A Private View: a self-taught vintage cognoscente shares the lessons learnt during her first renovation

“I love to put something slightly mad in every room,” exclaims Tess Atkinson when Inigo first step through her pistachio-green front door and into the delightful double reception space. “I think my partner would say it’s 70% mad, but this is very much my creative outlet in comparison to what happens during the day.”

By day, Tess works as a publicist. She and her partner moved into the house in 2020. “We were looking to buy during the height of lockdown, which was very … fun,” Tess half-jokes. The house was built at the tail end of the Georgian period – a time of major development in Stepney Green – and is unmistakably of its time, with wide sash windows, elongated proportions and a beautiful original panelled wall that flanks the central stairwell. (“We really wanted to look after it,” says Tess. “We took layers and layers and layers of paint off it when we renovated and we haven’t hung anything on it.”)

When the couple first moved in, the house was in a slightly sad state. Tess recalls: “Nobody had lived here for a long time – it even had bars on the windows. But we really wanted an older house, and something with good bones. Next door had already been renovated, and I think that represented a sort of a light at the end of the tunnel in terms of what we could do here …”

Initially the couple camped out in one room, cooking on a plug-in double hob in the upstairs bedroom. “Luckily it was mostly all before our daughter was born,” says Tess. Out of necessity, the bathroom was the first room they tackled. “You have to prioritise the things you need,” she advises. “You always want to buy the nice bits first – I couldn’t wait to buy my bedding! – but you can’t do that until you know it won’t be covered in dust.”

The MO for any newer additions was that they would be sensitive and space savvy. A clever arched bookcase and seating nook in Tess’s study – the backdrop to her Teams calls – is one such example. It holds her rather impressive collection of fashion and lifestyle magazines that date back to the early 2000s. “My parents still had most of them in their attic from when I was a teenager. They were like, ‘We’re going to get rid of these now’, and I was like, ‘No! I’ll build a bookshelf for them!’ A local joiner helped; I think he thought I was completely mad.”

If the living space brings light relief – bright, and with a spirited use of pattern and colour – then downstairs on the lower ground floor (where the kitchen, scullery and dining room lie) is its handsome counterpoint. Here, terracotta tiles, timber DeVol cabinetry and a patinated copper countertop bring a hard-wearing warmth to the scheme. “We wanted to lean into the cosiness of the space when decorating here. The tiles keep it warm in the winter and cool in the summer, which was particularly useful when I was pregnant in the 40-degree heat we had a few years ago.

“We changed the rear window here because we wanted it to look straight out to the garden. The ledge has been great: we’ve used it as a bar when we’ve had summer parties. It’s nice to have French doors in a kitchen, but we prioritised the extra space with a scullery instead, which also felt like a nod to the house’s Georgian heritage. The marble countertops, which I found on eBay, came from a stately home in Shropshire – they’re one of my favourite finds.”

Renovating the house during lockdown meant that family members couldn’t witness first-hand the house’s evolution. As an antidote, Tess began sharing progress pictures on Instagram; her following has since grown to over 12,000. The lockdown also meant “endless eBay scrolling” for Tess: “It was fun finding things – especially when you get vintage that fits in a space to the centimetre,” she says. “It’s such a pat on the back moment. There were, admittedly, a few things that weren’t quite right … but we could always repurpose a too-small table for our two-year-old daughter.”

Their daughter was born towards the end of their renovation journey. Furnishing spaces with a child in mind presented a thrilling new decorative challenge for Tess: “I think her room is my favourite. It’s this explosion of colour and I’ve used animals and toys as a part of the decor – there are whales everywhere! Plus, the room gets such good light – I always think it would be great as an artist’s studio.

The young family are planning a move to the country next. “It’ll be a dramatic change, but since our daughter came along, we’ve wanted to be nearer family up North,” she says. “I do have a vision for a double-fronted Georgian house … a renovation dream!” When asked whether its transformation will be as dutifully recorded on Instagram as her East End townhouse has been, Tess nods enthusiastically: “Definitely, definitely.”

Further reading

Follow Tess’s next renovation journey on her Instagram