LIVING ETC HOUSE TOURS 2018

The Living Etc House Tours never cease to amaze me. This is the third time I’ve hot footed to London for the day to have a nosey around 6 fabulous houses that have been featured in the magazine. If there was a day in heaven, for me, this is totally it! The 6 this year were all very different, but full of personality and quirks which made them all the more special.  

House C

The owners were an events manager and music agent. Their quirky taste came through in the form of lots of neon signs and obscure collections like Dorothy’s red sparkly shoes, a Jesus statue in the garden and various stuffed animals! The highlight for me was the very cool bar in the basement with a Roy Lichtenstein wallcovering on one wall. You can see on some of the images that you need to walk over an area of round glass, this is the entrance to the wine cellar! I didn’t even notice it at first, you just walk over it as you are drawn straight to the striking pop art. There was also a bedroom behind the bar area on the basement floor - the perfect place for a guest to crash, I thought.

House D

Favourite Alert!! The owner is Michelle Kelly who is a Fashion Stylist and Interior Designer. This was one of my favourite houses from the off because of the 3D cube floor tiles on the run up to the front door, which is like a sort of tiled red carpet in my opinion, you know you’re about to enter something good! The house was full of character with all the period features like fireplaces, bay windows, shutters and intricate coving. It had 2 ‘front rooms’ that were quite normal in terms of shape and size, but then at the back of the house where the green and brass kitchen/dining area is, is really modern, light and airy. The kitchen is massive and it feels like you’re outside because of being right next to the garden and the ceiling above the dining table is all glass. The picture window, complete with window seat was quaint and made the space really open and intensified the amount of the colour GREEN!

This house was all about amazing tiles, print, pattern, colour and interesting surfaces, all sort of clashing but working together in harmony. For the kitchen, bathroom and outdoor spaces, a lot of the tiles were from Bert & May and one of my favourite things to look at was the brass kitchen cupboards against the green metro tiles. The WC on the first floor with the crazy wallpaper and the dolls was a bit bizarre but fab!

House E

The owner of this house was an antiques dealer and I was really excited about it because it was one of my favourites from the magazine BUT when I looked around, it was actually really different from how the rooms looked in the magazine, probably because of his job he changes things round a lot. A disappointment for me was that a lot of the rooms were closed off. I understand that and the end of the day it is someone’s home, but I was really excited to see a particular room that I’d seen in the magazine with a great neon sign, oh well. Over the course of the 6 houses, this was one of 2 houses that had ‘unicorns’!

House F

This was a mega house, so mega that I went in twice. The owner is a Spanish Interior and Furniture designer Joao Botelho. This house was all about balance – apparently the owner likes to buy everything in 2s apparently! It was a really striking and very ‘designed’ house. There was a cohesive flow throughout the whole house achieved through the use of similar textures, colours and patterns. For instance, the cushion fabric on the living areas is the same as the outdoor area and the bedrooms (by Margo Selby) The white marble fireplaces were all custom made and looked very imposing in the room. The dining/kitchen area was really special and over-looked a garden which head a real Ibiza vibe for me, very cool. 

The master suite was just insane! There is a freestanding bath, sort of at the end of the bed with another custom made fireplace opposite it, so it felt a big like a very luxury hotel room.

House A

Another favourite alert!! This house had a really cool and free vibe about it, a bit hippy and calm! You enter at ground level where the living room with the green sofa is, but the majority of the living space is downstairs in the basement. The kitchen, TV area and dining area are in the basement and the kitchen and dining area opens onto the garden. I liked the styling in the kitchen by the sink. It was a ‘designed’ house but still felt homely and lived in. I loved the bathrooms, they were both very different. One with the retro graphic floor tiles and the other with the sheet of white marble in the shower area – both very cool. The bedrooms were cosy and had interesting quirks. There was a real tree house in the garden which was very cute.

House B

This was the last house I saw, and I nearly missed it as they were closing up! Lucking the homeowner was really friendly and lovely and let the strays in! And I’m sooo glad as this was my favourite house! It was the perfect balance between old and new, designed and cosy. A really cool house but felt like you just want to live in it. This had no basement, just standard ground floor and first floor. The ground floor was all open plan and included a TV area, dining area and amazing navy-blue kitchen. The owners made the parquet work surface on the kitchen island themselves and it looks like a lot of love and time has gone into it. There was a front room with a bay window that was separate to this open space which was like a dark and cosy reading room with a mini bar.

Upstairs was a dream, 3 bedrooms all with lovely original features but the showstopper was the bathroom. It’s actually quite a small space but because the ceiling is really high it didn’t feel it. I love the way it has been styled too. I really liked the paint work in the hallway - 1 third white, 2 thirds pink. No everyone’s cup of tea but it looked great against the white wood floor. I loved the mid-century vibe too, appearing in the form of G-Plan furniture, teak, orange velvet sofa and oval coffee table - treats for my eyes.

A fabulous day Living Etc! And thanks to the 6 homeowners for sharing their homes with the public, it’s quite a mad thing to do but so inspiring and enjoyable!