19 hours ago
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Just as the British designer Lou Rota is enjoying what you might call a third act in her career – from graduating as a graphic designer to working on pop videos, then science and natural history documentaries to making and decorating tableware and furniture for the likes of Anthropologie – her house, too, is enjoying a new lease of life.
Lou and her husband, Gavin (director at a television production company), bought their three-bed, three-bath Edwardian terrace in west London 23 years ago. It has seen them through being parents to small daughters Rosie and Ava, – who then grew up and took over every inch of space as teens (with their friends in tow) – to becoming empty nesters when both girls went to university. Now, it is back to providing a convivial backdrop for a busy, bustling family as all four adults once again share the house.
When they first moved in, the study and bedrooms were downstairs and the kitchen and sitting room were upstairs – the couple reversed the topsy-turvy layout. Slowly they stripped the floorboards, replastered the walls and painted throughout (Lou was one of the first to embrace sealed pink plaster walls, now a hot interiors trend) and converted the loft. Ten years later they made the most of the side return by extending the back of the house, with help from architect friend Tamala Anderson, to create an open-plan, skylit kitchen, dining and living space. “I remember when we first did it, it felt as if we were on holiday all the time with so much space.”
Where the colour palette was once elegantly pared back, “I’ve become much more about bright, poppy colours,” says Lou, of bookshelves painted processed blue. “I think it’s about being a middle-aged woman and not wanting to go unnoticed by wearing bright colours and painting my nails in fluoro shades.” Shades of greens now swathe the walls – from olive and chartreuse to a cheery soft apple – and the dining space has been filled with indoor plants. “It’s like living in a conservatory.”
A subtle rejig to the house has seen Ava, who has just finished college, return to a redecorated bedroom that feels appropriately more grown-up, says Lou. Out went the kiddie wallpaper, in came the same olive hue on the walls that they used downstairs. The childhood trampoline that sat flush with the lawn has been removed – “the most expensive hole in history”, sighs Lou – and the drawing room has become a cinema room with the addition of a projector and pull-down screen. “Now the girls can have their friends in there and we can still be in the kitchen having dinner.”
The couple also recently invested in fine heritage glazing “so we didn’t have to get rid of the beautiful old windows, which are the joy of this house”. It cost a fortune but “it’s our responsibility to do these things, to keep these houses going for future generations”.
Its vintage vibe owes much to Lou’s aversion for “new stuff”, she says. “The world has so much in it already, I’d much rather buy something antique or used. And you don’t need to re-cover the whole sofa if only one cushion needs doing. Just redo the cushion,” she says. “It’s more interesting, isn’t it? It’s deeper. It has a story.”
Lou loves to imagine the stories of the people who might have once owned a chair or a kitchen storage canister before her: “There’s a book called The Collector Collector by Tibor Fischer, about a bowl that collects people as opposed to people collecting the bowl. I love it when things have a bit of life to them and that nice feeling permeates your own home with warmth, tactility and memories.”
In the mix are upcycled woods used for the kitchen island-cum-cocktail cabinet that glows particularly alluringly at night – “My vintage cocktail glassware collection keeps growing; we’re very into making cocktails, I make all my own syrups and make my own recipes up” – and schoolhouse chairs by Swarm, with seats and backs fashioned from collaged, sanded and sealed flea-market paintings. Panoramic wall panels by Surface View in the office and Jessica Zoob in the drawing room bring a fresh take to displaying art.
The house feels very soothing. “The atmosphere of a place is just as important to me as the visuals. I’m really not into that absolute pristine way of living where you have to be able to put everything away. We cook all the time, we play games, we watch telly, the dog jumps on the cushions all the time… I really wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Lou’s passion for sustainability and predilection for all things creepy-crawly – bugs, beetles and bees regularly pop up in her designs – have also extended to the garden, which she has filled with pollinating and rough-safe plants to support the birds, butterflies and insects. At the bottom of the garden sits Lou’s light-filled working space, built by London Garden Studios, located under the canopy of an ancient hornbeam, surrounded by the constant buzz of the birds she feeds with mealworms. “I can sit for days on end in that studio drawing, painting, listening to an audiobook, the dog at my feet. It’s so peaceful, like a window on to the world.”
“I’m loving the pace of life, I can be around the kids more,” she says. “It’s a privilege to have them at home, cooking, making cocktails, talking and laughing together. We want to hang onto that for as long as we can.”
Find details on Lou Rota’s decoupage and painting workshops at instagram/lou.rota
