At home with...Matilda Goad

The designer's Kensal Green house is the perfect testing ground for her own creations

- ELEANOR CORDING-BOOTH

Having grown up in Sussex, in a country cottage “with low beams, little windows and lots of heavy chintz”, designer Matilda Goad spent her twenties living happily in the heart of Notting Hill. She and husband Tom, founder of building and design company Blockhouse Build, were ready to upsize in 2018 and they wanted to stay in the area. Kensal Green was admittedly further than planned, but Goad loves the sense of community. “I’ve got a really lovely group of friends here,” she explains. “We’re all in similar stages of life; juggling work and being parents.”

Goad recounts the meet-cute first viewing of their now-home. “I’d viewed another house in a more central area but it didn’t feel right, so I was just walking around and when I saw this one, I thought it looked quite interesting and rang the doorbell!” she says. The homeware designer doesn’t make a habit of spontaneously ringing doorbells — she recognised the four-bedroomed house, having seen it online but discounting it because of the busy road. “A man answered in his dressing gown. He was in the middle of breakfast but he kindly offered to show me around,” Goad laughs.

“He worked in the theatre and so did his wife — the house hadn’t been altered for about 35 years and they had collected so much stuff,” she says. “But I could see it had great bones and there were original features such as the architraves. I also loved that it hadn’t been ripped apart.”

Goad deftly wipes the remnants of her young daughter’s breakfast from the Saarinen marble dining table. The mid-century classic looks at ease in the Victorian kitchen’s sunny bay window, surrounded by custom banquette seating that feels pleasingly sofa-like. The design is a stroke of genius as it maximises every inch of space.