Swedish-born Maya Njie moved to London when she was 19 and for many years lived in a one-bedroom flat in Hackney. She moved into this 1930s rental house on the Isle of Dogs in 2009, when her 12-year old daughter was a baby. Eleven years later and she has a successful perfume brand to her name, which she launched in 2016 from the house’s loft. Her fragrances, which balance the modern and nostalgic, are now stocked by the likes of Liberty and Earl of East and she has a studio just a couple of minutes’ walk from her house.

Here, she talks to us about making a rental house feel like home, combining charity shop and market finds, with artworks she has collected over the years.

Maya: “When my daughter was born in 2008, we quickly started to outgrow my one-bedroom flat in a Victorian house right next to Victoria Park. I wanted to stay in Tower Hamlets but rent prices were going up and I decided to look a bit further afield. I’d always valued space over location.

“I ended up visiting Mudchute on the Isle of Dogs for antenatal classes and really loved the area. It’s difficult to find a semi-detached house with a garden and conservatory, so I took the house as soon as I saw it. It’s part of a 1930s pebble-dashed crescent and it’s definitely got its quirks, which I welcome.

“It’s quite different from the Victorian terraced house I lived in before but I loved how the area felt relatively untouched. People walk down the crescent and feel like they’re in suburban London.

“Since it’s a rental, I’ve had to work with the space and be pragmatic with what I can change and so on. I have ripped up the carpets on the stairs and first floor to expose the lovely original wood flooring. I thought about sanding it all down but decided that I actually preferred it with layers of paint. It’s an ongoing project and I might varnish it one day.

“After we moved in, I discovered it had a loft, which spreads over the width of the house. I’ve given it a lot of love and time doing things like painting, changing the surfaces and replacing the carpet. When I launched my perfume brand in 2016, it was functioning as my studio.

“It was back in 2010 whilst on a surface design degree at the University of the Arts London that I first started to experiment with scent. There I used my old family photos from the 1960s and 70s as inspiration for my printmaking processes and would have them on my mood boards. This led to an exploration of memory and multi-sensory work in the form of olfaction.

“I’ve always been fascinated by smell and fragrance and continued experimenting with raw materials and perfumery after leaving university. It all happened by accident really. When I finished my degree, I worked front of house for a creative hub in Hackney. There I would scent the reception space and I received a lot of enquiries about what I was doing. I met quite a few people that way who now wear my fragrances.

“It was an inspiring environment, which ultimately spurred me on to set up on my own. My daughter had just started school and I gave my everything to the brand.

“The scents I create are familiar and nostalgic, but also contemporary. I see my fragrances as more of an art form than a beauty product – it’s about creating an all-encompassing memory and capturing precious moments through the medium of scent.

“Like my fragrances, the house is a mix of modern and nostalgic. I’ve never bought a load of stuff for it in one go; it has just happened slowly over the years, as I’ve found bits and bobs at fairs and car boot sales. The wicker chair and chest of drawers in my bedroom came from car boot sales a few years ago, and I found the oval mirror at Spitalfields market over 10 years ago.

“When I was growing up in Sweden, I’d always hunt for furniture, clothes and artwork in charity shops. You could get your hands on amazing pieces for next to nothing. A lot of my favourite pieces have been brought back from Sweden, such as the floral curtains in the living room, which I bought years ago. I found the illuminated globe on my desk in a thrift shop in Sweden too – I bought it for my daughter, because it has all of the countries on it in Swedish.

“My favourite place to be is the living room, with my beloved Stendig calendar and G Plan desk, which I’ve had for about 10 years. It used to have it in my bedroom as a vanity table, but it felt wasted so I moved it into the living room. I thought my daughter could use it when she’s doing her homework, but she still prefers to sit on the floor, it turns out! The brown leather chair was an eBay find; my partner and I saw it as an excuse to get outside of London and made a day trip out of collecting it. 

“I like to think that everything has a place, but you have to be somewhat flexible about this mindset when you live with children. The wall-mounted Utensilo organiser by Vitra, which sits above the desk in the living room, was a treat to myself when I launched my brand. I was especially happy when I found one in cream.

“I am a fan of brutalism and one of my favourite buildings in the city is Thamesmead, an estate built on east London marshland during the 1960s. It’s situated not far from the Thames estuary and was originally designed for workers in the area. It had big promises but never really delivered, and over the years, parts of it have been torn down. Some find it quite harsh looking I think, but to me it’s not; it’s full of interesting levels, paths and walkways. I grew up on an estate and the sense of community it has just makes me think of being a child back in Sweden.

“I’ve collected posters and photographic prints from shops and fairs over the years, but some have inevitably just ended up sitting in their rolls. This year, though, I decided to get some of them framed. I hung a screenprint by Kazmir Malevich, a Russian avant-garde artist, which now sits above the sofa in the living room – I’m drawn in by its block colours.

“The brown cabinet in the corner of the living room has a stash of nice smelly things in it. I burn incense every day and also as a ritual after I’ve had a tidy up of the house. It’s the final touch.

“I brought a few cherished items back from the Gambia when I visited family last Christmas, and one of them was incense. It has a really woody, smoky scent with floral elements, which is made from infused seeds picked along the Gambian River.

“I’m not very green-fingered, but we’ve spent a lot more time out in the garden this year and my plan is to make it more homely there in the spring. I want to treasure it, just as I have the inside of the house.

“I sometimes miss Hackney, as there you have everything on your doorstep, but I love how different this area is too. It has a strong history and some real characters that come with it. The River Thames is all around us and the ferry is closer to the house than the tube. I really like that.”

Maya, how do you define modern living?

“For me, it’s about working with what you have. Coming from a Victorian house, this wasn’t the type of house I first had in mind, but I’ve really created my own space within it and I love it here now. It really does feel like home, both to me and to those who visit.”