After years of renting in London, Leanne Kilroy found the perfect home for her family: a boarding house. Over the past five years, she has gradually loved it back to life, and accidentally built a design business in the process, she tells Jessica Jonzen
THE FRONT ROOM, PAINTED IN BONE, SHELL & QUILL BY ATELIER ELLIS. IMAGE: LEANNE KILROY
When designer Leanne Kilroy and her husband Eric first viewed their North London Victorian terrace, it wasn’t love at first sight. “It didn’t present very well,” she says with a laugh. “Not because it was a fixer-upper, but because it had been a boarding house.” Still, Leanne saw what others didn’t. “It just had the right bones,” she says. “I know that sounds like a cliché, but there was something about the proportions, the light, the way it sat on the street – it just made sense to me.”
That certainty would go on to shape not only Leanne’s family’s home but also her career. What began as a personal renovation became the seed of her interior design practice, Good Bones, and an Instagram account that now inspires thousands with its calm aesthetic and honest approach to family life and design.
Originally from Boston, Leanne had been renting in London for five years with Eric and their three daughters, now aged 14, nine and seven, when they began searching for a place to put down roots. Space was a priority, but finding it wasn’t easy. “It took us ages to find something that worked, and the buying process here is so slow and so opaque. We made an offer at asking price and then heard nothing for months. It dragged on for almost nine months before we got the keys.” Even seeing the full property proved tricky. “Because it was still partly occupied, we couldn’t see all the rooms at once. It was like solving a puzzle.”
Despite that, Leanne never lost faith. “We’d been renting for so long, and the house we were in just didn’t work for me. I’m a very visual person, and the place was so wrong from a design perspective. I was desperate to get my hands on something with potential.” Eric, she admits, wasn’t convinced. “He thought it was rough, which, to be fair, it was. But I could see through it.”
When they finally moved in at the end of 2020, the family made do with the upper floors while planning the renovation. “I DIY’d the upper floors over a few months and we lived upstairs for about a year. It felt a bit like camping, but it was fine because the house is generous in size, and there was a second kitchen up there from its boarding house days.” That time turned out to be invaluable. “It’s brilliant to live in a space before renovating. You learn how it works, where the light falls, what frustrates you. And once the builders started, I was on site every day. It let me stay close to every decision.”
LEANNE KILROY IN THE KITCHEN, WITH UNITS BUILT IN TO WHAT WAS THE SIDE RETURN. IMAGE: LEANNE KILROY
The work took around six months and involved extending three metres into the garden as part of permitted development, filling in the side return and reconfiguring the ground floor to create a hallway, pantry and downstairs loo, “all the practical things the house was missing.” The kitchen was her biggest challenge. “It’s north-facing, but we have glass elevations to the north and west, and the afternoon light in summer is just beautiful. From October to March we get no direct sunlight – that’s England for you – but it’s still such a lovely room to be in.”
The finished house is calm, textural and understated – a palette of chalky whites, muted greys and soft, faded blush tones that flow gently from one space to the next. “I love colour, but I use it quietly,” Leanne explains. “I like a shade that acts as a backdrop rather than shouting to be noticed.” The front room is painted in Atelier Ellis’s Bone, Shell and Quill; the middle room in Quiet Grey; the hallway in Faded Blossom. The kitchen, meanwhile, is Farrow & Ball School House White with cupboards in Shaded White. “They’re all in conversation with each other,” she says. “That’s really important to me – the colours should flow gently as you move through the house.”
Her approach to decoration, she adds, has been shaped by her years in the UK. “People here use colour and architectural detail so cleverly. The picture rails, the dado rails – they give you permission to play with tone in subtle ways. These Victorian houses are all similar, but it’s those small decisions that make each one feel personal.”
Leanne’s instincts, however, were formed long before she crossed the Atlantic. “My parents are both incredibly house-proud,” she says. “Their home is one of my biggest inspirations. They’re the kind of people who pour all their love and energy into where they live.” Her father ran a Scandinavian antique furniture shop for decades, and his influence is visible throughout her home. “The apothecary table in our kitchen came from his shop. It’s my favourite thing in the world. He sourced it in Denmark, shipped it back to the States, and I bought it from him and eventually I brought it here to London via Sydney where I lived for several years. It’s been with me through every home I’ve lived in.”
THE KITCHEN, PAINTED IN FARROW & BALL’S SCHOOL HOUSE WHITE, WITH SHADED WHITE ON THE CUPBOARDS, WITH AN ANTIQUE APOTHECARY AS AN ISLAND. IMAGE: LEANNE KILROY
She points to another favourite – a small 1930s village post office cabinet, now filled with children’s books. “It’s not even that old, but I adore it. When we were renovating, we used it as our pantry – it held all the tins and cereal. I love pieces that are beautiful but incredibly practical. That’s how I think about design: get the bones right, keep them simple, and then layer in things made to last for generations.”
When Leanne began documenting the renovation on Instagram, she had no idea how far it would go. “I think I did my first post within a week,” she says. “I wanted to find a community of people who were doing similar things – people who cared about homes the way I did.” Her mix of thoughtfulness and restraint resonated. Before long, followers were asking for advice – and then for her help.
“It wasn’t planned,” she admits. “Someone just messaged me one day and asked if I could help with their house. So I said yes, without really knowing what I was doing.” That first commission, a London flat with an awkward layout, proved a turning point. “I told the client, who has become a friend, they needed to completely reconfigure everything – swap the kitchen, the living room, the bedroom – and they just trusted me. I had never worked with a designer before and didn’t know what I was doing. I drew everything by hand even though I couldn’t draw, which was tricky. I just really threw myself into it and learned a lot on the go.”
This project, with its light-filled checkerboard floor kitchen, went viral on Instagram and from there, her work grew naturally. “Now I focus mostly on one-to-one consulting, both online and in person,” Leanne says. “I probably do a few site visits and a few virtual sessions each week. I love helping people feel more confident in their own decisions – sometimes that’s all they need.” She also recently collaborated with Jodie Hazlewood of The House Upstairs on two sofa designs, one of which – in periwinkle blue velvet –takes pride of place in her middle room.
LEANNE KILROY ON THE ‘CHAISE SOFA’ FROM THE GOOD BONES X THE HOUSE UPSTAIRS COLLABORATION. IMAGE: OLLY HUNTER
Leanne’s design philosophy rests on patience and practicality. “I’m actually a very reluctant shopper,” she says. “Buying things doesn’t give me a buzz – quite the opposite. I’d rather live with an empty space than fill it just to feel finished.” She’s drawn to eBay and Vinterior for antiques, and to lighting makers such as Jim Lawrence, Fritz Fryer, Hector Finch and Pooky. “You can mix things beautifully if you take your time.”
Her cheerful yellow pantry – painted in Paint & Paper Library’s Muga – encapsulates her approach. “It’s funny because it’s not even that fancy,” she says. “I’ve designed much better ones for clients. Mine’s just simple and useful. The gingham curtain fabric cost $15 from a discount shop in Massachusetts, and my mother-in-law sewed it for me. But I love that it has a story.”
The next project is to finish the top two floors. “This is the reality – renovations take time and are expensive. It’s normal to have unfinished spaces and rooms which are dumping grounds and parts of your home that you’re not especially happy to show off.”
As for what the future holds, Leanne is open-minded. “I don’t know if I believe in the forever home,” she says thoughtfully. “Maybe for some people, but not for us. I’d love to keep this house forever, but we’re not from here, and our family’s all over the world. For now, this is perfect for our girls, but who knows what will come after?”
She never set out to build a brand or a business – only a home. “I’m not a very ambitious person,” she says. “My self-esteem doesn’t come from achievement. I just do what feels right, and if something stops being enjoyable, I move on. I have a lot of creative energy – it spills where it spills.”
Perhaps that’s what gives her home its particular magic: the quiet confidence of a space that’s been loved into being, not designed to impress. “It’s not perfect,” she says. “But that’s the point, isn’t it? A home should grow with you. It should tell your story.”
THE DINING AREA, FEATURING AN ANTIQUE CHURCH PEW AND ‘GHOST’ CHAIRS BY PHILIPPE STARCK FOR KARTELL. IMAGE: LEANNE KILROY
THE PANTRY IS PAINTED IN ‘MUGA’ BY PAINT & PAPER LIBRARY, WHILE LEANNE SOURCED THE GINGHAM FABRIC FROM A DISCOUNT STORE IN MASSACHUSETTES. IMAGE: LEANNE KILROY
STRIPPED FLOORBOARDS AND BARE WOOD SKIRTING BOARDS AND ARCHITRAVES CREATE A NATURAL, LAYERED PATINA THROUGHOUT THE HOUSE. IMAGE: LEANNE KILROY
LEANNE’S ENSUITE BATHROOM, WHERE BRASS FITTINGS, ART AND MARBLE COMBINE TO CREATE AN OPULENT YET UNDERSTATED ROOM. IMAGE: LEANNE KILROY
THE DRESSING ROOM, FEATURING JOINERY LEANNE DESIGNED HERSELF. IMAGE: LEANNE KILROY
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