An east London family house with serene, minimalist interiors

The practice of interior design is something of a problem-solving job – taking a jumbled up floor plan, looking past questionable inherited decorating decisions, stripping it all back and conjuring up a sensible, beautiful house from what was previously chaos. This is precisely what former lawyer turned interior designer Laura Logan has done in her Victorian house in Leytonstone, which she shares with her husband and two young children.

The family moved in in 2019, having lived nearby for a number of years. “We’d previously renovated a smaller house in the local area, which we were really happy with,” Laura explains. “However, I used to walk past this one on a regular basis and always noticed its handsome Victorian frontage. The more often I passed it, the more I noticed it, much in the same way kids notice things; slowly at first, then in a more interested way and eventually I fell in love with it.” Luckily for her, it came on the market and she was able to buy the object of her desire.

Anyone stepping inside now will find a bright, open, incredibly serene house, with large, light-filled spaces and an aesthetic that is modern minimalism at its best; limewash paint, large vases with structural branches placed in them, swathes of neutral fabrics and light oak used for the beams inside and framed façade outside. This is not, however, how they found it. “The kitchen was incredibly small and cramped,” details Laura, and “it had doors and windows that seemed to have been positioned by Rene Magritte. The décor was eccentric to a fault, including gold leaf ceilings and Michaelangelo-style murals in the bedrooms.”

“It was a great house but years of ad hoc internal structural changes had created confusion, dysfunction, and an overall sense of incoherence,” as Laura explains. What she sought to do, with the help of the Lizzie O'Neill at EJ Studio, was to “re-establish a sense of coherence within the original Victorian envelope and then look to create the things that Victorian properties so often lack – light and space.” Two things the house benefits from are its south-facing aspect at the back – where the now sprawling kitchen and dining room spaces are – and an extraordinarily large garden. It made sense to extend the property at the rear to create the space for the “daylight-soaked kitchen and dining room that is fully connected with the outdoors,” Laura says. “With this in mind, the oak framed façade (a feature which translates into the interiors via beams and joinery by Tim Gaudin) became one of the first key decisions we made. We wanted it to feel like we were stepping into a warm sanctuary, despite being in the middle of London, and I think the material choices are a huge part of achieving that feel.”

Materials are indeed a key aspect in the scheme, and it is a remarkably tactile house. The walls are painted in Bauwerk paint, the kitchen island is a vintage refectory table found on eBay that adds welcome patina and that you can’t help but run your hand against, while the microcement floor softly diffuses the light from the acres of window. “I’m always drawn to tactile environments that use natural materials and local artisanship, encouraging reflection and engagement” Laura remarks.