Inside Cassandra Ellis’ Bright London Haven

Interior designer and author New Zealand-born Cassandra Ellis and her husband Ed Prichard, a branding creative director, live in a split-level, two-bedroom apartment in a converted school in Battersea, London. Inside, according to the Daily Mail, it’s “pared back” and “old school calm.”

Ellis and Prichard’s apartment is in an incredible location. No wonder these conversions were initially snapped up as studios for fashion photographers, artists and designers: “The light through the tall windows is fantastic,” Ellis says.

Rather than being hip, her home has a timeless quality. It has a calmness that comes from Ellis’ choice of natural materials and pieces that “show the hand of the maker”, such as tactile ceramics, hand-honed wooden stools, well-worn antiques and art that feels personal. It’s an approach that might seem more akin to a rustic house than a London apartment, but Ellis shows that it’s possible to bring the relaxed feel of a country cottage to a city home.

The trick, she says, is to keep things pared back, simple and, above all, personal. “Nothing is here just for the sake of it or to fill a gap,” she says.

The apartment was a bare, clunky conversion when they moved in two years ago. Ellis reworked the three staircases, smoothed some of the architectural angles and laid rich oak flooring throughout. She sourced it directly from a timber yard, buying in bulk so she could use it to make kitchen cabinets and seating nooks, too.

Original article by Nicole Gray and Jo Leevers, Daily Mail, February 19, 2017.

Photo by Simon Brown.