsea vibe, a lot of old British people around me, it’s like a little corner of the countryside.”

A huge work by Gilbert & George in the living room is a nod to her adopted home. “The UK is an island with very specific taste. When I arrived I had very Swiss taste, very minimalist, and in London everyone has an Anish Kapoor, everyone has a Damien Hirst. I bought my Gilbert & George for its flavour of London.” London’s siren call was its energy. “I came here for work, to be somewhere more dynamic. You can lose yourself, you can have five different lives in five different areas. I love that anonymity, the eccentricity, the freedom. I feel like I have access to everything. Brexit makes it difficult, the rules are changing every day, but it’s home now and I hope I can stay here forever.”

From: More Than Just House: At Home with Collectors and Creators by Alex Eagle with text from Tish Wrigley and photography by Kate Martin is published by Rizzoli, £40.

@sibylle.rochat

www.rochartconsultancy.com