Name: Minna Hepburn
Location: Camberwell, London
Type: Georgian / Victorian house
Size: 2,100 square feet (approximate)
Years lived in: 1.5 years
Minna is originally from Finland but when she moved to rural England, she instantly fell in love with the countryside and its traditional style. They have since moved to London but her heart still belongs to Dorset and as a compromise they've brought the country style with them! The lace and prettiness, as she describes it, didn't only inspire her interior style but also sparked a new business, an ethical fashion brand Minna.
When they bought this house in Camberwell, South London, it was severely run down and almost uninhabitable, but they wasted no time in converting the loft into a workspace for her new business and renovating the house into a beautiful family home for them, their two young children and the fluffy dog. Their home is the merging of two very different styles, Traditional English with Scandinavian sensibility and finesse — it's a surprisingly beautiful and pleasing combination.
Apartment Therapy Survey:
My/Our style: I love everything old, pieces with a story to tell. New items do not inspire me.
This is my design philosophy and I also incorporate that how we have been doing up our house.
Inspiration: English countryside, antique markets and shops, eBay, interior design magazines and my home country Finland in the Summer time.
What are your hopes and dreams?: Apart from the usual to stay healthy, happy etc..I would love to combine my career and motherhood well. It is such a hard work these days for women to be the perfect housewife, mother and a career woman. I am in constant search for the perfect formula! On the materialistic side I would love to own a big house in France some day.
Biggest Challenge: There is so much to do and never enough time.
What Friends Say: Probably chaotic, so many things on display! I am a very visual person so I like to hang my clothing and my antique market findings.
Biggest Embarrassment: When I lived in Dorset, I filled our garage with furniture that I had bought from the local skip. I never had time to restore them when my business took off. I had to pay a local guy to take them back to the skip.
Proudest DIY: Restoring the pieces that I have bought from skips in Dorset!
Biggest Indulgence: Champagne, good wine, manicures and massage. Oh, and my horse.
Best advice: Don’t think too much, just go with your instincts!
Dream source: Too many to mention!
Resources:
Kitchen Hardware & Accessories & Furniture: : I love our Rangemaster oven. It is my favourite piece in the kitchen as I love cooking! The furniture is from antique markets and Dorset reclamation yards
Accessories: Antique shops
Lighting: I found our chandelier from Bhs. Not my favourite shops but you can find some great lighting from there.
Dining room table: Custom made in Dorset by a local carpenter, chairs are old, we have had them for 10 years.
Rugs & carpets: Laura Ashley
Paint: : You can’t beat Dulux when you have 3 months to finish the house.
Art: : From all over the world, skips and charity shops and recycling centres. I love old paintings!
Window Treatments: I bought our gorgeous raw silks curtains from Zara. They look amazing in our bedroom and add a touch of glam.
Tiles and stone: Fired Earth
Bedroom furniture From reclamation yards and antique shops.
Desks: IKEA
Other: I love our bathtub that came from Dorset. It is a 100 year old Victorian cast iron roll top that I bought for £100 and then got it re-enameled.
Thanks Minna!
(Images: Liezel Strauss)
I love that stove. Why can't we get stoves like that here in the U.S. at a regular consumer level?
view Jen C's profile
That is the cutest dog I have ever seen.
view repressd's profile
Lovely home!
view Courtachino's profile
Great dog. So so rooms.
view medusa12120's profile
It's nice to see a non-modern home, but I wish there had been more full-room pictures. There are lots of charming details (I love the looks of your stove), but I have no idea what this place actually looks like.
view slowdown's profile
Can someone identify the two wallpapers: (1) in the main bedroom and (2) in the daughter's room? Thanks!
view romateamo's profile
It's nice to see the old suitcases. I've been wondering if they're old news or if they have the staying power of years past...
http://tiny.cc/GD4TT
view MODERnestS's profile
Thats my dream bedroom. Seriously- gorgeous.
view Shannon Ashley's profile
i love the vintage aspects of this home but it would be nice to see international house tours that are somewhat attainable rather than purely inspirational. london house tours on AT generally feature massive properties in well off areas - and the majority of people here just don't live like that...
view hydrozoan's profile
All those fireplaces... I'm jealous.
view mirandabee's profile
Not my style at all, but well done nonetheless...
view JeffC's profile
Beautiful!!! You have chosen the loveliest of wallpapers and fabrics, and somehow given the typically English furniture a light Scandinavian twist. Me likey.
view EAM's profile
PS: In response to an earlier message, I truly don't think that the location of the homes matters once one is just looking at the interiors. This home could be situated anywhere from the darkest corner of the east end to the most charming, leafiest of the west end of London - or Birmingham for that matter.
view EAM's profile
Love their Wheaten. Nothing like seeing my favorite breed of woofer on one of my favorite websites. Lovely home, too.
view sdblondie's profile
I love it. Just gorgeous.
Anyone know what kind of stove that is? I have been obsessed with an AGA, but in the States, it might be a pipedream.
view puck's profile
i love it! beautiful
view formosagirl's profile
EAM - as a website the diversity and price range of home accessories, house tours and furniture for AT's american audience is staggering. yet there's a reason some young professionals share lodgings well into their 30's in london; property is ludicrously expensive.
it would be nice to see a mixture of large and small places, with a variety of budgets, for international entries. that's applicable to the exterior (location) as well as the furnished interior.
this is a lovely home but it's frustrating that as with the american properties i generally drool over on AT, the ones featured in the country i live in are equally unattainable.
view hydrozoan's profile
It appears to be a lovely home! I love all the vintage touches and the wallpapers, but I too would love to see more full room photos so that I can get an overall feel for the home as a whole.
http://girlwhimsy.blogspot.com
view dykelly625's profile
Too many pictures of stuff, and too few pictures of rooms. The quality of the light is lovely.
view kelleyk's profile
1 to hydrozoan
Yes, it's a gorgeous house. It's around 1 million GBP / 1.6 million USD. Not sure what "Regular consumer level" is in the US but that stove costs about 1600 GBP / 2500 USD.
This is a house owned by a person who is pretty rich by UK standards (didn't the horse give it away?). To be honest, with the lifestyle photos this feels more like a piece of promo puff for her fashion label than a true house tour.
I like a nice shot of the aspirational as much as the nice girl, but what really inspires me, and what draws me to interior blogs more than glossy mags despite the lower image quality, is seeing what people do without a great big pile of money to draw on.
If I want the other stuff I'll just buy Elle decor or something.
Liz
view brokenbetty's profile
I have to agree totally with brokenbetty AND with hydrozoan (up to a point). I live in Dublin, Ireland so I am fully aware of the social status and the agenda that is most likely involved with this house tour. And agreed, buying Country Living Mag will provide all the glossy images of quirky Victorian houses.
NEVERTHELESS, even if one is renting just a large room with facilities in a rundown old Victorian in Holloway (as I did in the 80s), why not paint and wallpaper and enjoy nice things? We (my sister and friends) did it and even though now we earn much more money and enjoy much more elegant and comfortable furniture, we still haven't lost our frugality or pleasure in finding interesting things to use in our homes.
view EAM's profile
oh, how i love the vintage wallpaper!
view kristiebarnett's profile