calm & collected

Turning an ugly beauty' of a house into a serene sanctuary didn't phase interior designer Sheena Murphy in the slightest

- Mary Weaver

Sheena Murphy has an adventurous spirit, having lived in nine homes in three countries during the 15 years she has been with her husband Paul. So it’s hardly surprising that she chose an atypical house when she was looking at new places to live. Rather than go for the kind of pretty Victorian terrace that makes up most of her northwest London neighbourhood, the interior designer went for a utilitarian 1950s property built on a bomb-damaged site after the war. ‘I love the period houses in the area but, as a designer who works quite firmly on the modernist end of the spectrum, I was seeking something with fewer architectural boundaries, good light and something a little more unexpected,’ she says.