Step into the home of an award-win­ning Brit­ish designer and you might expect to be greeted by a pristine show prop­erty, filled with on-trend items and fra­gile pieces that should be seen and cer­tainly not touched.

Not Sara Miller’s home. Sara has spent a dec­ade build­ing one of Bri­tain’s most recog­nis­able life­style brands, and, while her north Lon­don 1930s semi is an exquis­ite cel­eb­ra­tion of her love of col­our and pat­terns, it is also a place where you feel instantly at home.

The five-bed­room prop­erty is no sterile monu­ment to design but instead has a deli­ciously lived-in vibe. There are chil­dren’s toys on the floor, and draw­ings pinned up along­side plants, flowers in over­sized vases and design books. It is refresh­ing proof that a beau­ti­fully designed home can still be lived in.

‘For me, true lux­ury is warmth, per­son­al­ity and char­ac­ter, and as much as I love beau­ti­ful interi­ors, I’ve always felt homes should evolve around real life,’ says Sara.

‘I wanted the house to feel warm and wel­com­ing. I didn’t want it to feel glossy, too pristine or trend-led. I wanted it to feel authen­tic, layered and joy­ful – some­where that feels beau­ti­ful but also genu­inely lived in.’

Sara and hus­band Phil found the prop­erty in 2018 and moved in three weeks before daugh­ter Lyla was born. It was a bit rough around the edges but there was a good feel­ing of space and flow, with the main liv­ing space over­look­ing a wel­com­ing garden.

‘It was quite bland and not really my style at all, but I always knew it had poten­tial to be my dream home. The walls in the liv­ing room were painted a strange dull red col­our, which wouldn’t have been my choice.’

Within days of mov­ing in, Sara painted the liv­ing room in mid­night blue (Hague Blue by Far­row & Ball) and the kit­chen Down Pipe (Far­row & Ball), a dark moody mid­night shade.

‘I remem­ber being eight-and-a-half months preg­nant and leav­ing the house with all the kit­chen draw­ers pulled out and spread over the floor to dry, with paint pots every­where, just pray­ing I wouldn’t go into labour that day,’ says Sara.

‘Within 48 hours we man­aged to make the space a bit more “us” before my daugh­ter arrived. It’s amaz­ing how a lick of paint can be such a cost ef­fect­ive way to trans­form a space.’

Key to the home was an open-plan liv­ing and din­ing space, which would be the hub of fam­ily life.

The ori­ginal down­stairs area was an awk­ward L-shape, so as part of the renov­a­tion this was squared off, with a back and side exten­sion on the ground floor.

Care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion was given to divid­ing up such a big space into areas for the kit­chen, din­ing area, liv­ing room and play­room. Sara used light­ing and pendants in each area to help cre­ate the dif­fer­ent zones.

The down­stairs has been recon­figured by tak­ing down a couple of walls and extend­ing the liv­ing area with a new kit­chen, pantry and hide­away play­room.

Glass doors at the back of the house open on to the garden with a new ter­race. Upstairs it was mostly cos­metic changes with new bath­rooms and a restyle of all the bed­rooms.

‘The brief was really to cre­ate a home that felt time­less, layered and full of per­son­al­ity – eleg­ant but relaxed. I wanted it to feel soph­ist­ic­ated without ever becom­ing cold, min­im­al­ist or overly styled. For me, the most beau­ti­ful homes are the ones that feel col­lec­ted over time and reflect the people liv­ing in them.’

Two years after mov­ing in, and heav­ily preg­nant with second child Coby, Sara embarked on a full res­tor­a­tion project. ‘White walls and a plain, neut­ral space def­in­itely isn’t my thing,’ she says. ‘I really enjoyed push­ing cre­at­ive bound­ar­ies – and it was great put­ting together dif­fer­ent things in dif­fer­ent rooms to cre­ate very dif­fer­ent spaces and moods.’

The hall­way sets the tone imme­di­ately – it is wel­com­ing, eleg­ant and full of per­son­al­ity. Sara has used gor­geous pat­terned floor tiles from Bert & May and a moody dark wall with con­cealed cup­boards, skirt­ing and ban­is­ter on the stair­case.

The liv­ing room is strik­ing and indul­gent but at the same time com­fort­able and wel­com­ing. Rich col­ours, pat­terned cush­ions, books, col­lec­ted objects and lots of light­ing cre­ate a cosy atmo­sphere.

Period fea­tures, such as wall pan­els, cor­ni­cing and a tra­di­tional reclaimed fire­place, bounce against dark walls in Little Greene Obsidian Green.

The two arm­chairs are upholstered in Sara Miller Lon­don fab­rics and work per­fectly with the Chris­tian Lacroix leaf-design rug from Design­ers Guild.

The down­stairs loo is an immers­ive space and has a real ‘wow’ factor.

‘It may sound funny to focus on a toi­let but it’s a space all your guests will see yet nobody spends long there, so you can really take risks,’ says Sara. ‘It’s an oppor­tun­ity to do something really cre­at­ive and make a state­ment.’

The kit­chen, which fea­tures clas­sic cab­in­etry with aged brass hard­ware from Buster & Punch, is the hardest­ work­ing room in the house.

‘We love host­ing, and between my hus­band’s love for cook­ing and all my table­ware col­lec­tions, we knew we would want the space to work for host­ing fam­ily and friends.’

A hide­away play­room is a para­dise for the chil­dren. Using a large alcove between two rooms, Sara added con­cer­tina-pan­elled doors so the whole space (and mess) could be closed off in the even­ings to return the room to a calm adult space. The mas­ter bed­room is a cel­eb­ra­tion of Sara’s Bam­boo Col­lec­tion, with vary­ing prints and co-ordin­at­ing col­our­ways on the walls, chair uphol­stery, cur­tains, lamp­shades and bed­ding.

A fam­ily home should be about com­fort, warmth and con­nec­tion, says Sara, rather than being overly designed. With her own home she has very much prac­tised what she preaches.

‘It’s beau­ti­ful but it’s still very much lived in. That bal­ance was incred­ibly import­ant to me. Most of all I love the atmo­sphere. It feels wel­com­ing, layered and joy­ful – which is exactly what I hoped to cre­ate.’