This month we are delighted to welcome our latest guest blogger, property expert Kunle Barker who is a presenter and interiors consultant for shows such as Project Home, Grand Designs Live and Love Your Home and Garden.
Kunle has recently given his beloved family home a facelift with complementary pastel shades and practical surfaces. He joins us to share his top tips for injecting new life into a tired interior.
“We love our Edwardian terraced home. Over the past 12 years, this traditional style house has been the heart of our lives. The open plan layout really works for us as a family, but two kids, a dog and lots of parties have all taken their toll. Our all-white colour scheme was definitely starting to look scruffy!
We wanted to give our home a loving update, building on the aspects that already worked and staying true to the architecture of the building. We decided to introduce elements of modern styling with playful colours and practical materials.
Terraced houses can be dark in the middle, especially when extended, but we have lots of glazing at the rear so are lucky that natural light floods in. The sun rises at the front of the house and sets at the back, so we have chosen a warm palette of soft pastel colours.
When it comes to updating a tired kitchen, my top tip is to focus on what you love about your kitchen and change the aspects that aren’t working for you. Simply changing the door handles or installing a feature tap can be cost effective updates. Alternatively, updating the flooring and worksurfaces can have a real impact.
In our kitchen, we were happy that the existing cupboards offered the storage and layout that we need. So, to bring this space up to date we have chosen to paint the cupboard doors in pale pink and blue and replace the beech worksurface with a contemporary white composite quartz. Using the same material as a splashback and adding a waterfall effect to our island unit has transformed the room. Taking the pink into the dining space has effectively connected these two areas as well as adding warmth to this middle section of our home.
Image credit: Juliet-Murphy Photography
When a terraced house has been converted to open plan, as ours has, the result can feel long and narrow. To counteract this and to introduce a cohesive sense of flow, we have used the same flooring throughout the entire ground floor. We also changed the orientation of the planks from the original side-to-side floorboards to a front to back layout, giving the room a proportional sense of scale.
In a large open plan room like this, I knew that a floor with a neutral wood look in a light tone would help to reflect the available natural light. When we started looking at options we didn’t know exactly what we wanted but we knew that Karndean had enough variety in its product range that we would find a flooring we loved.
I was immediately drawn to Baltic Limed Oak from the Van Gogh collection as it had the naturally light feel we were going for and blended a modern look with traditional style. We opted for the click-locking format as this meant we could lay new flooring directly over the existing floorboards, reducing costs and disruption but also preserving the house’s original features.
We’re absolutely delighted with the result. Although we haven’t changed anything structural or our furniture, our home has a completely different feel and we’re looking forward to hosting many more parties!”
Our thanks to Kunle for sharing his home transformation and top decorating tips. For more expert recommendations and interiors inspiration, you can find Kunle on Instagram at @kunlebarker.
