A stylish couple's quietly beautiful Georgian townhouse in Spitalfields
Paul West originally trained in interior architecture and design; his wife, Michelle, in visual communication. Today, they work as brand and design consultants, and their early-Georgian house, built in 1717 in a conservation area of east London, has become an extension of their creative lives. Their quiet, pared-back approach to its decoration has garnered them an audience of almost 40,000 on Instagram, leading the couple to use the space as both a home and a workspace.
‘We looked for a house that had a history we could work with – one that had a story to tell,’ says Paul. Considered Things, their account on Instagram, grew rather organically. They were initially capturing the transformation of their home with a narrative of considered design for everyday life. This has led to them hosting shoots and collaborations with like-minded brands, alongside the occasional pop-up shop.
The couple share a love of old buildings and, according to Michelle, see themselves as ‘old souls’. However, the house’s decoration was not to their taste when they moved there in 2021. Most of the rooms were wallpapered or embellished with paint effects. Each space was a world unto itself with little or no continuity. The process of bringing it in line with their taste has been one of stripping back rather than adding. They were fortunate that the house had been rescued by The Spitalfields Trust in the 1990s and was therefore structurally sound, with Georgian wall panelling and shutters repaired throughout.
Paul and Michelle shared an almost symbiotic – and very disciplined – sense of how they wanted their home to be. Theirs is a strong, unfussy aesthetic, with an emphasis on interesting shapes and high-quality materials, inspired by designers such as Ilse Crawford and Axel Vervoordt. There is little ornamentation and they move around the simple pieces they have bought at antique fairs and from dealers as the spirit takes them; nothing is too precious. It is a carefully thought-through philosophy of uniformity, intended to instil a feeling of calm.
Most of the differences they have made are cosmetic. ‘There’s a purity in Georgian architecture. The interiors and proportions have an integrity, however they are decorated,’ Paul explains. Most of the house is painted in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Old White’. ‘We’ve found it to be an excellent canvas for our possessions and one that changes in tone depending on the time of day,’ he adds.
They also set about changing the function of the rooms to better suit their way of life. The previous occupants had used the basement as both a kitchen and an office. Michelle and Paul turned it into a space purely for cooking and entertaining, installing a Shaker-style DeVol kitchen and a dining table. On the ground floor, in what had been the dining room at the back of the house, a large mid-century table now acts predominantly as a workspace for them both, though, on high days and holidays, it can be transformed for big gatherings if numbers dictate.
A generous original square arch leads through to a reception area overlooking the street, which accommodates a large, comfortable sofa by Matthew Hilton for SCP. Directly above – spanning the width of the house – and with perfect acoustics is what is known as the music room. Here, the couple’s one concession to ornament is the trompe-l’oeil stormy sky on the ceiling, retained from the previous owners’ decoration.
The bathroom on the first floor had a vast roll-top bath with a lion’s-head tap, which, says Paul, ‘took an age to fill’. This was removed and the space was converted into a light and airy, tongue-and-groove-panelled utility room. A spare room next to the main bedroom was turned into a generous bathroom, which has a shower, a bath and a fireplace. To emphasise the feeling of unity between rooms, the bare floorboards have been finished with a specialist white stain by a craftsman who ‘almost came with the house’, according to Paul.
‘Restoring the interiors, we found it important to work with people of the same mindset as ourselves,’ he continues. ‘For example, our landscaper Christian O’Riordan was painstaking in matching the outside stone in the garden to the internal floors. He was in total sympathy with the house.’ The small courtyard garden has been levelled and laid with reclaimed York stone, edged with sunken beds planted with evergreen shrubs. Window frames, fences and doors are painted black.
This is a house that is comfortable in its skin. Its occupants are equally so. ‘When we first saw it, we noticed the stairs were just that little bit wider than usual,’ says Paul. ‘And the window on the turn of the stairs gives us beautiful light, every morning and in every season.’ As it has done for several centuries.
Christopher Horwood1/5In the basement, which is used for cooking and entertaining, the Windsor-style chairs are a combination of pale Ercol designs and Børge Mogensen ‘J52B’ chairs for FDB Møbler in black lacquered beech. Original BTC ‘Cobb’ pendants hang above a bespoke DeVol oak dining table and continue over the kitchen island.
Christopher Horwood2/5Shaker-design cabinets by DeVol in a custom shade are topped with Carrara marble. An antique baker’s rack is used to display a collection of vintage and artisan-made ceramics for everyday use.
Christopher Horwood3/5A climbing hydrangea and pots of ferns and herbs soften the north-facing courtyard garden. The woodwork is in ‘Grate Black’ from Farrow & Ball.
Christopher Horwood4/5In the spare room, lamps commissioned for Considered Things stand on travertine tables from Monument, beside a double daybed designed by Paul. Cushions from Linum and a Margaret Howell wool throw tone with a vintage safari-style chair and a seagrass rug from Etsy.
Christopher Horwood5/5Original BTC wall lights frame a vintage mirror above a basin with a chrome stand, from Burlington.
