Photography by Maria Le Mesurier.
The key to maintaining a tidy minimalist home with children who may not share the same goals?
“There are spills and stains everywhere. I throw lots of jute rugs everywhere to cover the worst bits. As for the sofas, I layer them with linen throws and blankets.”
Maria styled the front door of the Le Mesurier family home with some of her favorite baskets.
Tellingly, among the 30 or so products on WoodEdit’s web store are five types of boot racks and peg rails for corralling outerwear and galoshes.
Their Kitchen Table Style 1 in walnut is available via their store and also comes in oak and ash. All of the wood used by WoodEdit is FSC-certified, meaning it comes from sustainably harvested forests.
In the kitchen, Maria allows for a pretty display in one open cabinet, but everything else is kept behind doors for a streamlined look.
Another WoodEdit design, this simple and trim kitchen island anchors the space.
Maria gravitates to a naturalistic palette of whites, corals, and browns. In the winter months, she swaps out light-colored fabrics for darker ones, like this Portuguese terracotta-hued linen curtain in the kitchen.
Branches of silver birch in an antique Italian pot make for a beautiful moment in the sitting room. Sometimes I give them water and sometimes not.
Behind a sofa covered with a Spanish gingham blanket is a spot for Maria to display some of her favorite objects: very old Italian glass bottles and Italian olive pots.
Many of the curtains in her home are made from repurposed fabrics.
“In the play room, the walls are very damp. I stapled hessian sacking to the walls, so we can delay the repair! I love the earthy feel of it and always use natural materials,” says Maria, who likes to cover sofas with layers of washable linen.
In the bathroom, Maria repurposed a sturdy branch she found on her property as a curtain rod.
In the serene main bedroom, Portuguese linen curtains surround the bed.
In her young daughter’s room, a trio of handmade grass animal heads from Spain, available on the WoodEdit site, keep company.