A remarkable collection of contemporary ceramics fills every corner of this home

Surely one of the most difficult assignments in interior-decorating terms must be to be asked to design and decorate a house in a way that not only makes it appear as if nothing much has been done to it, but that will create a comfortable, efficient family house, as well as a showcase for a remarkable collection of contemporary ceramics. It wouldn't help if the house happened to be old, in central London, and untouched for 30 years, and would be even harder if the client and the decorator were sisters. Just imagine the myriad pitfalls, traps and ambushes that would lie in wait.

Such was the case for the house on these pages, but – amazingly – pits were circumnavigated, traps and ambushes avoided, and the result is exactly as intended: a warm family house where, in every room and on almost every surface, beautiful pots, singly, in groups or designed as striking installations, are displayed in a wonderfully simple and understated way.

The owner is not just a connoisseur of contemporary ceramics but an acknowledged expert in the field, who works with ceramic designers and makers and the V&A, as well as curating exhibitions of applied art. Her sister, Amanda Baring, is an interior designer of some 16 years' experience, based in London and working here and in the US. They have worked together before which means, as Amanda says, 'We've grown together, and that helped a lot.'

The previous owners had done very little to the house: ‘Much of it was as it had looked a century before, a patchwork of small, badly planned rooms,' says Amanda, but behind the jumble she could detect the fine bones of the original. “I saw this amazingly good, practical Victorian floor plan, and I knew then that it could be rescued and made into a comfortable house that would not be a pastiche, but that would work for a young family today and that could also be a fitting backdrop for my sister's collections.'

The owner brought much of her existing collection to the new house, so they knew in advance what spaces were needed. We realised that how we displayed everything was important, but we still wanted a bit of meatiness in the design,' says Amanda. Some larger installations seem almost to have become part of the house – Edmund de Waal's Porcelain Wall in the hall leading to the garden, and Julian Stair's Volumes Within Voids above a half-landing on the staircase. Nearly all the other pieces were to go on shelves and flat surfaces where they could be seen to best advantage.

Each room presented its own conundrums. In the kitchen, for example, while the owner wanted a room that was purely functional, Amanda thought it should also be comfortable and quirky. She found a cabinet that Decimus Burton had designed for the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew – the owner had seen one in South Africa and Amanda tracked down an identical cabinet – which now displays ceramics as effectively as it once displayed botanical specimens. It was intended that the dining room, situated next to the kitchen, would be used for both grown-up dinners and weekend family life; to that end, the formal velvet-covered dining chairs have cotton slipcovers that are used for family Sunday lunches and parties.

Thanks to the Victorian taste for space and spaces, there is both a library and a sitting room, as well as a more formal drawing room. The library is dominated by a magnificent Arts and Crafts table that once stood in Bristol City Hall, and the pendant light above it is a fantasy of dark horn and horsehair. Amanda felt it was important that the drawing room should retain a certain formality, as it would have in the nineteenth century, but without its looking like part of a museum. The solution lay in the carpet–a fine and striking bright yellow Tabriz that sets the tone for some ceramic showstoppers: a wall installation by Edmund de Waal, an oversize pot by Felicity Aylieff and dishes by Marit Tingleff and Sandy Brown. Upstairs, the bedrooms are calm and warm, the bathrooms are comfortably luxurious, and all, naturally, are furnished with groups of pleasing pots. Everywhere the wall col ours and finishes are light and restful, designed to complement, rather than detract from the pots.