Inside a London Victorian Townhouse Thoughtfully Restored by Leanne Kilroy

Hey Luxury Home Show, I'm Leanne Kilroy of Good Bones, and today we are talking about how to restore a period property. I looked at the camera, is that good? So we're recording today in my home, which we purchased almost five years ago now. It is a Victorian mid-terrace house, so it's a really classic kind of London stock brick, middle of a terrace, very tall and thin, and it was built probably around 1890. It's probably had a lot of owners, and it's seen a lot of life go on in its storied history. So before we kind of design a period property, we definitely take into account its age and also its location. So if it's a Victorian home, we're going to kind of think about restoring Victorian features that may have been removed. That could be kind of original floorboards that have been covered up, we'll sand them back and stain them. Oftentimes the cornicing, the picture rails, things like that, the corbels have been removed from hallways, so we will use kind of a plaster worker and we will reinstate those amazing features. So it really depends on the period. Kind of Edwardian homes have different features, so we just kind of try to very light touch bring back the things that would have been there originally. Maybe not the wallpaper, maybe not the paint colors, but just the architectural features that kind of give the structure and the bones back to the house. Oftentimes you're in conversation with not just the original builders, you know, 150 years ago or 100 years ago, but also every owner that's come through, every family that's lived there. So many times I'm sure everyone who's ever lived in a home that's been owned by someone else before has asked themselves, why? Why did someone do this? It's a really, really common thing, but often there are reasons. You know, this house that we're in right now was a boarding house for a long time and they needed to do that to make ends meet, and that makes complete sense. So they chopped up rooms, they had a kitchen upstairs, they turned, you know, what would have been a kitchen into a kind of bedroom for a while. So these kind of things, these kind of whys, often have really, really good reasons for the people who lived here in the past. And these houses were made to kind of shift with time. In fact, like the house that we're in now is a Victorian terrace, and it is, and probably very originally was designed to be a single family home, but almost immediately was turned into flats, and this neighborhood kind of became maybe a slum actually for a while. So these kind of what we consider now really lovely single family homes were for most of their history divided. So I mean, I guess it's a conversation with the structure, with the features, and also with all of the previous inhabitants of the home. Sometimes we'll discover kind of when we're taking walls down that there have been kind of doors or windows previously in locations and they've been kind of closed up. So sometimes we'll kind of open back up doorways or windows. But in general, because I think that we tend to think of these houses as quite flexible, the way that they were designed to be flexible for, you know, single families, many families, yeah, we do kind of just decide what we're going to do with them. And being as sympathetic as we possibly can, we just go ahead with it. Well, I think that old properties tend to have this feeling that you can't quite put your finger on. Maybe it is kind of the souls of the past, you know, the stories that live in the walls, but it could also just be a sense of scale. So I often find that not always, but for the most part, newer properties tend to have lower ceilings. They tend to have kind of this open plan feel that is reminiscent of a trend rather than the way that people maybe want to be living. So I think that these older properties, they have a lot of restrictions, right? They tend to have kind of small rooms that lead to each other, and we tend to want to open them up a bit. But I do think that modern homes may have kind of pushed that to the extreme. And these older properties, because they do have restrictions, they have, you know, load-bearing walls that we can't move, they have kind of plumbing running down right in the middle of the house, waste pipes that need to go out a certain way, that those kind of restrictions actually create a lot of creative energy, right? You have to figure out solutions, and I think that sometimes those kind of solutions can lead to really, really beautiful things. So the project that we're sitting in now, which is my own house, has definitely been the most important project for me. It's kind of what got me started, it's where I experiment, it's where I try out my kind of ideas. But I had so many projects that are important. In fact, I would say all of my projects that I've kind of seen from the beginning to the end, I've become close with the homeowners. And I have lifelong friends now from kind of doing this work. So I would say off the top of my head, Magnolia was really important. The Highgate project was my very first one. And again, lifelong friends from that. The All Saints project, honestly, another lifelong friend and a really different kind of property that was a converted church hall, so not a Victorian or Georgian property. But I think that when you do this kind of work, you become really intimately close with the clients, right? It's a really kind of long, ongoing conversation. And you have to have a lot of trust, and you have to have a lot of ability to talk through difficult things. So at the end of it, you are really bonded. I think that the way I was raised in older Victorian homes in the US, my parents are really, really kind of house proud. They poured all of their energy and time and money and heart into their home. And it really shows. It's a place where people feel really welcome. It's a place that has inspired me a lot. And I want my home to also reflect that in the homes I design. I want them to be kind of layered and feel really, really welcoming. I tend to gravitate towards kind of muted, dirty colors, I call them. So I feel like, actually, Victorians were really bold with their color. So I don't really go that way. I go towards kind of very, very pale blues, greens, pinks, grays, just kind of taking the primary colors and pairing them all the way back. I think that it kind of accentuates the features in the house. So if you have lovely cornicing, if you have a beautiful fireplace, it's really nice to use these kind of very, very, very muted colors so that the bones of the house really pop. Because my dad did have an antique furniture shop, it was Scandinavian antiques for my whole life. There are certain pieces that I've carried with me forever. So one of them is the apothecary. It is just probably my most treasured possession. I love it so much. It has 64 drawers, I think I counted once. And it holds kind of so much. It holds everything. It also holds a lot of importance for me. It reminds me of my dad. It feels like home to me. And it's definitely kind of the piece that grounds this whole space. And it also is probably the most functional thing that we own. So it just has lots of layers of meaning. I want people to feel when they walk into my home like they belong here. Like they can flop down and be comfortable. Like they're going to be fed really, really well. I want people to feel really, really comfortable and really welcome. And I think even just designing a room, that's kind of the very beginning for me, is how do we make people feel welcome in this space? So it's not a show home. It's not a mess. Also, you know, it's somewhere in the middle. It's a real home where people are really living and they're welcome to kind of be themselves. So in certain rooms, you absolutely have to kind of prioritize modern comforts. Mostly I would say bathrooms and kitchens. Usually with bathrooms, almost everything will be brand new. So sometimes you can have a vintage tub, maybe a vintage sink, vintage lighting. But for the most part, it's going to be brand new. So how do you kind of make a room like that feel like it makes sense in a period property? One thing I really like to do and is kind of counter to what a lot of people do is I really like to keep the original timber floorboards in the bathroom. I think if they are sealed properly with a good lacquer, they're going to last forever. They're going to stand the test of time if you use a bath mat, especially. But I do think it adds kind of that feeling that the bathroom is just another room in the house, which I really, really like. It's not a cold or clinical space. And it also doesn't feel too, too modern when you're working in a period home. So there are lots of ways of putting that period feel back into essentially a new structure. In fact, this room we're sitting in now is fully new. We kind of designed the windows and the doors to have an older feel. And we also used a lot of antiques. So another way, not just kind of adding back in paneling or picture rails or timber floors, but you can add a lot of character with old furniture or even just old things. So it's really, really easy to find online really inexpensively, kind of period style skirting boards and architraves and doorknobs and hinges and things like that. So it's kind of just looking at the details and making sure that they all kind of speak the same language. They definitely don't all have to match. That's not what I'm saying at all, but they definitely need to kind of be speaking in conversation with themselves. I don't think there's a huge risk of a restored property feeling too much like a museum because we have to live in it. So you can kind of make a house really, really beautiful, really pared back. But at the end of the day, there's a family that's going to move in there. They have books, they have pets, they have plants, they have throw cushions that get thrown around. So I think at the end of the day, slowly, slowly, even a very, very kind of pared back restored home will come to life. So in a lot of period properties, the windows are massive. That's one of the great things actually about Georgian and windows. But when you're dealing with a modern renovation or an extension, there are so many ways to add light so you can have kind of a conservatory style roof rather than a big kind of pane of glass. But I actually think that when you're doing an extension on a period home, it's okay to embrace modern glazing. I mean, it's obvious it's not original. I think modern glazing can be really, really, really beautiful, even if the kitchen is a bit more traditional. So I tend to think that that kind of combination of modern and traditional works really well in spaces that are obviously new, like kitchens and bathrooms. I would always, always, always tend to the restoration rather than a renovation. So my ethos here is if something is working, even if it's imperfect, we should try to stick with it. So a great example of this is floorboards. People tend to look at these original Victorian, Georgian, Edwardian floorboards that are a little bit beat up. So maybe an electrician or a plumber at some point has kind of sliced them open. Maybe some have rotten, maybe some are removed to put radiators in at some point. We tend to look at these kind of chopped up floorboards as ruined or beyond repair. And so often we tend to cover them with carpet. But I really resist this. And I kind of think that these old floorboards are telling a story. They're telling the story of the plumbing being installed or, you know, some shoddy builder 55 years ago or something. So I really like the imperfection in these old houses, in the skirting boards and in the kind of woodwork, in the plaster that's not perfect anymore. I like that kind of thing. So I tend to think that if it's working, if it's kind of not impeding something, we should try to keep it. Of course, things like plumbing fixtures, those sometimes just you have to swap them out if they're not functioning anymore. But in general, I always veer towards the restoration. So even when people rip up carpet and they have a look and they just think these are beyond repair, we've never in my years working, we've never come across floorboards that were beyond repair. So I think sometimes different trades might say, let's just cover this with carpet because it's a bit easier. But almost always, in every case that I've come across, a few new floorboards here and there to patch things up, a lovely sand and stain can really restore them. And I think that floorboards add just so much personality to a period property. Of course, if you really, really want underfloor heating, maybe that won't be possible. If you need carpet for some reason, that will be possible. But if it is possible to expose the original floorboards, I think that that is just a very simple, straightforward, even DIY way that you can kind of bring that original charm back to a period property. If, for example, there are no original floorboards, or I don't know, all the fireplaces have been ripped out, but the chimney breasts are still there, or all of the cornicing or picture rails have been removed, there are absolutely ways that you can put them back. So with the floorboards, you could find reclaimed flooring. For the fireplaces, it's really easy to find beautiful reproduction fireplaces. You can get incredibly expensive ones and much, much cheaper ones. In fact, there's this, I think it's under 200 pounds. It's a timber fire surround, and I use it a lot. I love it. I think it's really beautiful. And just painted kind of black, it looks really stately and looks really expensive. And I think it's a great little hack. And then in terms of the plasterwork, so the picture rails, the cornicing, that's really easy to reinstate too. You can, of course, get in kind of an expert, or you can buy those things online and have a builder, or you can DIY it if you're good with a saw, and you can put them back up. So these are really kind of low cost ways to add a ton of impact and to make the room feel like it has the dignity that it had originally. So sometimes, of course, you have to make compromises, and even lovely features have to be removed. Obviously, we try to avoid it. But I think that the way that we kind of decide when to do that is we come up with our North Stars for a project. So if, for example, it is the absolute goal to have a certain kind of kitchen in a certain kind of area, and perhaps we need to create another opening, and to do that we have to remove a window, for example, then we just decide what is our priority. And for example, in this kitchen that I'm sitting in now, we did remove a lovely window to kind of make a new opening, but we saved the architrave around that window, and we used it elsewhere. So there's always ways that you can kind of reuse the bits that you might have to get rid of. And often in these houses, we think things are original, but they're actually not. Because they have been lived in for, you know, so long, and have had so many owners, very often the tiles we might think are original, or even the floorboards, they're kind of newer additions. So I think that we have to treat these homes like the living, kind of moving, changing things that they are. Yeah, like, why did she do that? Yeah, exactly. People think that's original all the time. I'm like, no, it's not original. Yeah, but that architrave is from the window that we removed, which is interesting. I think if you're not losing sleep over a decision, then you're doing something wrong, or you're doing something right, tell me what it is. Because I think that it's just, that's just the name of the game. I think designers lose sleep, homeowners lose sleep, DIYers are losing sleep. Like, these decisions feel really important because our homes feel really important. And so often there's no right answer. Both options are great. So it's kind of this kind of push and pull, and the ultimate decision either way is going to be great. And I think, I don't know, if we're going to lose sleep over this, that's a pretty nice thing to lose sleep over. So I think one of the biggest mistakes people make when they're restoring a period property is they try to follow trends a bit too much. They tend to not think about their actual home and the actual space they're working with. People tend to kind of look at the internet, look at a magazine, and try to recreate someone else's home in their home. And I think that we often have too much stuff. This is kind of something I repeat a lot. But I think that we need to really think about the actual space we're designing. So the actual room, and also just feel less inclined to fill spaces for the sake of filling them. And be more comfortable with kind of filling spaces slowly over time, which I think makes people uncomfortable. They want their home to feel really complete really quickly, especially if they're spending a lot of money kind of buying it and renovating it. But I think we should be more comfortable with kind of the long haul and the long process and slowly buying things that are meant to last forever. So if you'd like to see a full tour of this house, we filmed it earlier this year, you can watch it right here. Hi Luxury Home Show, I'm Leanne of Good Bones, and welcome to my townhouse in London. So now we're in the entrance hall of our Victorian Terraced House, it's a townhouse.