Unlocked: How to take care of a home with good bones

Known for her elegant and eclectic interiors for Good Bones, Leanne explains how her designs are informed by listening to the house and respecting its bones. When her family moved into the home, it had previously been used as a boarding house, with a bedroom on the ground floor and a boarders’ kitchen on the second. This unorthodox layout had its advantages; the family were able to live upstairs, while renovation work took place below.

Original ceiling roses, cornicing and picture rails were retained throughout, while a double-height kitchen and dining area has been added to the rear, its glazed roof and panelling bathing the space in natural light. The couple’s bedroom lies on the first floor, while on the floor above, the former boarders’ kitchen has been transformed into a pretty pink bathroom for their daughters. At the top of the house, a guest bedroom is wrapped with a bespoke wallpaper, designed by a neighbour and featuring sketches of some of the family’s most treasured items.

As she shows us around, Leanne explains how to take care of a home with “good bones.” She highlights the importance of sightlines, encouraging us to “really think about these important vignettes that occur throughout the house as [you] move through [it]. They’re often alcoves, or views from one room into the other.” She recommends “[framing] the space with little knick-knacks, maybe a vase, a piece of art, a beautiful piece of furniture … just things that go together and make you feel happy.”

Carefully considered lighting is also key to Leanne’s designs; her own home is fitted with a range of light fittings, both vintage and examples from her own Good Bones x Plank Hardware collection. She explains, “Having a cohesive lighting plan and really thinking about how you want to use the space, and how the space wants to be used, will help you inform the lighting.”

By her own admission, Leanne’s home is refreshingly imperfect; some rooms are unfinished, miscellaneous items accumulate on the stairs and “there are usually socks everywhere.” She says, “All houses are imperfect, and that’s what makes them able to be lived in in the way that we all want to live in them.” The symbiotic relationship between a house and its custodians is also key to Leanne’s philosophy. She explains, “paying attention to a house and giving it your attention means that the house will then serve you better, and it will give you care and take care of you as a family. I think that’s what homes are for.”

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