We love getting a sneak peak around beautifully decorated homes, especially when it feels like an exclusive tour, so this one really got us excited. Melissa Edington, buying manager of a small startup called Seep, kindly invited us to have a snoop around her home. Located in Walthamstow, North-East London, Melissa lives with her partner, Andy. This is their second house in lockdown so they thought why not paint and decorate to pass the time, right?!
Their three-bedroom Victorian terrace house has a mix of modern and traditional elements, the house is bursting with charm with the original floorboards and high ceilings with an open kitchen at the back. Melissa wasn’t looking for a huge renovation project so the main focus and quick fix was paint, which is how they found us.
A COAT LOVE AFFAIR…
Having previously worked as a homeware buyer, interior design has always played a huge part in Melissa’s life and COAT had been on her radar for some time. Our colour section initially stood out to her because of the depth of our tones and palette.
“I’m typically drawn to dark and moody colours and COAT had the best colour palette, it’s considered and there’s not that much choice which made it easy to decide on colour. When we moved in, everything was just white with glossy skirtings which is not my cup of tea, so I thought let’s get paint on the walls and paint on the skirtings straight away!”
Melissa was drawn to our dark and moody colour swatches
Melissa loved our ‘Peel & Stick’ swatches and playing with them in different lights and times of the day, she even saved them to share with her mum for her own renovation project!
Check out our bold colours and order your swatches to try at home 🙌
Working for a sustainable startup herself, our brand’s eco credentials really resonated with Melissa.
“We hadn’t seen a paint company that was promoting being carbon positive, it’s a really exciting time to be a sustainable challenger brand, making it easier for people to make sustainable choices”.
Seep is a brand that sells 100% compostable and plastic-free cleaning tools for all of your household needs, which Melissa says came in handy when cleaning up paint spills around the house. Makes cleaning up sound glamorous right?
TAKE A LOOK INSIDE…
First up, we take a look at Melissa and Andy’s favourite space in the house, the living room. A large open space, painted top to bottom in ‘2AM’ with a cosy cocktail corner at the other end of the room.
Dark and moody '2AM' creating a super cosy living room space
Melissa explains that all of their vibrant furniture looked overwhelming against the white walls and seeing as they both love navy, ‘2AM’ was a no-brainer. They decided to paint the ceiling, walls and woodwork all the same rich colour which extends the space by blurring the lines and as a result creating a much cosier room.
Melissa loves using rich contrasting colours to create warmth
“I wouldn’t go as far as saying that I’m a maximalist but I look to Abigail Ahern for inspiration, I love dark and moody walls and colours and lots of cluttery bits. I like to have various decorative objects around the room to excite your eyes, so that there’s plenty to look at! Light moves around the room, creating shadows on the dark walls which is something you don’t really get with white walls.’
The monochrome staircase and hallway creates an elegant entrance
Next up, our eyes were drawn to the dark staircase which is painted in ‘The Record Store’.
“For the hallway, I originally wanted just to go all black, but Andy said why don’t we make the focal point the staircase and paint it all black which is more considered than going all black, the staircase is my second favourite part of the house now, that’s painted in ‘The Record Store’.”
'Home Grown' makes this spare room look spacious and feminine
Finally, we have a look at the two bedrooms, both of which channel more feminine and elegant vibes, painted in ‘Ciao, Sofia’ and ‘Home Grown’ which complement each other really well and contrast from the rest of the house.
The fluted headboard from Made.com makes a graceful statement against the 'Ciao, Sofia' walls
“We’re lucky enough to have such a big space for our bedroom, so we got this beautiful chaise lounge from eBay to go in the bay window. Obviously it has a few scuffs on it but that just adds character and the colour looks lovely against the grubby pink walls.”
BRANDED FAVOURITES…
“I try to champion challenger brands, new-up-and coming brands in the interior space and I’m not too up market. My prints are from Postery. These beautiful lights in the living room are from ‘House Of’, which is a sustainable light brand owned by my friend Helen White. I also love candles, lots of things to warm up the room like cushions and throws.”
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS…
“The only parts we haven’t explored are the front and the back garden, we’d quite like to have a nice footpath and the fence at the back needs a bit of a refresh which will give me the perfect opportunity to try COAT’s exterior paint, so I look forward to that next summer.”
Want to transform your garden? Have a look at our hardy exterior paints here 🌿
MELISSA FROM @MOEDINGTON LENDS SOME ADVICE…
“This is something that I’ve learnt over the years, not to just buy trend-led pieces but buy something you love and want to treasure forever, choosing from your heart. Don’t try to have too many colours, try to keep your palette quite restrained but then repeat colour. We have the navy walls that are then repeated on the sofa in a way that’s not matchy matchy.”
“Most importantly don’t crimp on paint as you lose all the beautiful undertones, COAT offers premium paint but at an affordable price. And lastly, don’t be afraid to go bold, if you don’t like it then just paint over it, that’s the beauty of paint”
Take some quirky tips from Melissa and be bold with colour in your home, order your swatches to try out our colours at home, you know you want to 🤗
