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THE DIGEST
Inside the Characterful North London Home of Good Bones Founder Leanne Kilroy
Interior designer and Good Bones founder Leanne Kilroy has spent years collecting the furniture that fills her Victorian home. From Danish antiques brought back with her dad to one off vintage finds she couldn't leave behind, every room tells a story of thoughtful collecting rather than decorating.
Long before Leanne Kilroy became an interior designer, she was learning how to spot good furniture.
Growing up in Boston, her father ran a Scandinavian antiques business for almost forty years, meaning beautifully made furniture was simply the backdrop to everyday life. It's where she learned to appreciate craftsmanship, the stories behind objects and the quiet confidence of things that have already stood the test of time. Today, as the founder of London based design studio Good Bones, that early education still shapes everything she does.
Five years into renovating her Victorian home in North London, the result isn't a showcase of perfectly matched interiors. It's a collection of pieces gathered over decades, each one bringing its own story with it.
almost every room in her home reflects that upbringing. A banana sofa anchors the living room, antique lighting softens newly renovated spaces and an apothecary cabinet she bought from her father's shop over twenty years ago remains one of her most treasured possessions. Even the practical spaces are given the same treatment, with old stools, reclaimed fireplaces and vintage lighting proving that bathrooms and kitchens deserve just as much personality as anywhere else.
It's never about filling a room with antiques for the sake of it. Leanne mixes bespoke joinery with reclaimed finds, contemporary materials with furniture that's already lived another life. The result feels effortless because nothing is trying too hard.
Her advice for buying vintage is refreshingly simple. If you find something you love, don't wait. Unlike new furniture, there probably isn't another one sitting in a warehouse. Work out where it goes later.
“These things have lasted hundreds of years. They'll last hundreds more if we take care of them.”
Leanne Kilroy
That mindset has led to some of the home's most meaningful pieces. A cabinet bought years before she reunited with her husband now carries its own family story. A well worn coffee table has survived years of children's art projects and can still be sanded back for another chapter. Even a battered Domino sugar box, gifted by her father when her youngest daughter was born, has become an everyday fixture by the fire.
For Leanne, choosing vintage isn't just about sustainability, although giving beautifully made furniture another life is part of the appeal. It's about surrounding yourself with things that mean something. Pieces that collect memories as much as they once collected dust.
Spend a few minutes inside her home and one thing becomes clear. The best interiors aren't built in a single renovation. They're shaped over years of curiosity, good stories and furniture that's worth bringing home.
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