Traditional Victorian Terraced House , Worcestershire, UK
Overall Home Impression: fearless use of colour, a love of antiques and vintage finds, and an eye for layered, characterful styling.
This is a canvas home for Client’s self expression.
Sitting Room:
Style: British Traditional with Eclectic Touches
Overall Mood
The Clients brief was for the living room to strike a balance between classic British charm and curated personality. I designed a space lived-in and warm without sacrificing sophistication — the hallmark of a home styled with genuine taste rather than trend-chasing.
Colour Palette
The room is anchored by a deep, dusty navy blue applied to all walls and built-in joinery. This bold choice creates an intimate atmosphere while the white ceiling and plantation shutters keep the space from feeling heavy. The warm terracotta tones of the exposed brick chimney breast provide a striking natural counterpoint to the cool blue. Bold colour choices, original architectural features, and a commitment to layered texture and pattern make it feel distinctly personal.
Key Features
Fireplace & Chimney Breast — The exposed brick arch with a cast-iron wood-burning stove is the undisputed focal point of the room. Raw, textural, and full of character, it adds a sense of history and warmth that no decorative element could replicate.
Bay Window with Plantation Shutters — The curved bay fitted with crisp white shutters floods the room with natural light while maintaining privacy. The built-in window seat below doubles as a charming reading nook, dressed with vibrant botanical and bird-print cushions.
Built-in Alcove Shelving — Flanking the chimney breast on both sides, the navy-painted bookshelves are styled with a mix of books, framed photos, and decorative objects — functional yet personal.
A light grey corner sofa grounds the seating area with a relaxed, casual feel, softened further by a knitted throw. The navy velvet wingback armchair adds a touch of drama and ties back to the wall colour beautifully. A mid-century style wooden coffee table with carved detailing sits at the centre, topped with coffee table books, fresh pink peonies, and everyday objects that give it an effortlessly styled look.
The Reading Corner
This is perhaps the most perfectly composed corner in the room. The navy velvet wingback armchair sits flush against the navy-painted alcove bookshelf, creating a tonal, immersive reading nook where chair and architecture feel like one intentional piece. The bird and floral embroidered cushion — red, gold, and green against navy — is a jewel-like accent that stops the corner from feeling flat.
The shelving is styled with real restraint and personality in equal measure. Every shelf tells a small story. The exposed brick and the brass floor lamp complete the picture — warm, textural, and quietly dramatic.
The Window Corner & Lamp Detail
The star of this vignette is the Chinoiserie ginger jar lamp — dark lacquered ground with a hand-painted floral medallion, topped with a generously sized cream pleated shade. It sits on a slender Victorian-style wine table in warm walnut, its turned pedestal and tripod base adding elegance and height.
The window seat cushion with its bold tropical bird and jungle print — toucans, peacocks, palm leaves in teal, gold and red — is vivid and joyful against the cool bluegrey of the lower wall. The juxtaposition of refined Chinoiserie lamp against exuberant tropical print is exactly the kind of unexpected pairing that makes this room so alive.
The Living / Dinning Room
Style: Maximalist Eclectic with Bohemian Soul
Colour Palette
This room introduces a completely new and bolder colour story. The walls are painted in a vivid, saturated cerulean/peacock blue — warmer and brighter than the navy of the living room, almost Mediterranean in its intensity. Against this electric backdrop, a blush pink pedestal dining table takes centre stage, creating one of the most unexpected and delightful colour combinations in the home. The contrast of warm pink against cool turquoise blue is daring and it absolutely works.
Key Features
A classic Victorian-style pedestal table with ornate carved claw feet, painted entirely in a soft chalky blush pink — almost certainly done with chalk paint, given the matte, slightly distressed finish. It’s an inspired upcycling choice that transforms what could be a very traditional piece of furniture into something fresh and whimsical.
A stunning mid-century walnut sideboard with brass hardware anchors the room — warm wood tones that contrast beautifully against the cool walls. An antique brass chandelier overhead adds old-world elegance, paired with a blush pink pleated lamp shade that softens the space with warmth and femininity.
Three dark-framed sketch prints hang symmetrically above the sideboard, adding intellectual depth. The carved wooden sculptures with an African/Asian influence shows a well-traveled Client’s eye.
An original open fireplace with a simple painted surround in the same teal as the chimney breast wall. The mantel is styled with brass candlestick holders, deep pink taper candles, a small framed photo, a decorative medallion, and a lush potted fern in a gold geometric planter — theatrical and considered.
Built-in Alcove Shelving — charcoal-painted joinery with open shelves above and cupboard storage below, dressed with books and ceramic figurines complete the look. The gold knobs on the cupboard doors add a warm metallic accent.
A wrought iron chandelier with a twisted cage crown and six candle-style arms is utterly perfect for this space. With Edison-style filament bulbs casting a warm amber glow, it feels more like candlelight than electric light. It’s the ideal overhead fixture for a room that wants to feel like an intimate supper club. A terracotta/gold ceramic urn lamp with a vivid scarlet red pleated shade is one of the boldest lamp choices in the home and it pays off completely — the red shade against the dark teal wall is dramatic and sensual.
Oak hardwood flooring runs throughout, warm and grounding beneath the vivid blue walls
Summary
This is the most colourfully expressive room in the house. The aim was to design room that is sophisticated, curated, and quietly dramatic — a room with personality and history. blush pink table against cerulean blue walls is a genuinely original combination — playful, confident, and completely committed. It’s a dining room that feels like an event.
The Bedroom:
Style: French Country / Romantic Vintage
Colour Palette
Walls are painted in a soft, dusty sage green which creates a gentle, calming atmosphere. The whitepainted floorboards and white ceiling keep the room feeling airy and light despite the layered, antique-heavy furnishings. The sage-painted interior door connects the colour scheme beautifully across the room.
Key Features
The Chest of Drawers
This painted in chalky ivory/cream with gilt-highlighted carved moulding along the top edge and panel borders, it’s a piece of real quality — almost certainly a vintage French Provincial or Louis XV-style piece. The quality of the piece is even more evident — the central oval porcelain cameo inset on the top drawer shows a romantic pastoral scene with figures in an 18th-century style, framed in gilded cartouche moulding. The brass drop handles are original and aged. This is a genuinely beautiful piece of furniture.
This dresser top is a small world of its own — flowers, cherubs, candlelight, Paris, books, and a lamp that glows like a sunset. It perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the bedroom: deeply romantic, well-travelled, and assembled with real love.
Chandelier
A cream and gold floral chandelier with crystal droplets hangs from the centre of the ceiling, immediately setting a romantic, French-inspired tone. It’s delicate, whimsical, and the perfect centrepiece.
French Bed — A Louis-style bed frame with carved cabriole legs in warm honey wood, dressed in simple white cotton bedding — unfussy but elegant.
Toile de Jouy Armchair — A carved wooden French fauteuil upholstered in classic grey-blue toile de Jouy fabric sits by the window, perfectly complemented by the soft toile curtains on the same pole.
Toile curtains in grey-blue on a brass rod frame the plantation-shuttered window beautifully. A soft yellow wingback chair tucks beside t`he bed. A gold-framed floor mirror leans casually against white-painted original floorboards run throughout, softened by a gold and cream Persian-style rug beside the bed.
Summary
This bedroom is a love letter to French country romanticism. Every piece has been thoughtfully chosen — antique, vintage, or vintage-inspired — and the overall effect is soft, layered, and deeply personal. It feels like stepping into a story
