Today is my 31st birthday, which seems as good a time as any to reflect on an incredible year – anyone worried about turning 30, don’t be! A trip of a lifetime to Iceland which ended in a proposal (and, to Pete’s relief, an engagement), returning to book publishing and the most wonderful group of colleagues a girl could ask for, and… Pete and I bought a house. Last November, we packed up our one-bed flat in Bow and moved into a proper Adult Home in Woodford, with three bedrooms and a garden all of our own.
Actually, that’s not strictly how it went. As soon as we exchanged, we realised that the new place needed a whole lot of work and, in a moment of insanity, decided to manage a massive renovation project right away! This involved knocking down a supporting wall, rewiring, replumbing, replastering and redecorating the entire house (which was originally covered top-to-bottom in woodchip), ripping up the old carpet and laying wood floors downstairs and new carpet upstairs, installing a wood burner and a whole new kitchen. Oh, and getting new windows, rendering the outside of the house, insulating the loft and installing shutters. Just a small project then…
With all this going on, we decided to spend December in an AIRBNB (a converted garage in Angel with no windows and a dodgy lock, furnished with antiques from the store down the road. It was… an interesting time). We finally moved into our new home after Christmas, where we spent the first three weeks huddled on a mattress in the spare bedroom, covered in dust, with all our stuff packed into the garage and garden shed. Nobody tells you how sticky dust is. Those were bad days.
But it was all worth it! Below I’m sharing some of the results of this crazy renovation project, before and after. Hopefully you’ll agree that those two months of hell paid off…
The living room
BEFORE
This was originally two rooms, with the traditional living room at the back and a small dining room at the front.
AFTER
Being north-facing, the front room was super dark so we decided to knock though the dividing wall and let the light flood through from the huge picture window at the back. The dividing wall was load-bearing, which meant inserting an RSJ – which translates to a big old demolition and a lot of mess!
The results were fantastic though. The new space is beautifully light and roomy, the walnut flooring pulling together the ‘TV room’ and the dining space/reading room.
We kept our old grey sofa for the reading corner, an idyllic place to lie with a good book on a sunny day. Leaving the picture window untouched, without shutters or curtains, means we let in as much light as possible. We chose to whitewash all the walls (for now) and added mirrors above the fireplace and front sofa to enhance the light even further.
Lining the far wall are our colour-categorised bookshelves. I love how this looks but it does make finding a particular book a total pain in the arse! All in the name of aesthetics…
These old books are Pete’s grandparents’- a little corner of history! (And cardboard penguins)
The fireplace houses my multi-coloured foam elephant, purchased from an Anthropologie window display some six years ago. His left tusk has been broken off and superglued multiple times, but otherwise he’s survived three moves admirably.
Continuing the menagerie theme, we’ve a Jonathan Adler gorilla, giraffe, penguin, whale and various other creatures scattered across the bookshelves (and a shoe).
The china Cavalier may well be the first purchase on a slippery slope of china dog collecting.
The rocking chair and the wooden dining table are from MADE, as are the chairs (which really need a respray – I’m planning to do them in a few different colours).
In the TV corner, our wood burner takes pride of place. Is there anything cosier than curling up in front of the fire in winter? We’re living the dream – when we manage to get it lit!
The artwork above the burner is by Malika Favre, picked up at the Battersea Affordable Art Fair – thankfully Pete and I both fell in love with the same piece (probably for different reasons).
Our walnut coffee table is from Etsy, the rug is John Lewis and the blue velvet sofa is MADE again. The cushions are John Lewis.
Outside
Pete + Alice = Palice. Our neighbours think we’re a bit special, but cest la vie.
The garden was our main reason for moving – taking JD down 8 flights of stairs at 7am and 10.30pm to pee wasn’t ideal. Having no idea about gardening we cheated and got a professional in to help. We’re also really lucky because the previous owner had very green fingers and all sorts of lovely flowers and plants are springing up. She even left bird feeders and seed, so we get woken up by birdsong every morning (much nicer than the Bow sirens!) Once I learn a little bit about gardening (ha!) I plan to make use of the little greenhouse too and plant things like tomatoes and chard.
The garden furniture is from B&Q, plus the giant beanbag from Amazon.
Hallway
Our Hive Pendant lampshade hangs over the stairway and highlights the coolest feature in the house (and pretty much the only thing we didn’t redo) – the stained glass window.
Master bedroom
BEFORE
AFTER
The original plan was to whitewash the original floorboards but once the carpet was ripped up we realised that the boards were in no condition to paint – in fact, they needed to be completely replaced! So our now good friend Tommy at Bridge Flooring gave us a whole new ‘wood effect’ white floor which we were over the moon with.
The sheepskin rug was a nice finishing touch, and is now one of JD’s favourite illicit spots to sleep on (he’s genuinely not allowed in the bedroom).
We took out the original built-in wardrobes, opening up the space dramatically, and installed a new boiler cabinet. It took a while to hunt down a desk to fit perfectly in the gap on the other side, but in the end we found this vintage-look dressing table (I promise this post is not sponsored by MADE.com – we just really, really like their stuff!)
The typographical literary London map is from NotOnThe HighStreet.com and the alphabet lino prints are by artist James Brown (soon to be framed over the bed).
The poem is one of my favourites, ‘A Small Dragon’ by Brian Patten.
The blue garden chair is an old find of mine from Habitat, which came with me from my shared flat in Mile End four years ago. The faux fur cushion is John Lewis, and it was all I could do not to buy 10. Plus a matching throw…
Our pink flamingo sits happily atop the blue ladder shelf which I’ve been using as a bedside table.
Guest bedroom
If you stay with us, you get to sleep in the Tardis.
I put the alphabet frieze together with the set of 26 animal alphabet prints from MonsterGallery (via Etsy). These are magical – each letter/animal is beautifully handpainted and the colours are stunning. It does make the guest room look a little like a nursery, but I can live with that!
Walk-in wardrobe (JD’s bedroom)
BEFORE
AFTER
I think every girl who grew up with Sex & the City has dreamed of a walk-in closet, and this third ‘bedroom’ gave me the chance to finally live the dream! I used an old IKEA bookshelf as a shoe and bag rack, freeing up a load of space in my wardrobe.
I hammered some nails into the wall to hang hats and scarves on, as well as these extremely practical necklace antlers.
Finally, the things I’d save in a fire – my framed, author-signed prelim pages. I know it’s terrible form to rip the signed page out of the book, but this seemed like a nice way to keep them where I can see and appreciate them every day.
Clockwise from the top left – Jonathan Letham’s As She Climbed Across the Table, Sebastian Faulks’ Engleby, The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis, Jilly Cooper’s Polo (my personal favourite – I accosted her in the toilets and got a hug as well as a signature!), Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and Bret Easton Ellis’ Glamorama (“The better you look, the more you see…”)
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