Houzz Tour: Making Open-plan More Family Friendly in a London Apartment
A reconfigured layout and eclectic design helped this big apartment go from cool couple’s hang-out to funky family home
This fantastically fun apartment on the ground floor of a converted Victorian school in Stoke Newington, north London, originally consisted of two huge living rooms, a tiny kitchen and two mezzanine bedrooms, exposed to the noise and light from downstairs. With a baby on the way, the creative couple who own this place wanted to make it more family friendly. The interior décor had to be highly original, too, to reflect their personalities, showcase their collections and express the eclectic, funky style they love.
Evros Agathou, creative director of interior design studio Avocado Sweets, reconfigured the space to make a large kitchen and living area downstairs and three bedrooms upstairs, which are closed off for privacy and safety. The highly personal design features many of the couple’s vintage pieces, as well as upcycled furniture and quirky touches – lights made from colanders, anyone? The result is a fun, fresh apartment that functions for family life and perfectly expresses its owners’ creative talents.
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here A creative couple and their baby
Location Stoke Newington, London
Designer Avocado Sweets
Size 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom
Evros Agathou, creative director of interior design studio Avocado Sweets, reconfigured the space to make a large kitchen and living area downstairs and three bedrooms upstairs, which are closed off for privacy and safety. The highly personal design features many of the couple’s vintage pieces, as well as upcycled furniture and quirky touches – lights made from colanders, anyone? The result is a fun, fresh apartment that functions for family life and perfectly expresses its owners’ creative talents.
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here A creative couple and their baby
Location Stoke Newington, London
Designer Avocado Sweets
Size 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom
The apartment, which was originally the headmaster’s office and part of the hall, now has one large, open-plan living space that suits family life. Engineered oak boards and white walls form a backdrop for the owners’ personal pieces, including a collection of ties and an old traffic light. Evros made the light fitting from low-energy Plumen bulbs. ‘You often see them used in commercial buildings,’ he says, ‘but I thought, why not bring them into a residential property?’
Bespoke pendant lights, made from brightly painted colanders, hang in the open-plan kitchen, bringing pops of colour to this industrial-style space. ‘The owners didn’t want their home to look flashy,’ says Evros, ‘so we used something from everyday life. They are also massive foodies, so this idea further expresses their personalities.’
‘When I started this project, the owners showed me their huge collection of pieces, gathered over the years,’ says Evros. ‘The challenge was to work out how to display them.’ Here, old radios are hung against vivid vintage wallpaper, sourced on eBay. ‘We made a feature of them,’ explains Evros, ‘while also giving them a permanent home.’
Find more on the best ways to work with bright colours
Find more on the best ways to work with bright colours
The juicy colours of the lights are picked up in a rainbow umbrella and the lovely old gramophone – just one of the owners’ many vintage pieces. These details warm up the vast walls behind. ‘The walls are five metres high,’ explains Evros, ‘which is very dramatic, but we wanted to soften their appearance, so the apartment feels like a home, not a school.’ Simple white units look fresh against the exposed brick.
The Howdens kitchen units are teamed with salvaged and customised pieces. ‘The kitchen island is made from an old chest, which the owners were going to throw out because they didn’t know where to put it,’ says Evros. ‘We fitted it with a worktop and now it has a new life.’
Individually coloured floor-to-ceiling curtains dress the windows, which are three-and-a-half metres high. ‘The curtains drape to the floor,’ says Evros, ‘which helps draws your eye down and reduce the sense of height.’ They also help combat echo and soften the acoustics in this huge space, and their green, amber and red (not seen) colours are a nod to the traffic light hanging near the entrance.
A mix of bench seating and wooden chairs boosts the informal feel of the dining space. Here, friends gather for meals and music, courtesy of the piano by the window. ‘The owners didn’t want their home to feel too glitzy and shiny,’ says Evros.
Creating a fun, individual home was the driver of this project and quirky details like this row of ties in the living space contribute to the apartment’s one-of-a-kind feel. ‘They all belong to the owner,’ explains Evros. ‘He just takes them off to wear them, then slides them back on afterwards.’ The simple rail is made from doweling and hooks. ‘It’s part storage, part art installation!’ explains Evros.
The owners and Evros were keen to pack in plenty of fun details, including this Osborne & Little wallpaper featuring classic Penguin paperbacks, which runs up the stairs.
Check out eclectic style
Check out eclectic style
Evros designed an entrance hall to give the apartment a family home feel, and prevent the sound of the owners’ piano playing escaping into the communal areas. ‘We papered the walls with pages from vintage magazines the owners had collected over the years,’ explains Evros. ‘They date from around World War Two and have a nice sepia tone.’
What do you think of this home? Tell us in the comments below.
What do you think of this home? Tell us in the comments below.