Quiet Elegance

A three-bedroom family home that feels calm the moment you walk in, and holds up to being lived in.

I kept the palette almost monochrome in soft greys, warm off-whites, walnut, and put the character into things you notice slowly. A full wall of dark walnut shelving carries the books, the objects and the TV in one move. A sage-green sofa is the only real colour in the room, and all it needs. In a room this size, I set the sofa back-to-back where one side faces the library wall and the TV, the other is a quiet corner for reading, and nobody has to negotiate.

The children's rooms are where it loosens up, dusty mauve and linen in one, walnut and deep blue in the other. Same restraint, more personality.