“As artists we love colour and the combination of colours,” says Idris Khan of the Islington house he shares with Annie Morris, their two children and a cavapoo named Pencil.
Morris uses inspiration from her own life in her artworks, which include the iconic Stack sculptures, and a dress made out of painted pegs that was commissioned by Burberry. Khan, who received an OBE in 2017, is renowned for utilising different media, including photography, to investigate memory and the passage of time.
As successful artists, both find themselves travelling the world; Morris has just come back from opening a show in Seoul, while Khan is working on a solo exhibition in Paris next April.
The house they come home to from their travels is a gorgeous Queen Anne townhouse, just off Upper Street, where they’ve lived for 15 years. “We were seeing a lot of houses, and nothing was that great. Then, we walked in here and, at the time, I was obsessed with Charleston [the Sussex home of Bloomsbury Group artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant]. This house had so much life in the paintwork, it hadn’t been developed by someone who had painted all that out,” says Morris.
While the couple loved its original features, the house, which was at one time a squat, needed to be brought up to modern standards. “There was one bathroom in the whole house and one tank, so you could only have one bath of hot water. There was no electricity apart from the top floor, so we lived at the top. We lived like that for ages,” says Khan.
Now renovated, the house is a fantastic mix of modern art; works by artists such as Tracey Emin and Raqib Shaw, along with their own pieces, are juxtaposed with colourful paintwork, antique furniture and cosy fabrics. “Idris is way more minimal,” says Morris. “There’s a lot of stuff but there’s an order to it. The bookshelves have a lot going on, but I know where everything is.”
“We always try to step away from what is too ‘good tasty’. If it doesn’t quite work, the mismatch is actually quite good,” adds Khan. “The number of times we’ve painted this house is unbelievable.” In particular, there were several discussions about the colour of the kitchen. “Originally, it was pink because my godfather in New York had this really famous pink kitchen that I loved and we painted it five different colours and shades of pink,” says Morris. “Then my mum had a chip of bright yellow paint that she’d kept in a box for 20 years marked ‘good yellow’ and she randomly took it out one day. It was the perfect yellow.”
Morris says that the interiors have come about organically. “I love mixing old textures, things that feel worn, with modern art. We did it ourselves and then we got really stuck about what we were going to do for the sitting room curtains, so we got our friend [interior designer] Gavin Houghton to help.” The room, which was white for a long time, is now bursting with complementary shades of red and green.
“[Gavin’s] very decisive, unlike us. He’s brilliant with fabrics and colour,” says Khan. “We also love Robert Kime and his sense of fabric. We do a lot of shopping at antique fairs and markets, especially in France. We try, wherever we go in the world, to bring something back.”
A recent trip to Tangiers saw them bring home some antique fabric and furniture, and Morris admits that they buy first and work out where things will go later. “We’re so impractical with buying stuff because it’s too tempting … When we got married in France, we found a fire surround in this old antique shop, which we bought because we thought it was such a cool fire surround. It was early, carved wood — it’s probably 1810 — we bought that not knowing where we would put it, and then it fit perfectly in that basement.”
The couple love shopping at antique furniture auctions (a favourite is Lots Road) and online. Khan admits to having “a chair problem”, so the family have “a ridiculous number of chairs”, while for Morris, it’s plates. “I cannot not buy plates.” She says her favourite pieces are by the late potter Ann Stokes. “I’ve known her since I was quite young and, for my 21st birthday, I was given this amazing set of her plates. There’s also an incredible light in our bedroom which was made by her.”
The couple’s home is filled with art from other friends — “We do a lot of artist swaps,” says Khan — but Morris adds that they also try to keep some of their own works, including one of her Stack sculptures. “Idris’s best friend, Raqib Shaw, said to keep one work from each show. It was such incredible advice because you can never go back to that moment you’re in, unless you stay in that place, which I didn’t because I changed so much. It’s so much of a moment.”
As well as a place to live, the house has been where the couple work and find inspiration. “I made chalkboard photographs on the computer in the sitting room,” says Idris. “When the kids were babies, I would work late on the computer. Annie draws in here all the time.”
Khan has lived in Islington for 22 years and the pair love the “villagey feel”. “We used to be so close to the Italian up the road that I’d bring a pot, and they’d just fill it with the arrabbiata we love, and we’d take it home and eat it instantly,” says Morris. “There was also a place where they named a salad after us — ‘Annie’s Salad’. Camden Passage is really good for antiques and vintage clothes. Since we’ve lived here so much has opened; we always had Screen on the Green and a few ‘fun-ish’ pubs but there was nowhere near as many choices.”
London in general has had a big influence on their creative lives. “Our studio is in east London so we’re around so many great artists,” says Khan. “For an artist to be here creatively and be inspired by other artists, there’s nowhere else like it. New York maybe but it doesn’t have the village feel of London.”
The pair are currently in the midst of the Frieze art fair. “It’s such a calendar event,” says Khan. “I’m showing a new set of prints at the Cristea Roberts gallery, but it’s mainly meetings for people to see the works in the studio and we go to various openings and dinners. It’s buzzy.”
Next year, they’re teaming up for a joint show in Mumbai. Despite both being artists, Khan says their different styles work well together, both inside and outside their home. “We agree on a lot of things. The mixture is good. It works.”
