Words Luke Crisell

Photography Neil Perry

Originally a pair of studios designed by artist Leonard Hessing for a ceramicist and an architect, the space immediately captured the couple’s imagination. “Jack [the drummer in the indie-rock band White Lies] was on tour when I sent it to him,” Louise recalls, “and although it wasn’t what we thought we were looking for, once we saw it, we just couldn’t get it out of our heads.”

Louise, who is co-founder of the architecture and design studio IMLU, was immediately drawn to the flexibility of the space. She quickly set about modifying the pre-existing extension plans. “We thought they were great volumetrically but we adapted them slightly to increase the outdoor space and alter the layout of the interiors,” she says. Speed was imperative; the couple found out they were expecting their first child, Agnes, shortly after they took the project on.

The couple’s respect for the origin story of the building is evident throughout, from the connected bathrooms downstairs, where original exterior walls and beautiful curved lintels have been revealed, to the architect’s plans chest in one corner, and the utilitarian, mid-century handles of the cabinetry in the kitchen.

But while these considered details reveal themselves slowly, the space upstairs takes your breath away at first sight. The double-height, angled bank of glass diffuses light softly through the great room, creating a light-filled sanctuary that feels almost ecclesiastical in both dimension and tenor. Walls have been removed, unnecessary complications done away with: it’s a room designed simply for living well, together. “It’s not about making clean boxes,” Louise says. “It’s about finding opportunities in space that people can inhabit in their own way. Places to perch, to sit with a cup of tea – like the window seats, and the steps down to the kitchen.”

With cups of tea appropriately in hand, we sat down with Louise, Jack, and their youngest daughter, 10-month old Martha, to discuss why this unusual home, now on the market, has been a magical place to start a family and how it has been a source of creative inspiration for these young parents, who love the neighbourhood so much they’re moving just two streets away.

Louise Underhill: “When we found this place, it needed a lot of work, yes, but it was a really amazing space—it just had incredible life to it. We were used to living on the main road, where it’s so noisy, and suddenly you have kind of the soft light that comes through that window and this sense of calm and softness, and a view out over gardens, rather than buildings.”

Jack Lawrence-Brown: “At the time, we were starting to think about having kids and asking ourselves: ‘What’s going to be a bit more practical?’ And actually, what we found was something massively less practical and in no way ready for a family to live in. But we committed to it because we could see what it could be. We got it close with the builders but around Christmas we were like, ‘You guys need to go now, because we’re approaching the due date for the baby, and we’ll just have to finish this when our first daughter is born,’ which is what we did.”

Louise: “It was definitely a stressful way to go about it, but it has made us very emotionally connected to the house.”

Jack: “Basically, the house took the same amount of time to build as it takes to grow a baby …”

Louise: “At IMLU, we use joinery as a way of defining spaces. When we bought the house, what was so lovely about downstairs was that it already had built-in joinery that didn’t extend to the ceiling; it defined these different areas and slightly different characters of space without introducing solid walls. We didn’t want to lose that feeling of openness, so that’s why there is a hatch from the bathroom to the bedroom, and the wall between the two bedrooms at the back is a bookcase with high level windows above: there’s a sense of connection.”

Jack: “What Lou has done, which is so important, is keep as much of the feeling of the original space as possible. People will come around to our house and they don’t know or care that the door handles to all the cupboards were here already, but to us, it’s quite important—these little pieces of the house that we bought that we actually really loved.”

Louise: “We really felt when we bought it that this was a house that had evolved over time with the family who lived here. And we wanted to be really respectful of that in the work that we did, and also hoped that it would continue to evolve in a similar way with us. Before we bought it, we wrote to the man who was selling to reassure him that we really loved and understood the house and that we didn’t want to change everything, but just add another layer to its history and inhabitation. We’ve since had him round and he was very happy to see what we’d done.

“I don’t think a space should define how you live in it. I’d be so excited to see how someone else lives here. I still find myself being surprised by the space, and I feel really, really aware that we will never have a living space like this again. And I think, in all honesty, we’re probably a little bit unprepared for that. We take this space and how we can live in it all together slightly for granted. It’s like our life is just a little bit different from everyone else’s.”

Jack: “There’s definitely inherent creativity in this space.”

Louise: “And it’s not about whether you actually are making creative work here—the space really does infiltrate your life. It’s definitely affected our eldest daughter, which is really lovely. She doesn’t know anything else.”

Jack: “For sure. Since having kids, how I would describe ‘home’ has changed slightly, I think. Now, it’s about somewhere that they feel calm and safe.”

Louise: “Yes, and home is about togetherness. And that’s something I know they feel—we all feel—in this house.”