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The Househunter Room by Room

Shades of grey or punchy navy? This was the best of May’s property and I’m happy to have another stroll around both.

neutral kitchen with crittal windows via the modern house

Starting off in Wimbledon this week with this three bedroom duplex apartment which is on the market with The Modern House for £1,175,000. It’s mainly about the kitchen with its soft greeny grey cupboards, crittall windows and wooden island.
small kitchen island via the modern house

It’s a gorgeous space that has the sitting room at one end – you can just see the side table in the picture above. I love the mix of modern and vintage as it brings real character to a space. I wonder if I mightn’t have put the hob next to the sink as you could have either put a chimney hood there – hidden behind a panel if it was off centre, or perhaps had an opening window in the skylight. We had that arrangement in one house and it worked really well – arguably better than a cooker hood in fact. Also this house doesn’t have one at all but perhaps they’re not great steak eaters. It may be that it wasn’t possible to do that and some people don’t like the sink on the island.

soft grey kitchen via the modern house

At the other end, you’ll have to visit the site to see, I think I rug is needed so soften the sitting room space and make it distinct from the kitchen part but it’s a lovely room to be in and I could see myself spending a lot of time working at that kitchen table.

shelves as bedside tables via the modern house

There are three bedrooms in all. One is on the lower ground floor, behind the sitting room, and has a light well and the other two are on the floor above. The whole flat has been decorated in this very restful shades of neutral which looks both peaceful and vintage.

bedroom with table via the modern house

Next up a property from a new agency called Brickworks which prides itself on its ethical values; everyone pays the same fixed fee, the team are share the money rather than working to individual commission, they never cold call and they give 2.5 per cent of every fee to a homeless charity helping get young people off the streets.

harcourt road via brickworks

And when you move in you get the most extraordinary goody box consisting of a bottle of English wine, raw honey, beeswax candles and chocolate brownies as well as nuts, coffee and chutney. It’s a very thoughtful and charming present and I know this because they sent me one to see. I like the way they have partnered with certain firms to provide this and perhaps spread the word about small English companies to bring them to a wider audience. I hope they do well.

navy blue kitchen via brickworks

This is a house in Canonbury, Islington which they are selling for £1,500,000. It has been beautifully decorated and might give you some inspiration for your own homes. Assuming you can’t drop 1.5 on this that is….

navy blue bedroom

I love the simple palette of colours in this house, which is, the agency flags up, opposite a railway line. But, they point out the row of mature trees at the front, say that it is quiet nevertheless and urge you to go and see anyway. I’d rather know in advance and be pleasantly surprised than discover when I turned up and view the rest of the house in a grump. What do you think?

free standing bath via brickworks

There are three bedrooms and two bathrooms as well as a large cellar which it would be worth investigating – can you convert it? Tank it and make really good storage? Put the boiler and washing machine down there? All questions worth asking when there is an extra space in a property.

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Or you can just enjoy their rather fabulous bathrooms with tiles from Marrakech Design and plan your own redesign.

Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

3 Comments

  1. I love the soft, greeny kitchen with the modern island in the middle. It’s all very crisp and clean – just what I like in a kitchen. And a lot of light coming in is always a good thing – makes the room seem more spacious and welcoming. Love it!

  2. These are both glorious but I’d take the Islington one for choice – the first is too neutral for me. Do we know what colour the blue paint is in the kitchen/bedroom??

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