An 1870s Victorian Conversion in London Is All Kinds of Lovely

Name: Kelly Love, my boyfriend Chris
Location: London, England
Size: 1,000 square feet
Years lived in: 4 years, owned

Our home is a two-bedroom Victorian conversion in the Greenwich borough of London, built in the 1870s. It has beautiful high ceilings with the original cornice details and bay windows in the two main rooms, which flood the space with light. We also own the main hallway and big old front door of the house plus the front garden, which is often communal in conversions. This gives a gorgeous, grand entrance into the apartment and makes it feel more like a house.

When we renovated we wanted to keep as many of the original features as we could so we restored all of the internal doors and the fireplaces and laid oak floorboards throughout the whole house. The walls were painted varying shades of pale gray in the living room, bedroom and hallway then we used Fallow and Ball Pigeon in the kitchen and a French navy in the bathroom.

I work from home as a fashion designer on my own self-named label, Kelly Love, and also run a company sourcing antique rugs for interior designers and private customers. My rug company is called Broomhill Antique Rugs, which is named after our house. Broomhill is painted above our front door along with an engraved plaque that says “Peace be to this House,” which one of our builders discovered while stripping paint from our porch. I live with my boyfriend who is a mechanical engineer and we’ve owned our home for four years.

What is your favorite room and why? I really love our bedroom. The oak floors and white shutters give such a classic, breezy, Australian feel (which is where I’m originally from). We restored the original fireplace, which now looks so beautiful, it has the first antique rug I ever sourced (before I knew this would become a business) and an antique rocking chair in almost perfect condition that I purchased from a flea market in Australia (and paid more for the shipping to London than the actual chair!).

We splashed out and bought Cultiver Linen for our bed in the prettiest shades of pink, sage, gray and white, which is dreamy to sleep in. Then candles make it so cozy and the perfect place to hang out in especially during the long UK winters.

Any advice for creating a home you love? When we renovated our home, we really thought about it as a collection of rooms that would all flow together. The idea was that you could take anything from one room, move it to another and it would still fit in perfectly. As a result our home feels really calm and considered.

I also think it’s easier to start with a pretty blank canvas so we went for oak floors, white shutters and linen curtains plus neutral walls. You can then fill your home with colours and textures with furniture, art, and rugs. We also travel a lot so always collect something when we’re away for our house. It ensures our home is filled with memories and pieces we love

Thanks, Kelly Love!

• Interested in sharing your home with Apartment Therapy? Contact the editors through our House Tour & House Call Submission Form.