Seventies

Nisha Stevens has injected her London home with a striking dose of retro design and bold colour

‘ We totally blew our budget buying this home,’ Nisha Stevens says of the Victorian terrace in southeast London that she shares with her husband Tim and young son Kester. ‘Our relentless househunting finally paid off and we made an appointment to view it the day it was listed. We loved it immediately – it was the most expensive house we’d seen, but also the most spacious and homely.’ So the couple moved quickly and made an offer there and then. ‘We were lucky as another pair made an offer, too, but ours won the day,’ says Nisha.

The property had been renovated 12 years before but its magnolia walls and beige carpets had become dated. ‘We had no money left after buying the house and major work just wasn’t an option,’ says Nisha. ‘So out came the paintbrushes instead.’

The couple got the keys in what turned out to be a very cold winter. ‘ We’d just ripped up all the carpets and there was no insulation, so the property was absolutely freezing,’ recalls Nisha. ‘I was pregnant when we moved in, so it was up to Tim to go to the house every evening after work and do the paintwork while I stayed with my parents. We only just completed the work before Kes was born.’

Tim managed to take up the carpets and sand the original floorboards, paint the rooms, put shelves up and build fitted wardrobes in the bedroom – all in just a few short months. The couple employed some creative thinking in the kitchen. ‘ We couldn’t afford to replace it, so we retiled and painted the units,’ says Nisha. ‘Our worktops were ugly wood-look laminate but we sanded then painted them with an oil-based blackboard paint. It gives a new and very practical look and, if it starts looking a bit tired we can simply repaint.’

The redecorated house is now entirely unrecognisable

from the tired magnolia box it once was. Nisha and Tim love retro style, so the house features retro-inspired homewares, furniture and art. They have amassed an varied collection of taxidermy pieces, including a display of fish in the sitting room, plus contemporary pieces.

Nisha is also a huge fan of vintage fashion and shoes and keeps a lot of her favourites on display. ‘ We have a lot of family hand-me-downs,’ she says. ‘My mum is Indian, so we have some textiles from her, and I also have a lot of my grandmother’s old furniture.’ The overall effect is a rich treasure trove of colour and textile, a creative mishmash of 1970s style, contemporary kitsch and Indian heritage. The kitchen features bottle green cabinets and Moroccan tiles, while the bedroom showcases Nisha’s beautiful collection of vintage pieces. A palette of grey and soft pink walls keeps the interior from feeling overdone by lending a simple background to Nisha’s quirky array of items.

‘ We still have a long list of work that needs doing to the house once we can afford it,’ Nisha says, ‘ including knocking walls down and extending the kitchen. In the meantime, we wanted to create a welcoming family space using the space we have – I think we’ve achieved just that, and we feel pretty proud of the finished result.’