‘the dark green decor had to go’
Liz loved her Victorian home in Lancashire, but not its garish Seventies-style interior
Before we moved here four years ago, we were a family of three and we lived in a two-up, two-down,’ says Liz. ‘My husband Jay and I wanted a forever home with a bigger kitchen and garden, and I also wanted a room to work in, as I was about to launch my online design and giftware shop. I’ve always loved making things, and decided to take the plunge and turn my hobby into a business.
We looked at a few properties before this one but they didn’t have the period features we longed for. Eventually, we came across this house and fell in love with it instantly. The rooms were all spacious, with high ceilings and large sash windows, and it even had an empty basement that would be perfect to turn into my office and crafting room. The location was great, and although the kitchen and garden weren’t terribly big, the pros definitely outweighed the cons.
First things first
We started decorating the ground floor the week we moved in. Much to our delight, the seller took her green carpets with her, leaving lovely old floorboards in the dining room. We sanded them and painted them grey – a practical decision, as this room is used the most in the house. I painted the walls white to give me blank canvasses to decorate with my collections of vintage finds from junk shops and flea markets. I’m quite an impulse buyer, and when I see something I like, I buy it, but sometimes things sit in the basement for months before I find a place for them – the shutters now on the sitting room wall sat down there for a year before Jay and his brother Mark finally put them up on the wall.
We also opened up the fireplaces in the dining room and sitting room,
added the chandeliers and ceiling roses and gave the built-in cupboards and shelves a lick of white paint.
The kitchen had white cupboards, dark brown worksurfaces and green tiles. As our budget was tight, we decided to keep the units but had the doors dipped in a grey chalk paint and changed the knobs. We also swapped the green tiles for white, grouted in a co-ordinating grey, and changed the dated worktops.
Upstairs, we loved the size of the bathroom but definitely not the green striped wallpaper – we started stripping it the night we moved in! We painted the walls and tongue-and-groove panelling white, but then felt it looked pretty stark, so I started looking for a grey-and-white wallpaper online. I came across the Origin Moroccan trellis design by Albany on Wallpaper Direct which was a bold decision but I felt it would work with the wood panelling and size of the bathroom. The old carpet was swapped for an industrial-look lino flooring, which is more hygienic and pleasing to the eye.
Adding space
A few months after moving in, I found out that I was pregnant with our second child, Teddy. This prompted us to renovate the loft, to give us an extra bedroom. We didn’t need planning permission, as we were only adding a dormer, but it did need building regulations approval. Work finally started about eight months later, which wasn’t ideal, as I was heavily pregnant by then! We also decided to decorate the other bedrooms at the same time, so there was an awful lot of mess and dust. The size of the loft was a nice surprise – we didn’t know how much
‘layer a mix of old and new pieces and accessories in your rooms to achieve a maximalist vibe’
space there would really be until the builder started knocking through. I hadn’t thought there would be room for an en suite, but the builder managed to squeeze a small one in a corner. We painted the ceiling white and wallpapered with a wood-effect design, then fitted a soft grey carpet in the loft to match the other bedrooms and sitting room.
The hall was last on our to-do list about a year later. We sanded and painted the floorboards dark grey and painted the walls white. I fell in love with a grey stair runner, which was hideously expensive, but luckily found an alternative in our price range. The rods were also
quite expensive so we only added those to the downstairs run. the brickeffect wallpaper is a recent addition as the walls were getting so marked with kids’ fingerprints and shoe scuffs.
Favourite areas
i love the summer house, which was built to serve as an extra room for the kids to play in and for the family to chill together at the weekend. it really makes a huge difference to our small garden.
the pigeonhole unit in the bathroom is a favourite buy – i bought it at a flea market in Staffordshire, and was told it came from a hotel in France. i also love the sofa in the dining room, which was a bargain buy from Homesense. Jay and i are both very impulsive people and the rooms are constantly evolving with new ideas and our latest bargain purchases.
What’s next?
One day, i would like to replace the old wooden kitchen flooring with Moroccanstyle tiles. the driveway is on our to-do list, too. i would also love a roll top bath in the bathroom – maybe when the kids have grown up and left home!’