Thursday, April 10, 2014

A BEAUTIFULLY RENOVATED WHITE HOME IN NORTH LONDON

After showing you Paul Massey's soothing, modern country house in Primrose Hill, I contacted him to get hold of photos of the house he had renovated in Crouch End.
House Tour BODIE and FOU Le Blog Karine Candice Kong White Interiors
His home in Crouch End has always been one of my inspirations, mostly because the layout of our London home is very similar (and I suspect similar to yours if you live in the UK) and I absolutely love what he has done with the two front rooms, which are very often small and dark when a house has not been renovated or modernised.
We looked into doing this a few years ago and I think the costs to knock down the walls, add a beam across the room and a pillar to support the walls was something around £20K.
Quite expensive but then you can really see the end result in his house and how this has completely opened up the space.
 House Tour BODIE and FOU Le Blog Karine Candice Kong White Interiors
 House Tour BODIE and FOU Le Blog Karine Candice Kong White Interiors
✔️ In the UK, John Lewis has a good collection of classical sofas with loose cover. 
✔️ The Orson armchair (seen in The Guardian) from MADE is similar to the armchair featured above with a modern twist but if you really want a traditional armchair, the Flynn armchair is for you.
✔️ Using soft linen pillow cases is a stylish and affordable way to update or freshen up a sofa and the style of your home according to the seasons or your mood.
 House Tour BODIE and FOU Le Blog Karine Candice Kong White Interiors
His kitchen is beautiful too and has been used several times as shooting location for The White Company and other interior brands.












✔️ White Metro tiles can be found online at Topps Tiles or B & Q and laid out half-way through the wall, they will make your room look longer and more spacious. 
✔️ The whole collection of white dishes on the shelves are the cast iron Le Creuset and they are available from John Lewis
✔️ You will find similar vintage work benches on Ebay, just make sure the wood is healthy and not filled with worms.
I'm a big fan of hanging two or three simple pendant lights above a kitchen counter. I've used three of these bone china pendant lights in our holiday home in France (available for rent here) but if you wish to achieve a similar industrial look, with a naked bulb, the Shoreditch pendant lights are perfect and at 40% OFF. The Kant pendant light and Freja pendant light are very popular but as they are made of copper, they are most suited to a more polished look or commercial projects.
BODIE and FOU Le Blog House Tours White Interiors Karine Candice Kong












































If all your pots, jars, ceramics have the same hues, they are really great things to display and add a homey feel to your home. 
I love mixing vintage and new ceramics with an organic shape and rather than bringing back something too colourful and local from my travels which will end up in a cupboard and eventually in the bin, I try to bring something from each country that will fit my home perfectly like the lovely ceramic jug I brought back from Copenhagen or the wooden spoon bought in France during my styling masterclass last week. This way, I create a home that really reflects my tastes but at the same time, each object has its own little story and happy memories attached to it.















































I've mentioned this before but if you love white interiors, using waterproof paint throughout the house if you have children or a boisterous dog is the best thing you can do. It won't prevent scuff marks but it will be a lot less stressful to wipe them off than to have to repaint everything.
This Penelope Ceiling Light in blue is fantastic buy to achieve the look below.




















The other room that I really love in Paul's house is his loft conversion which is often a guaranteed way to add value to your home or to create more space without moving. 
We are going through the process right now and  realised that depending on how the stairs come through, we may end up with a space a lot smaller than what it looks like when we are standing in the loft. Our previous neighbours have extended the spiral stairs (which was our initial plan) and in the process lost about 4 sqm of floorspace so it is interesting to see how Paul got the entrance into the loft sorted.



What do you think? Do you love this home? 

// Photography: Paul Massey with thanks | To rent his other property, click HERE

Sharing is caring ❤️ Leave a comment and let's have a chat...

0 comments:

Post a Comment