LONDON CALLING
Finding their ideal location, taking their time and calling in the professionals resulted in a perfectly balanced home for one young family
As a Canadian, Elizabeth had long admired this small, villagey pocket of London. ‘It’s incredibly pretty, especially in the spring when the cherry trees that line the roads are in full bloom,’ she smiles. So when Elizabeth discovered she was pregnant with Ethan and realised that she and her husband James would need to move from their two-bedroom flat in Primrose Hill, they started their search on one of the handful of roads of Victorian terraced, ‘London stock’ yellow brick houses that run east from Queen’s Park.
When Elizabeth and James first viewed the house they eventually bought, not only was it in the perfect location, but they were immediately struck by the atmosphere and the quality of the natural light. ‘It had such a calm and quiet feel about it,’ says Elizabeth. ‘And it had been well loved by the previous owners – so we took the plunge, put in an offer and moved in two months before Ethan was born.’
The couple had always intended to carry out a side return extension and a loft conversion, but while Ethan and older brother Jonah were small, they couldn’t face the disruption. ‘We finally took our first step in 2012, working with architects MRJ Rundell & Associates on plans for the build, but dragged our heels until early 2015 when we were approaching the expiry date on the planning permission,’ says Elizabeth. ‘We’d heard all of the usual cautionary tales about builds going wrong and took our time with the process, interviewing several builders. After crunching the numbers, we decided we’d stay in the house during the build, so we could invest the money we had set aside for renting in higher-quality finishes.
We knew we’d found our ideal team when we met with Yuriy Dumych and Elizabeth Byrte of Elgin & Ellis. Their approach was
‘Our lives are hectic, so I wanted the house to feel calm and chose a palette of muted colours to achieve the effect’
professional yet personal – they were confident about the practicalities, and sensitive to the stresses involved in a home renovation.’
Having lived in the house for more than five years before work started, Elizabeth had got to know it and realised the period layout wasn’t working for the family. She wanted to find a way of addressing those issues – including access to the garden for entertaining, the disconnected dining room and narrow hallway – without detracting from its Victorian heritage.
‘We wanted better access to the garden from the kitchen so we could entertain outdoors, but rather than a wall of contemporary bifold doors, we chose classic French windows, which are more in keeping with the period of the house. The old Victorian dining room – the middle room – wasn’t connected to the kitchen or the front room and could only be accessed from the hallway, with the result that it was unused. Instead of knocking through into the front room, we maintained it as a separate space, creating an opening with pocket doors into the front room and a stable door into the kitchen. We worked with the lack of natural light by introducing panelling and painting it blue. It now functions as a snug where all of us love to gather. The narrow Victorian entryway was always crowded with shoes and coats, so we sealed up the old doorway from the hall into the middle room and incorporated boot and coat storage there.
The entrance is now clean and uncluttered and feels so much more spacious,’ explains Elizabeth.
She wanted the decor to be timeless and trend-proof. ‘The only wallpaper I’ve used is in the master bedroom and I chose a classic: Woods by Cole & Son, which was designed by Michael Clark in
1959. I also selected classic Shaker-style painted oak doors for the kitchen. They’ll never date and can be repainted if I want to refresh the look later on. For the bathroom, I was really tempted by all of the colourful, graphic encaustic tiles on the market. In the end, though, I opted for classic marble hexagons on the floor and metro tiles from Fired Earth’s Bridgehampton range in the shower, adding interest with painted panelling and accessories.
‘Like most working families, our lives are hectic,’ adds Elizabeth, ‘Above all else, I wanted the house to feel calm, so I chose a palette of muted colours to achieve the effect. I also wanted the house to hang together as a whole, so I carried the colour palette and the materials throughout the house. For example, the front door and the kitchen units are painted in Farrow & Ball’s Pigeon and Mizzle, from the same colour family. I also used Pigeon on the panelling in the family bathroom. The brassware in the kitchen and the loft shower room are all in unlacquered brass. Then the kitchen’s Carrara marble worktop and splashback are echoed in the marble tiling in the family bathroom.’
Elizabeth came across one of her main design influences on an early trip to London, before she settled in the UK. ‘I stayed at the Charlotte Street Hotel and was struck by Kit Kemp’s style – relaxed, but tailored. I admire the way she mixes colours and patterns and her quirky flourishes. Hers are rooms that make you want to linger and I hope that is how people feel when they come and visit our home. We love it. It feels like our haven and is a place we all love coming back to,’ she concludes.
For details on Elizabeth’s company, Macfarlane & Co Interiors, see macfarlaneandcointeriors.com or call 07894 171014
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