At the other end of the ground floor, the former kitchen remains dark and cosy, but feels far more fitting in its new role as a TV snug. “It’s a room that we’ll be using primarily in the evening, so the colour scheme really works,” says Sophie. An L-shape sofa has been custom-made to maximise the floor space, and the dark purply brown colour of the walls helps to make the TV screen less dominant when it’s not in use, so that the room can also act as a place for reading or playing games.
The finished result, without adding any floor space to the house, has transformed the way Sophie and her family live in it. “It’s like being in a different house, but we’ve spent about a quarter of what it would have cost us to build the extension,” she says. “When we remortgaged, we went for a two-year deal because I didn’t think we’d stay, but now I’ve fallen in love with my home again. I never want to leave it.”
Kitchen
Sophie’s decorative scheme for the kitchen started with the wallpaper: Woodland Floral, from her collection with Harlequin:
“It created that happy mood that I was looking for. It’s pretty and lively, and it’s got a jolly colour palette on a white background, so I knew it would maximise the feeling of light in here and give the room lots of buzzy energy. If you’ve got a small kitchen or if the wallpaper is behind any areas where it’s likely to get splashed, for example if it’s used near the hob, use a matt decorator’s varnish to protect it, and that will make it wipeable as well.
