A Colorful and Thrifted London Victorian

published Jan 16, 2017

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Ruth and her family have lived in their London home for a little over a year. (Image credit: Submitted by Ruth)

Name: Ruth
Location: London, United Kingdom

We absolutely love our new family home, having always lived in apartments it’s so lovely to have our own front door, garden and space to fill out. Our style is pretty colorful and eclectic, maybe bohemian modern. I love finding the right vintage items that have meaning to me and mixing them with more modern design in the home. I collect a lot from flea markets outside London but our house is definitely not a museum piece, it’s very much a lived in family home so design is never too staged or serious (it can’t be with a two year old in tow!).

I thrift a lot in order to be able to decorate our living space as beautifully as I can and I use color a lot to create mood in the home. I’m most proud of our bathroom, as I spent a long time sourcing for it on a tight budget and it has the exact sophisticated but relaxed feel I was hoping for.

Our house, which is Victorian, has some character, which I’ve tried to maximize within our scheme, our living room is furnished with lots of old furniture and a lot of natural history accents – butterflies, a coral collection, feathers, insect drawings and plants, so it has a real feel of history about it but is also totally relaxed and comfortable.

I love our hallway, it is narrow but painted in a really bright opalescent shade and we have a panel with palm print wallpaper which always cheers me when I come through the front door. The bedroom is very calm compared to the rest of the house and I took a lot of influence from Scandinavia for its feel. The house is not yet finished and the biggest eyesores are the unfinished floorboards in the study and bedroom. I was surprised to find part of the bedroom floor painted black under the carpet, and although this goes against my instincts I rather like it, so have spent a lot of time thinking before leaping in with the sander!

Thanks, Ruth !

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