It was mid-afternoon when we visited Gwen at her Victorian Terrace in Teddington, West London. A grey day outside, the atmosphere changed quite quickly to one of warmth as Gwen welcomed us into her mid-century modern space with an exuberant wag and a very small accidental wee. “I’m really sorry, I struggle to control my excitement sometimes when we’re showing new people around the house,” says Gwen.
“It’s amazing that we can now welcome people into the space, and share the interiors we’ve been working on for the last year or so”. The first thing that strikes you when entering Gwen’s home is the perfectly balanced marriage of Victorian period features with a more brutal mid-century edge. Soft Greige paint ‘Sunday Soul’ by COAT Paints adorns most walls in the living spaces, providing a deliberate yet subtle backdrop to the stunning warm Teak sideboards.
“The furniture in here is 1950’s Heals, by John & Sylvia Reid for Heal’s” says Gwen. “It means a lot to our family having been with us since new. I have, on occasion forgotten that, and taken a tooth to it which I have to say I’m not proud of. But the warmth of the wood and the deliberate shape of the pieces really help to shape the feeling of the living space”.
“We’re recently out the back of a kitchen refurb which I’m glad to be done with” says Gwen. “Builders coming and going played havoc with my anxiety and I was pretty rude to most of them. That said, the results are well worth it.
The soft neutral colour is ‘Mindful’ by COAT paints, and the cabinetry is a rich blue off-black called ‘David Rose’”. The open-plan kitchen and living space is light-filled thanks to an abundance of crittal glass work, with colour and texture coming from velvet sofas, heavy-pile Turkish throws and chunky reed rugs.
The space feels timeless, and balanced. “Upstairs is a masterclass in Japandi minimal” says Gwen, “with richer neutrals in the bedrooms to balance the northern light. We’ve used dramatic black furnishings to add contrast, and natural unfinished materials like seagrass and cane for texture. Unfortunately I’m rarely allowed in these rooms on account of my occasional incontinence.”
This is a snip-it from our newspaper, Coverage. Like this kind of stuff? Subscribe to receive our next issue!
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