The London home of artists James Russell and Hannah Plumb recently caught our eye—but by the time we caught up with them, they had decided, as they put it, “it was farm time” and sold their  mid-19th century cottage via Inigo. (The couple have since relocated to rural Shropshire with their toddler, Walter.) Luckily, they were still keen to share the story of their Stockwell home—a tale of slow discovery and happenstance. Let’s take a look around.

Photography by Mark Fox for Inigo.

The couple—who are work as well as life partners—bought the house on Stockwell Green in 2007 from a famous concert pianist who wasn’t shy of bold shades. (The front room, where he practiced at his baby grand, was painted cerise pink.) At the time, Hannah and James had just about managed to scrape together the deposit for the house. Very little was left over to address the long list of necessary repairs.

Whilst their studio in nearby Camberwell became established, their home remained largely unchanged save for a few key structural alterations. The floor in the living room had an unhealthy sag (something to do with that piano, perhaps), so the boards were lifted and their supporting brick piers rebuilt. Outside, the render was hastily patched up and the coping stones replaced. “We knew less ourselves about old buildings at that time,” James reflects. “Although we always knew that a much deeper renovation needed to be done.”