POLISHED GEM
Lisa Gordon craved a chic interior-designed home and found the answer in a jewel palette of blues and golds
When architects and interior designers, The Vawdrey House, showed Lisa Gordon their suggestion of dark blue floor tiles shot through with an eye-catching gold pattern for the hallway, it resonated with her immediately. ‘I’ve always gone overboard with too many swirls and curls in my design ideas,’ says Lisa, ‘and I needed expert help with this house,’ she says. ‘My husband Guy and I both loved their suggestion and knew they’d be perfect to guide us through the project.’
Lisa and Guy moved here when Lisa was pregnant with their eldest daughter, Mae, now 18, buying the maisonette on the ground and lower ground floor. Four years later, Lisa was expecting their second daughter, Scarlett, now 14, and the chance arose to buy the maisonette above. The couple reinstated the building back into one house, but Lisa says money was tight back then and the conversion had always felt disjointed. ‘The top two floors didn’t inform the bottom two floors and my design ideas were the wrong side of quirky,’ she says. ‘As the years went on, things started to break and fall apart, and the house became really depressing to live in.’
Lisa and Guy considered moving but decided to stay with a focus on fitting a new kitchen, better storage and decorating throughout. While browsing an interiors magazine for ideas, Lisa spotted a project by The Vawdrey House. ‘I particularly remember one picture – a window seat with a bright pink,
velvet cushion that looked unpretentious yet had a gorgeous touch of glamour,’ she recalls. ‘I wanted our home to look magazine-worthy too, and this project seemed to capture it all.’
After meeting with The Vawdrey House to discuss their modest ideas, the team offered to return with plans that would show the full potential of the couple’s house.
‘Once I saw the concepts and the floor tile sample, I couldn’t unsee them,’ says Lisa. ‘I decided there and then to spend the money to transform our home.’ Space planning formed the backbone of the project, enabling the girls to have their own large bedrooms and bathroom on the top floor, while two bedrooms with en suites were added to the first floor, adjoining the main bedroom. Lisa also suggested moving the wall in the sitting room to make the adjacent kitchen bigger. ‘We’d been struggling with how to fit in an island but once we’d come to terms with the need to remove the sitting room fireplace, everything fell into place,’ she explains.
Decoration and furnishing followed, guided by The Vawdrey House’s interior designer Sophie Chapman, who drew on blue and yellow tones inspired by the beloved floor tiles. The combination of a navy blue kitchen, brass fittings, ochre walls, and teal and turquoise bathroom tiles all delight Lisa. ‘The whole project is a wonderful, restrained version of my excessive taste,’ she says. ‘Sophie has transformed all the rooms into beautiful and comfortable living spaces.’