The household
Writer and content creator Lisa Dawson, 55, her son, Leo, 16, Buddy the dog and Flo the cat. Lisa’s two older children, who are at university, also visit frequently.
The project
When Dawson first moved into her three-storey, four-bedroom Victorian terrace in the centre of York with her husband Joe in June 2025, it seemed to tick every box. There was plenty of natural light, original windows and two bathrooms so their son Leo could have his own space. The elegant proportions, high ceilings and period details made it an ideal family home, with the bonus of a view of York Minster from the front door.
What Dawson hadn’t planned for was the shock announcement that Joe wanted a divorce, two months after moving in. Despite being blindsided by the news, Dawson decided to buy him out, get a higher mortgage and create a home that reflected her next chapter. ‘I wanted a base that our children could treat as their own even if they weren’t living there,’ she says. ‘Although it was abrupt, I knew that if I could get through cancer [Dawson was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012] and the life changes that brought, I could sure as hell get through a man leaving me.’
The living room is a sanctuary for Lisa and Buddy (the dog, pictured) and was previously used by a MasterChef winner to host supperclubs. The Togo sofa and chair are from Ligne Roset and have been with Lisa for eight years. The coffee table is an Ebay find and the rug is La Redoute. The flooring is by Parador.
BEFORE
There is no imprint of Joe left in the house now. ‘He would have wanted to live in a fully carpeted house with a white-gloss kitchen, underfloor heating and a La-Z-Boy recliner chair,’ says Dawson. ‘No, thanks.’
Despite its period charm, the house needed serious work. The parquet floor, while photogenic, had been glued directly on to the original boards and was completely uneven. ‘Walking on it felt like a bouncy castle, and it wasn’t structurally sound,’ Dawson says. She ripped it out, levelled the subfloor with boarding and screed and installed engineered oak flooring over the top. ‘Instagram went nuts,’ she says. ‘My followers all wanted me to keep the parquet!’
A French dresser has been repurposed as a kitchen island to house Lisa’s cutlery and linens. The previous Aga was taken away by Avec Cookers who recycled the parts, and the chimney breast was removed for space. Lisa also took out the spotlights, which allowed for an extra five inches of ceiling height.
BEFORE
The wallpaper throughout was 70 years old and had been applied over several coats of different paint, and much of the plumbing needed replacing. ‘The renovation plan quickly snowballed,’ recalls Dawson. ‘Every time we touched something, we would uncover something else that had been botched.’ A case in point was the bathroom ceiling, which fell through into the kitchen after years of undetected leaks had turned it to mush. ‘It needed to be gutted.’
The ground floor and bathroom renovation took six months to complete. ‘Leo and I lived in our bedrooms, with a microwave and TV,’ says Dawson. One evening the macerator broke and they stayed in a hotel for the night. ‘After living in one room for four months it was heaven!’
Divorce decor
From lighting a candle and drinking wine while watching The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills, to making design decisions entirely on her own, Dawson’s divorce journey has had its upsides. Not to mention being able to starfish in bed. ‘I sleep so soundly now,’ she says. ‘It’s funny the things you don’t know you are sacrificing or bending over backwards for, until you no longer have to do it.’
In the lounge area Lisa uncovered the original fireplace – used as log storage – and framed it with Purple Brown square gloss tiles from Bert & May. The pendant light is from Original BTC and the in-built bookcases are painted in Wheatsheaf by Mylands. ‘It makes the room always feel sunny, even in York!’ says Lisa.
BEFORE
Although Dawson had always led most of the decorating decisions in the marriage, she now has complete creative control – and relishes it. ‘I don’t have to run anything past anybody,’ she says. As a result, one of Dawson’s favourite rooms is the ‘very girly’ upstairs bathroom. The shower enclosure features pale-pink gloss tiles that look like Zellige but are actually ceramic tiles from Bert & May, with a pink glass wall light and the perfect striped-linen shower curtain, which took Dawson ages to track down. ‘Joe preferred glass shower screens, so this was my opportunity to do something softer and more decorative,’ she says. ‘I love it.’
Though she’s been in the house for less than a year, Dawson has already layered it with trinkets and treasures reflecting a lifetime of stories. ‘We split possessions – I got to keep the vintage French dining table and pink Togo sofas,’ she says.
Second-hand steals
Anyone who follows Dawson will know she prioritises preloved pieces wherever possible. The marble coffee table in her living room was an Ebay find for £150, while the French vintage display cabinet was £600 and holds an array of Dawson’s collectables. ‘I’m a charity shop obsessive,’ she says. ‘Most of the furniture is second-hand.’ Hero pieces include a set of vintage Bertoia dining chairs that Dawson bought for £300 from a Substack subscriber, and the lounge area’s coffee table, which is a replica of one Dawson’s family had during her childhood; she found it on Ebay for £150.
In the kitchen, Lisa opened up the original narrow doorway to create more space. The worktops are by Caesarstone and the cabinets are from Howdens. ‘It’s a mix and match of luxe with budget,’ says Lisa. The ‘Powder Room’ door is painted in Cigar by Mylands.
BEFORE
Original features (including shutters, skylights, ceiling roses and coving) were carefully reinstated throughout, restoring the home’s period charm. The lounge fireplace, which had been encased in concrete, was uncovered and brought back to life as a fun log-storage area. ‘I wanted to restore the house to its former glory with a few modern flourishes,’ Dawson says.
However, downsizing from the previous 5,000 sq ft family home (located just outside York) to a more manageable 1,800 sq ft required a ruthless edit. ‘I cleared the garage, the cellar – everything I had in storage,’ says Dawson, who used to own seven dinner sets and ten (ten!) fruit bowls. Anything that didn’t earn its place in her new life was passed on: gifted to friends, either sold via Facebook Marketplace or donated to charity.
‘My local charity shop sent a Gift Aid letter to say they had made over £700 from my things, which was lovely to hear.’
Considered colour
‘I’m not a pattern person,’ says Dawson. ‘Anything floral is a no.’ Instead, she favours confident blocks of colour, used to zone spaces and highlight architectural details such as woodwork and doorways. ‘Joe had zero interest in interior design, so colours meant nothing to him,’ she says.
In the lounge area and adjoining dining room, floor-to-ceiling bookcases are painted in the earthy tones of Cigar and Wheatsheaf by Mylands – the latter echoed on the living room shutters – to create focal points that anchor both rooms. ‘Repeating a shade at either end of a long space helps to pull everything together,’ she says. The reveal of the painted bookcases in the dining room caused a stir on social media, with their Cigar shade garnering almost 10,000 likes on Instagram.
The bathroom is the ‘girliest’ room in the house, with pink gloss tiles and a striped linen shower curtain from Ferm Living. Monochrome chequerboard floor tiles from Bert & May stop the overall look from becoming too sugary.
BEFORE
By contrast, the surrounding walls are kept deliberately restrained in an off-white, providing a calm backdrop for Dawson’s evolving collection of art and textiles. ‘A neutral base gives me the freedom to move things around without worrying about them necessarily going together,’ Dawson says.
One of her favourite colourful pieces of art, by Australian painter Ces McCully, reads: I Have Slow Punched You In My Dreams,’ and takes pride of place above the living-room fireplace.
For Dawson, it feels apt for a space that has been entirely designed by her. ‘I’ve been overwhelmed by the support from other women navigating divorce in their 50s,’ she says. ‘This is a new chapter, for me and my home.’
Find Lisa on Instagram @_lisa_dawson
