Name: Veronika & Sebastian
Location: London, UK
Size: 70m2
Lived in: 6 months
Austrian expats who’ve lived in London for several years, Veronika and Sebastian have always been shocked by the state of London rental apartments, with their drafty rooms and faulty plumbing. So they were thrilled when they found a top-floor flat in a 1898 building that had just been remodeled from head to toe, modernizing it without ruining its Victorian charms.
“It immediately felt like home to us,” says Veronika. “The large windows, the high ceilings, the view -- something ever so rare in London!” She was particularly drawn to the roof conversion. “Although there are no windows facing south, it is such a wonderfully bright flat! Something we particularly value now, having been in a fairly dark basement flat the year before.”
Owner Leonie had remodeled her longtime North London flat when her soon-to-be-husband Rhodri moved in. “I sold my house to the guy at the pub,” says Rhodri, and they used the proceeds to hire an architect to bust through to the attic, creating a cozy, modern bedroom and effectively doubling the space of their now 70m2 top floor apartment. The arrival of their first baby forced them to move into a bigger place a few streets over. “We’d been planning on remodeling the kitchen,” Leonie says, although they weren't able to line up the workers until after they'd moved out. They added higher countertops to mask the mess in the kitchen from guests and took advantage of the high ceilings to go vertical with storage.
Veronika and Sebastian brought in a gray Ligne Roset sofa ("our sole 'designer' piece of furniture," she says) and IKEA basics, adding a storage closet in the downstairs study for clothes. "It now is impossible to use the study as a formal dining room, which we would have liked to do," says Veronika. "Now dining is a bit more informal and always a bit crowded, but at the same time one can create a lovely friendly atmosphere which is also due to the open-plan kitchen." The living room has contemporary art by an up-and-coming Viennese artist named Richard Zeiss and a painting of a rock-climber by Norbert Lambing that was made from a photograph of his friend Sebastian.
When Leonie and Rhodri added the upstairs, the architect proposed a handsome and clever book-lined staircase to house their formidable combined libraries in one streamlined space. "It's just brilliant because the way it's conceived, you can walk by it and not even notice it,” Leonie says. "So it's like this fabulous surprise.” The rather treacherous staircase hangs from steel beams, so as not to put any pressure on the Victorian floor, and the staircase has the air of a steep mountain climb from the bottom. "At first I was terrified! Every time!" says Veronika. "Soon, though, it becomes a mechanism and even in the dark one manages to make it downstairs.”
- Kristin Hohenadel blogging from rue Vieille du Temple, Paris, France. If you have an idea for a European house tour, please write kristinh @ apartmenttherapy . com
Copyright © 2007 Apartment Therapy
I would really like to request that the square footage be translated into feet. Meters don't make much sense to me.
view Matilda's profile
Same here. It's about 750 sq ft, I believe.
I absolutely LOVE the staircase-cum-bookshelf, this is exactly what I need!
Is this North West by any chance? It has a very Queen's Park - Willesden Green feel to it...
view TallulahBelle's profile
The light in their apartment is amazing. And I really love the staircase library, great idea.
Matilda-According to the internet 70m2 is about 750 sq. ft.
view jennifer in sf's profile
I am pleased they have a flat they now like. I don't quite see the need to arbitrarily slag off all London rentals...
view Lesley - London's profile
so lovely!
view kdkaboom's profile
I love the title in kitchen. Does anyone know where I can get something similar?
view Signe's profile
salivating over the library stairs; brilliant, brilliant idea!
view karyn's profile
Also, and it doesn't affect the loveliness at all either way, although I guess the date is just in the Victorian era, this would usually be described as Edwardian architecture. Muswell Hill (I guess?) is usually described as an (impressively)Edwardian suburb.
view Lesley - London's profile
750 sq. ft. is right. Matilda, bookmark this: http://www.digitaldutch.com/unitconverter/
view Jon_B's profile
You can get a similar kitchen from ikea using
ABSTRAKT cabinets, PRONOMEN Countertops protected with Behandler Oil
and Lansa handles
view modernemama's profile
Those staircase library shelves are spectacular and so ingenious. Wow.
view John H's profile
i really love how the books are actually in the stairs as well as surrounding them... a fun surprise and great storage idea!
view eebnyc's profile
Lesley,
I confirmed with the owner that the building is Victorian (late Victorian) and in a Victorian, not an Edwardian, neighborhood of North London. What may be confusing you is that it's in a mansion block, not a house, so the proportions look chunkier and possibly more Edwardian.
view Kristin Hohenadel's profile
Those stairs are incredible. Incredible. And the kitchen is lovely.
view meg_ues's profile
Signe,
The tiles are from B&Q
http://www.diy.com
if you are in the UK...
view Kristin Hohenadel's profile
Hi Kristin
Sure, as I (we both) said. The date is late Victorian the architecture "more Edwardian". There's a lot of overlap on the cusp and most areas round here are a mix. Highgate or Hampstead, for example, are also pretty Georgian. (Why, I wonder, more coy re location than AT NY? Is this meant to be a nod towards English reserve?).
Although purpose built, it's not quite a mansion block, in my view - not that that would make this fab flat any better or worse in any way. I've lived in all variations of this discussion, btw, and all are grand.
I love not only the stairs, but the book collection itself. (And I'm a bit ashamed of how curious/nosy I am to know how easy it was to install appliances. I had a mare in an only ordinarily steep attic flat).
view Lesley - London's profile
I've got it, the kitchen is the floor below the bookcase... durrr
view Lesley - London's profile
Hi Lesley
I can't help with the tltles but looking at slides 19 and 20 the top shelf of books looks like Pan paperbacks from the late 50s through to the 70's followed by Penguins (orange spine) Olympia Press (Foursquare imprint) (green and white spines) Chatto and Windus Phoenix Library (interwar - green and blue gilt spines); Johnathan Cape Traveller's Library (interwar - blue spines) some early Doubleday and Oxford World Classics (grey and green dustjacketed spines) followed by some post war Modern Library editions. The next shelf down are all Penguin Pelicans (blue spines) dating from the 30s onwards and a three Pan Pipers (white spines black type) beneath that is a mixture but there is a group of Kegan Paul's Today and Tomorrow Series (purple spines with white labels) from the 1920s and maybe some of their red spined Psyche Miniature series.
I hope this helps. I always find myself scanning people's bookshelves on appartment therapy.
view Mrs Margaret Irwin's profile
Many thanks Mrs Margaret Irwin. That is very impressive! I too scan the bookshelves in, I now realise, a very amateur way...
view Lesley - London's profile
Quick rule of thumb when translating SQ MT into SQ FT - multiply by 10. It's not 100% accurate, but it's not too far off, and it's helpful if you don't have a computer or iphone handy.
The stairs really are amazing.
view Neujeramic's profile
Try typing "70 square metres in square feet" into Google.
view RJL's profile
I'm so madly in love with the stairwell library. Terrific!
view PhillyLass's profile
I LOVE the fine art faces collage. Did you make that?
view harmonyfrance's profile
Do you have a floor plan of your place?
You have some great features.
view milanokate's profile
I love your place. I'd also like to see a floor plan.
To those who don't know how to convert: OMG!
view maria_i's profile
i love that bookcase in the stairway idea!!
view amygrace's profile