I’m so used to renting in London where you can’t so much as flush the toilet without getting permission that I’m almost institutionalised. I moved here just before my 22nd birthday into a teeny studio cupboard in Earls Court. From there to a slightly larger studio flat in Olympia, on to a one bedroom flat in Brook Green and then a beautiful spacious one bedroom flat, also in Brook Green. This was the first place I lived with Mr.
We were there for 4 years, then he finally convinced me to swap West London for South-East London and we rented a lovely two bedroom terraced house in Forest Hill, also for 4 years. I’m used to moving, I’ve done it all my life. I’m not used to having any say whatsoever in decor.
Now we’ve bought, I find myself with 9 rooms, 3 floors, a 100ft garden and garagey/outbuildery/saunery type thing to make decisions about and it’s a little daunting to say the least.
Thank goodness therefore for the home magazines combined website, House to Home. I LOVE this place. Even before we completed, I was already sussing out ideas. There are some great ideas from the house tours – I’ve already told the other half I’ve got a 10 year plan to get us into one of these magazines…! My current inspiration is this 1930s Surrey semi, mainly the living room which has a similar layout to ours with a fireplace and alcoves (note: ours is NOT the finished article, not even anywhere near!)
I also really love the sympathetic styling of their 1930s hallway – overall I prefer a modern finish but I’m keen to also recreate a 1930s hallway as this is the period of house we’ve bought and it’s possible to end up with a real wow-factor which can be harder to achieve with a more modern property that doesn’t always have the same size to play with.
So this is my current inspiration, you can see the whole house tour here. We’ve got a long way to go but it’s going to be fun.
