The twin sisters’ cosy home holds an artfully curated collection of secondhand pieces, imbued with British sensibility.
Inside the Charming Cottagecore Home of Artist Duo Liv & Dom
The twin sisters’ cosy home holds an artfully curated collection of secondhand pieces, imbued with British sensibility.
Welcome to The Makers. Each week, we celebrate innovators, artisans, and crafters of all types by taking you on a private tour of their creative spaces. For this instalment, we tour artists sisters Liv & Dom’s charming home, shop & studio in shop and studio in East Sussex, England.
Identical twins Liv & Dom share a lot. Beyond the obvious, the creative pair also share an eponymous homewares brand, as well as a shop, studio, and charming abode in Lewes, England. The sisters have called this historic town in East Sussex home for the past five years, which has, naturally, influenced their approach to interiors. Liv playfully describes their home’s aesthetic as “cosy, bohemian-ish, eclectic, and homespun, with an earthy palette and old sh*t everywhere.”
“That’s the general vibe,” continues Liv. “It’s just been a gradual process of adding things when we come across bargains in antique shops and on Facebook marketplace. We really went with the energy of the town we’re in, which is quite historical and has a lot of cute, quintessentially ‘English countryside’ houses, and loads of antique shops.”
We didn’t grow up with much money and we started our business with very little too, so ‘making’ to us has been making something out of not much!
- Liv & Dom
In the twins’ space, pre-loved is re-loved. “Our furniture is mostly cheap and (usually) well-made second-hand pieces, but we’ve found a couple of gems here and there, like our rustic dining table from a local antique shop and an Ercol stacking chair we found outside an old school building in West London,” says Dom.
Inside, an aesthetic ethos of out with the new, in with the old prevails. The result is a character-filled home that welcomes you with open arms and a comforting cosiness. “One hundred percent new just feels sterile to us, as well as not being environmentally friendly! Also, we love adding touches that are totally unique to our space, like one-off artworks and painting lampshades and furniture.”
Home is where the art is, and Liv & Dom’s is full of it. Creativity runs in the family, with a couple of their mum’s artworks amongst their most prized pieces. “We have two of our Mum’s artworks from her school days on our walls, one beautiful pink flower study that’s in my room, and a still life sketch from a timed drawing exam. Our commissioned portrait of our little ginger cat Persie by artist Rose Bradshaw is definitely a favourite as well,” says Liv.
A long-running source of creative inspiration, Liv & Dom’s mum also served as a cheerleader for their own artistic pursuits. “We were encouraged by our mum to explore our creativity at a young age, and we worked on art projects together constantly as children.” Their collaborative spirit continued into university where they worked together on their graduation project, “making ‘Liv & Dom’ as a sort of ‘pretend’ brand,” recalls Liv. “We sold a lot of the pieces we made at our graduate show and thought we’d just continue to sell at markets and things after that. Starting out in 2015, we worked at Mum’s kitchen table just with oven bake clay.”
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Recreate Liv's look with the Hazelnut and Terracotta Bedding Bundle.
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Fast-forward to today and Liv & Dom the brand is anything but pretend – routinely selling out each new drop of ceramics, making portraits for Gillian Anderson, and recently designing an exclusive plate collection with Bed Threads. “We usually go for a more eclectic look with our plates, but we knew we wanted something more refined and cohesive for Bed Threads. The look feels like a sort of modern take on Eastern European or Mediterranean folk pottery, using local flora as we always do for inspiration.”
“We wanted to really get a relaxed feel across with these particular nudes – mealtime is really important to a lot of people, so we wanted to reflect that with the serene poses.”
Mealtime looks important in their home too, where a gorgeous tablescape of handmade Liv & Dom ceramic vases, vessels and plates awaits guests for the ultimate dinner party.
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Growing up “without much money,” Liv & Dom have always been good at making a lot out of a little – and both their brand story and their home styling is testament to their ingenuity. “We didn’t grow up with much money and we started our business with very little too, so ‘making’ to us has been making something out of not much!”
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Recreate Dom's look with the Olive Stripe Bedding Set and Pistachio Sheet Set.
With a flair for floral, Liv & Dom have taken their brushes to bedsides, also embellishing lampshades and plant pots with their signature painting style. “Our landlords actually let us paint some of the house, too! There was a lovely dark green colour, but it was literally everywhere on the upper floors and it made the place feel very small. We got the cheapest white paint we could find and just went to town on it!”
Though Liv & Dom’s consciously curated home is filled with collected treasures and one-of-a-kind artworks, it’s their studio and shop space down the street that enjoys the most attention. “We actually tend to save our best furniture finds for our studio/shop, which is open to the public,” says Dom.
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For more from Liv & Dom follow them @livanddom
Photography by Vicki Adamson. Styling by Hannah Simmons and Jess Griffin.
